20 - Landscape connectivity (local, regional) – impacts of agriculture on the landscape

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Programme director:

Objective

To understand the interactions between different habitats and land uses as a basis for devising solutions and courses of action for optimised land use (desired ecosystem services).

• Specific objectives

  • Develop scenarios for optimised, site-adapted land uses that are highly resource-efficient and effectively support biodiversity.
  • Quantify the environmental services provided by alternative cropping systems (paddy rice, agroforestry, strip cropping, intercropping) and crops (legumes, sorghum, etc.) at landscape level.
  • Analyse agriculture in marginal areas: trade-offs between agricultural use and alternative uses (organic soils, wet arable land, marginal grassland, woodland pasture).
  • Investigate agricultural practices in transition zones, such as extensive grazing at forest margins, to support landscape biodiversity.
  • Establish basic principles for effectively supporting biodiversity through habitat connectivity: stabilise populations (flora and fauna) by creating corridors.
  • Optimise the efficacy of areas for promoting biodiversity and ecosystem services by ensuring they are optimally placed in the agricultural landscape, taking into account existing ecological infrastructure.
    

Expected outcomes

By understanding processes at landscape level and implementing courses of action, it is possible to exploit production synergies and reduce trade-offs and so improve agricultural services and added value. The involvement of stakeholders at an early stage of the development process facilitates implementation.

Projects

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