LAndscape FEatures Reintroduction in Intensive Agricultural land

LAFERIA

LAFERIA is a Horizon Europe Project, funded under grant agreement No 101181492, with a duration from 1 January 2025 to 31 December 2028

Farmed landscapes can play a crucial role in the conservation and restoration of biodiversity across Europe. Well-managed agricultural areas, including diverse landscape features such as hedgerows, field margins, and small wetlands, can support vital ecosystems and wildlife, thereby helping to reverse the ongoing decline of biodiversity. However, many landscape features have been lost or degraded over time, particularly in areas of intensive agriculture, negatively impacting biodiversity and ecosystem services.

The LAFERIA project seeks to address this issue by focusing on the protection and restoration of landscape features in intensive agricultural regions within the European Union (EU). They are essential for maintaining ecological balance and providing services like pollination, water filtration, carbon sequestration, soil erosion protection and flood prevention.

LAFERIA envisions that the reintroduction of landscape features (LF), along with tree planting, plays a central role in transitioning toward nature-based, biodiversity-friendly, and climate-resilient agricultural practices in Europe. The initiative aims to integrate LF into the Green and Blue Infrastructure, making them a vital component of a fully functioning socio-ecological system in rural areas.

A key element in this transition is shifting the mindset and narrative around LF, so they are no longer seen as a burden for farmers and landowners but as a vital form of insurance for society and food security. While the focus is on intensive agricultural landscapes, the principles and approaches developed by LAFERIA are designed to be applicable across all European farmland and beyond, on a global scale.

The main objective Is to identify the key factors that can promote the reintroduction of landscape features in intensive agricultural areas across Europe, where needed, and to develop strategies to overcome obstacles in achieving the target of having at least 10% of agricultural areas with high-diversity landscape features.

This includes restoring landscape features in areas where they are absent and improving management in areas where they are still present.

Specific objectives:

  • Landscape Feature Mapping : Quantify landscape features coverage and connectivity across different agricultural systems
  • Ecosystem Service Evaluation: Establish a comprehensive picture of the benefits and costs of landscape features for biodiversity, ecosystem services, climate change adaptation, yields, incomes and society at large
  • Reintroduction Strategy Development: Explore the drivers and challenges for the reintroduction of landscape features and develop strategies and business models to reintroduce landscape features

Expected Results:

  • Novel information on LF coverage across different EU agricultural systems and scales;
  • Assessment of LF potential for biodiversity, ecosystem services and ecological connectivity;
  • Novel information on LF impacts (costs and benefits) on farm economy and business models;
  • Better understanding of perceptions and drivers of, and barriers to, LF reintroduction;
  • Recommendations to improve policy and market tools focusing on LF;
  • Better awareness by stakeholders and the wider society on the importance and benefits of LF;
  • Identification of priority agricultural systems and regions to reintroduce LF;
  • Increased know-how (best practices) by farmers and other stakeholders to reintroduce and manage LF;
  • A vision for rural areas focused on restoring LF, routes to achieve it, and foundations for Demonstration Projects;
  • Training of at least 15 BSc and MSc students, PhD and Postdoc researchers;
  • At least 30 scientific publications contributing to advance the state of the art.

Learn more at: https://laferia-project.eu/

Join us at: https://www.youtube.com/@LAFERIA-project

 

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