This is the final report of Defra project OF0149 1. The report reviews the impact of different farming regimes and makes a comparative study of their influence on the biodiversity of arable farmland. 2. Within this review, the evaluation of impacts on biodiversity focuses on species and habitats, and includes both the number, abundance and activity of species (section 1.3). 3. Five farming regimes are defined and discussed, namely Conventional Arable, Conventional Mixed Lowland, Organic and two integrated production regimes - LEAF (Linking Environment and Farming) and IFS-Experimental regimes The main differences between the regimes in relation to the use of external inputs and other agricultural practices are discussed. The review draws on both UK and European information (section 1.4). 4. The effect of each farming regime on biodiversity is assessed according to the agricultural practices adopted and to the occurrence and management of uncropped land present. Agricultural practices are reviewed within the following categories: cultivation, crop production, crop protection and post-cropping practice (section 2.1). 5. Among the agricultural practices examined, those associated with crop protection and the artificial inputs associated with crop production were seen as the most adverse for biodiversity. Several practices were seen to benefit the biodiversity of arable land. These included set-aside, crop rotations with grass leys, spring sowing, permanent pasture, green manuring and intercropping (section 2.7). 6. Uncropped areas, such as sown grass strips (beetle banks), grass margins and conservation headlands, were seen as critical for the maintenance of biodiversity on arable farmland. Changes in the balance of cropped to uncropped land within some farming regimes, linked to increase in field size, have had a major impact on the diversity of flora and fauna associated with those regimes (section 3.4). 7. Based on the evaluation of agricultural practices used, the occurrence of uncropped land and the extent of the farming regime within England and Wales, it was concluded that Conventional Arable regimes act effectively to maintain the impoverished status of biodiversity on arable land. Extreme examples can be found of intensively managed farms that further deplete biodiversity and sympathetically managed farms that try to enhance it. Increased adoption of agricultural practices such as direct drilling, use of farmyard manure, set-aside, use of crop rotations with leys, or an increase in the incidence and sympathetic management of uncropped areas may well assist biodiversity on farms within this regime (sections 4.3 & 4.4) 8. Organic regimes were shown to have an overall benefit for biodiversity at the farm level, both in terms of the agricultural practices adopted and in the occurrence and management of uncropped areas (sections 4.3 & 4.4). 9. Conventional Mixed Lowland and LEAF regimes were both seen to have the potential for enhancing biodiversity on arable land. Here, adverse impacts associated with crop protection and crop production may be mitigated by beneficial effects associated with post-cropping practices, the occurrence of permanent pasture and uncropped land. At present, the extent to which enhancement may be achieved, may well depend on the extent, condition and management of uncropped land present within these regimes (sections 4.3 & 4.4). 10. IFS-experimental regimes were seen to have a beneficial effect on biodiversity, due to the stringent procedures used for targeting herbicides and pesticides and for establishing and managing uncropped areas. At present these regimes occupy a tiny area of the national resource of arable land and thus their impact on national biodiversity is likely to be insignificant at the present time (sections 4.3 & 4.4). 11. A number of areas are highlighted for further consideration. These include: • monitoring of biodiversity on farms pre- and post- conversion to organic farming, • comparative studies that focus on the effectiveness of different regimes or agricultural practices in enhancing biodiversity on species-impoverished intensively managed arable land, • manipulative experiments to determine the optimal balance of cropped to uncropped areas for enhancing biodiversity, • manipulative experiments to examine the separate impacts of rotational regimes and agricultural inputs on biodiversity, • an economic assessment of the costs and benefits in both production and biodiversity terms, of conversion to organic, integrated production or uptake of available agri-environment schemes.

.T.P Tomich, 'Alternatives to Slash and Burn in Indonesia: summary report & synthesis of phase II', p.140, 1998 | Conversion of tropical forests reduces biodiversity and releases stored carbon. Although a part of tropical deforestation resulting from slash-and-burn is linked to poverty of people living at the forest margins, the conditions necessary for increased productivity of agroforestry and other land use systems to reduce poverty and reduce deforestation are not well understood. The key hypothesis underlying Phase II of the ASB research project in Indonesia can be summarized as: Intensifying land use as an alternative to slash-and-burn simultaneously can reduce deforestation and reduce poverty. This research problem was identified at the conclusion of Phase I of the project and has remained the focus of research through Phase II. The research programme in Phase II was designed to better understand how the Government of Indonesia and donor agencies could balance global environmental objectives with economic development and poverty reduction. While conversion of primary forest has the major effect on biodiversity and carbon stocks, the resulting land uses also matter a great deal for the supply of these global public goods. Measurement of differences among environmental consequences of the various land uses provides the basis for quantifying major tradeoffs involved in land use change

Species diversity has declined in ecosystems worldwide as a result of habitat fragmentation, eutrophication, and land-use change. If such decline is to be halted ecological mechanisms that restore or maintain biodiversity are needed. Two long-term field experiments were performed in native grassland to assess the effects of fire, nitrogen addition, and grazing or mowing on plant species diversity. In one experiment, richness declined on burned and fertilized treatments, whereas mowing maintained diversity under these conditions. In the second experiment, loss of species diversity due to frequent burning was reversed by bison, a keystone herbivore in North American grasslands. Thus, mowing or the reestablishment of grazing in anthropogenically stressed grasslands enhanced biodiversity.

The disturbance and destruction of the old-growth forests of the tropics continue to monopolize attention in international fora and the popular media, but a steadily growing land area is covered by secondary forest developing on sites which have been deforested and then abandoned by their owners. The natural process of secondary forest succession offers hope that the unique combination of goods and services provided by the original old-growth forests may be at least partially recovered. An enormous number of questions concerning secondary tropical forests and their potential role in sustainable land management and biodiversity conservation remain to be answered, however. Many of these questions are biological and ecological: What are the factors that bring about successional change in vegetation? How does biodiversity change during succession, does its similarity to the biodiversity of old-growth forests increase over time and why, or why not? How might secondary forests be manipulated to optimize their value for a given set of management objectives? Many more questions nevertheless concern people and their actions: what factors bring about land abandonment? How are secondary forests perceived and utilized by rural people? What market or policy changes may contribute to a more profitable and sustainable use of secondary forests? This volume contains 16 papers presented at a conference which brought together researchers concerned with biological, ecological, social/organizational, financial/economic and political aspects of secondary forests and their management with a strictly neo tropical focus. Although the biophysical side of secondary forest research dominated this conference, it is becoming clear that sound management of this resource will depend on interdisciplinary approaches.

We examined numbers of plant species and individuals relative to land use in an agricultural settlement in the Brazilian Amazon. Land uses were forest, cropped after forest, fallows, cropped after fallow, and pasture. These corresponded roughly to farmers' land-use changes over time. Numbers of species and diversity indices were generally highest in forest, but we found quite similar values in older fallows as a result of both survival/re-establishment of forest species and emergence of plants not encountered in forest. The dominant species in fallows, however, were different from those in forest. Lands cropped using slash-and-burn maintained moderate numbers of species–both forest and non-forest. Trends in plant density (individuals per unit ground area) on cropped lands were mainly related to invasion of weedy species (increasing in time after slash-and-burn) and shifts in crop species (replacement of small-sized rice by larger-sized maize and cassava). Useful forest plants (e.g. for construction purposes, food and medicines) decreased with land conversion, although new species also appeared. The fewest species, tree species, and useful plants, and the greatest losses of the forest flora, were encountered in pastures. Consequently, conversion to pasture rather than slash-and-burn agriculture per se led to high biodiversity loss.

Noordwijk.M Van, 'Forest soils under Alternatives to Slash-and-Burn agriculture in Sumatra, Indonesia', pp.175-185, 1998 | A global project on `Alternatives to Slash and Burn' agriculture was initiated by a consortium of international and national research institutes to facilitate intensification of the use of converted forest land, in order to help alleviate poverty and protect the remaining forest areas for their biodiversity values and their role in mitigating greenhouse gas emissions. Data for the Indonesian benchmark areas in the lowland peneplain, piedmont and mountain zone of Sumatra are presented. A significant amount of forest land, especially in the lowland peneplain, has been converted in the last ten years into agricultural use, usually following logging concessions. Soils on the peneplain are poor (oxi-and ultisols) and current intensive crop based production systems are not sustainable. In the piedmont zone on better soils (inceptisols), rubber agroforests (still) characterize the area. Agroforests have emerged during the 20th century as the major alternative to slash-and-burn agriculture, based on a shift of emphasis from food crops to cash-earning tree crops. Emphasis on food crops, however continues in government resettlement schemes. Differences in organic C content of the topsoil between forests and crop land are about 0.5% C, with agroforests and tree crop plantations in an intermediate position. A new size-density fractionation scheme for soil organic matter demonstrated larger changes in light and intermediate fractions. Forest soils can be significant sinks for methane and thus partly compensate for the methane emissions in lowland rice production. Overall, the Sumatra benchmark areas demonstrate the need to combine intensification of land use at the field/household level with effective protection of remaining forest areas at the community level and reducing other driving forces of deforestation at the national level

Au-delà de l'intérêt pastoral qu'ils représentent, les milieux pâturés d'altitude ont une capacité à remplir des fonctions multiples. Intérêt pastoral : les productions animales enregistrées sur les principaux types de pâturages d'altitude à génisses, à vaches laitières, à ovins viande, sont d'un niveau intéressant tant en quantité qu'en qualité. Multifonctionnalité : contribution à la biodiversité végétale, maintien d'un espace ouvert participant à la qualité paysagère et générant des complémentarités avec l'activité touristique et la faune sauvage, rôle de protection contre certains risques naturels. | Beyond the use as grazing land that they represent, grazed milieux in the mountains have the capacity to fulfil a multiplicity of functions. Uses as grazing: animal production recorded on the main types of mountain pasture, for heifers, dairy cows and sheep bred for meat are at an interesting level both in quantity and in quality. Multifunctional: contribution to plant biodiversity, maintenance of an open space which contributes to landscape quality and generates additional use with tourism and wildlife, and a protective role against particular natural risks.

Since the introduction of ‘potential natural vegetation’ (PNV) as a concept in vegetation science by Tüxen (1956), many PNV‐maps with different scales have been made. Tüxen emphasized the great value of PNV‐maps for different purposes in land use, landscape planning and nature conservation, in particular with regard to forestry, agriculture and landscape management. Different aspects are discussed in order to examine the validity and applicability of PNV‐maps in landscape planning and nature conservation. PNV‐maps are useful for the differentiation of natural and landscape units on a small scale (< 1 : 100 000). However, maps of the potential natural vegetation are less useful for purposes of detailed planning on larger scales (> 1 : 100 000). Problems arise, for example, from the often highly hypothetical character of the construction and the practice of taking remnants of ‘natural’ vegetation as a reference object for the PNV. With regard to the goals of modern landscape planning and nature conservation purposes (e.g. conserving biodiversity in the cultural landscape of Central Europe) the exact documentation of the actual real vegetation (ARV) on intermediate and large scales gives much more detailed information than a hypothetical PNV.

Paper defines a strategy for forest sector development, and translates it for practical application. In response to the causes of deforestation and desertification, which are rooted in a complex web of socio-economic factors (both inside and, mainly, outside the forests) these guidelines are centred on the needs of people living in and making a living from forests. Sustainable forest management is based on economic, environmental, social and cultural criteria and indicators. Forest programmes and projects will not be sustainable if they do not, for example, consider the broader pattern of land use, address questions of land tenure and access to land, find a balance between economic needs and conservation of biodiversity and give maximum responsibility and benefits to those who live in and make a living from the forests. These objectives cannot be achieved without supporting developing countries in the creation of the necessary policy, legal and institutional environment. In support of this approach, the guidelines contain some newly-conceived and innovative elements. With regard to the social aspect of sustainability, a consistent module for Social Impact Analysis is available. The Commission is now among the first donors to provide a complete tool box for impact analysis, together with the updated guidelines for Environmental Appraisal in the forest sector (contained in these guidelines) and the manual on Financial and Economic Analysis of projects.Part I outlines, for a wide audience, the strategic approach of the European Community to Forest Sector Development Co-operation by setting the scene, introducing general principles valid for all types of interventions and defining themes for support to developing countries. It is accompanied by a diskette providing checklists and working materials for use by target groups.Part II addresses the needs of those dealing directly with EC forest programmes and projects. It provides checklists and support material within a three-dimensional matrix, combining thematic areas with the phases in the Project Cycle and selected factors for sustainability. The final parts of Volume II provide standardised Terms of Reference for different studies and detailed guides for Environmental Appraisal, including Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), and Social Impact Analysis (SIA).[author]