Agri-environment schemes can benefit wildlife without damaging food production, a long-term research project has found.
Scientists from the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology spent 10 years intensively monitoring the impacts of a large-scale Defra-funded experiment at Hillesden, a 1,000-hectare commercial arable farm in Buckinghamshire.
Beginning in 2005, the study involved creating several wildlife habitats – including seed-bearing plants for birds, wildflowers for pollinators and tussocky grass margins – to support a range of birds, insects and small mammals.
The experiment assessed the effectiveness of these agri-environmental measures and their ability to reduce biodiversity losses caused by the intensification of UK farming practices after the Second World War.
Comparable
Researchers recorded a significantly increase in local bird and butterfly populations – helping to reverse declines in species that are essential for food production, such as pollinators and predators of crop pests.
In the longest-running monitoring study of its kind, scientists found numbers of the majority of species did better at Hillesden than in other comparable farmed landscapes without agri-environment measures over the same timeframes.
The findings were published in the Journal of Applied Ecology. The study’s author John Redhead said he believed the benefits of agri-environment schemes could be replicated on other farms too.
“Investigating changes in populations over a significant period of time, and comparing these with other sites, means we can be confident that agri-environment options can bring long-term benefits for bird and butterfly populations.
“Hillesden is a typical, large arable farm with conventional agricultural practices, in an ordinary landscape with no large patches of natural habitat.
“Therefore, it is likely that the results of our long-term study indicate what can be achieved on other commercial farms with good planning, implementation and management of agri-environment measures.”