Farmland Biodiversity – in the Hands and Minds of Farmers
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Farmland Biodiversity – in the Hands and Minds of Farmers Effects of Landscape Structure, Management and the Farmer’s Interest in Nature Johan Ahnström Faculty of Natural Resources and Agricultural Sciences Department of Ecology Uppsala Doctoral Thesis Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences Uppsala 2009 Acta Universitatis Agriculturae Sueciae 2009:34 ISSN 1652-6880 ISBN 978-91-86195-81-6 © 2009 Johan Ahnström, Uppsala Print: SLU Service/Repro, Uppsala 2009 Farmland Biodiversity – in the Hands and Minds of Farmers Effects of Landscape Structure, Management and the Farmer’s Interest in Nature Abstract Recent declines in farmland biodiversity have been attributed to agricultural intensification. Organic farming and other Agri-Environmental Schemes have been implemented to counter the biodiversity decline. Decisions concerning farming systems and farm management are taken by the farmer and since these decisions have consequences for biodiversity the motivations behind them need to be understood. The main aim of this thesis is to study how farmers relate to biodiversity on their farm, how biodiversity depends on farmers' perspectives of nature and the direct effects of farm management practices. A meta-analysis was conducted comparing biodiversity and abundance on organically and conventionally managed land. Organic management on average resulted in 30% higher species richness and 50% higher abundance, but the effect varied greatly between studies, organism groups and study scale. To empirically study how farmers relate to nature and how this affects biodiversity interviews were conducted with 16 farmers in south-central Sweden, and inventories made of species richness on their fields and farmsteads. The relation between species richness, local management and the surrounding landscape was explored. Bird species richness on the farmsteads was positively affected by the area of houses and animal production on the farm. Species composition was also associated with composition of the surrounding landscape. Biodiversity, represented by the proportion of the regional richness found on single fields summed over the five organism groups, increased significantly with farmers’ interest in nature and decreased with local farming intensity, measured as crop density. Interest in nature is the social relationship of farmers with their ecological context, and their personal feelings and perceptions of nature. The main conclusion from this thesis is that farmers’ interest in nature matters for biodiversity but exactly how and by what means needs further study. In any case, this factor needs to be included when designing and studying future agricultural landscape management, for sustainable production and maintaining biodiversity and ecosystem services. Keywords: attitudes, perceptions, nature conservation, species richness, biodiversity, farmers, agri-environmental schemes, management, interviews Author’s address: Johan Ahnström, slu, Department of Ecology, P.O. Box 7044, 750 07 Uppsala, Sweden E-mail: [email protected] I want to live in a great, white house à la fin de siècle with a wrought-iron gate that creaks benignly and roses around the door I shall have a swing in an old apple tree and in the spring apple blossom will fall like snow around me and there'll be lilacs to remind me of the cruellest month and honeysuckle spreading a sweet, intense, sensuous scent in soft summer evenings I want a garden full of mystery a garden full of dreams with snails stubbornly carrying their fragile hiding-places leaving shiny traces of their paths in curious patterns and birds with black, bead-like eyes, twittering and butterflies fluttering and dragonflies darting through the air, glittering and bumblebees tumbling and fumbling and rumbling amusing and confusing me and possibly foxes with pointy noses or secretive badgers hiding amongst the roses and I will befriend anonymous hedgehogs with their pin-cushion bodies but leave the wild rabbits to roam free only from a distance loving their attentive ears and soulful eyes lest I scare them and in the winter the supposedly dead roses will still breathe and sing a wordless lullaby about life slumbering in frosty buds and frozen roots and the naked trees will stand boldly enduring the cold hibernating secretly harbouring hopes of growth knowing that growth is in their nature and in the summer I will have coffee beneath their leafy boughs saluting them their faith and endurance I will prune and potter about in white flannel trousers or ball gowns I will tread the ground softly, softly on naked feet and there'll be room for everything that I am I will stand in awe of God humble before His creation honoured to be a part of it blown away by His goodness in the fire of the fall in the white stillness or whipping storms of winter in the bubbly frenzy of spring and in the green heat of the summer Poem written by my sister Malin 4 Contents List of publications 8 1 Introduction 11 1.1 Biodiversity in agricultural landscapes 11 1.2 Farming in change 12 1.3 Farmers as actors 13 1.4 Landscape issues are interdisciplinary 13 2 Aims of the thesis 15 2.1 Specific aims of the different studies 15 2.1.1 Paper I 15 2.1.2 Paper II 15 2.1.3 Paper III 15 2.1.4 Paper IV 16 2.1.5 Paper V 16 2.2 Interdisciplinarity 16 3 Farming and nature conservation context in Sweden 17 3.1 Nature conservation 17 3.1.1 Multiple use of nature conservation 17 3.1.2 Convention of Biodiversity 17 3.1.3 EU directives 18 3.1.4 Environmental objectives 19 3.1.5 CAP and Agri-Environmental Schemes 19 3.2 Farming in Sweden 20 3.2.1 Agri-Environmental Schemes in Sweden 22 3.2.2 Fallows as an example of effects of agriculture regulations 22 4 Theories and concepts 25 4.1 Hermeneutics 25 4.2 Ecological theory and terminology 26 4.2.1 Biodiversity, ecosystem functioning and stability 27 4.2.2 Landscape ecology 30 4.2.3 Metapopulation theory 31 4.3 Sociological theories and terminology 32 4.3.1 Social construction of reality 32 4.3.2 Grounded theory 34 4.3.3 Objective hermeneutics 35 4.3.4 Reflections on identity, social norms and attitudes 35 4.3.5 Identity, social norms and attitudes 36 5 My pre-understanding and the background of the thesis 38 6 Methods 40 6.1 Area and farm selection 40 6.2 Biodiversity inventories 41 6.2.1 Weeds (Paper V) 41 6.2.2 Carabid beetles (Paper V) 42 6.2.3 Solitary bees (Paper V) 42 6.2.4 Bumblebees (Paper V) 42 6.2.5 Birds (Paper III and Paper V) 42 6.2.6 Biodiversity measure (Paper V) 43 6.3 Landscape analysis 43 6.4 Farm management data 43 6.4.1 Crop density (Paper V) 44 6.5 Farmstead characteristics (Paper III) 44 6.6 Variable selection (Paper III and V) 44 6.7 Statistical analysis 44 6.7.1 General statistics 44 6.7.2 Multivariate statistics 45 6.7.3 Meta-analysis 45 6.8 Qualitative interview methods 46 6.8.1 Qualitative interviews 46 6.8.2 Transcription of interviews 47 6.8.3 Coding of transcripts 47 6.8.4 Interpretation of the interviews 48 6.8.5 Interest in nature 49 6.8.6 Classification based on interest in nature 49 7 The red thread in the thesis – results from the papers and deepened discussion 50 7.1 Organic farming as an AES (Paper I) 51 7.1.1 Short summery of Paper I 51 7.1.2 Extended discussion based on Paper I 51 7.1.3 Organisms 58 7.1.4 Landscape 59 7.2 Farmers’ perception of nature and nature conservation (Paper II) 61 7.2.1 Short summary of Paper II 61 7.2.2 Extended discussion based on Paper II 61 7.2.3 Social norms 63 7.2.4 Economy 66 7.2.5 Farm history and heirs 69 7.2.6 Nature conservation policies and AES 71 7.2.7 Conclusion of Paper II 71 7.3 Birds on farmsteads (Paper III) 72 7.3.1 Short summary of Paper III 72 7.3.2 Extended discussion based on Paper III 72 7.4 Interest in nature (Paper IV) 76 7.4.1 Short summery of Paper IV 76 7.4.2 Extended discussion based on Paper IV 76 7.4.3 Conclusion of Paper IV 85 7.5 Interest in nature affects biodiversity (Paper V) 86 7.5.1 Short summary of Paper V 86 7.5.2 Extended discussion based on Paper V 86 8 Future research and main conclusion 89 8.1 Questions and ideas for future research 89 8.1.1 Weedy attitudes 89 8.1.2 Nature conservation and its different meanings 90 8.2 Main conclusions 91 References 92 Acknowledgement 113 List of publications This thesis is based on the work contained in the following papers, referred to in the text by Roman numerals: I Bengtsson, J., Ahnström, J. & Weibull, A-C. 2005. The effects of organic agriculture on biodiversity and abundance: a meta-analysis. Journal of Applied Ecology 42, 261-269. II Ahnström, J., Höckert, J., Bergeå L, H., Francis, C.A., Skelton, P. & Hallgren, L. 2009. Farmers and nature conservation: What is known about attitudes, context factors and actions affecting conservation? Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems. 24, 38-47. III Ahnström, J., Berg, Å. & Söderlund, H. 2008. Birds on farmsteads – effects of landscape and farming characteristics. Ornis Fennica 85, 98-108. IV Ahnström, J., Hallgren, L. & Boonstra, W. Are you interested in nature? Farmers’ perception and experience of nature and nature conservation in Sweden. Submitted manuscript V Ahnström, J., Bengtsson, J., Berg, Å., Hallgren, L., Boonstra, W.