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< Farming, Wildlife and Sustainable Use Making the most of agri-environmental work

Payments to farmers are shifting from production-based subsidies towards grants for conservation work, such as habitat enhancements. The benefits and costs of this work vary greatly from farm to farm, and understanding the benefits is further complicated by the fact that they depend partly on the conservation work conducted on surrounding farms. This project aims to unravel these complications in order to calculate the net benefits of a project at the landscape level, and so derive the most efficient way to employ resources for conservation.

Why is this project important?

Intensification of farming over the last fifty years has fragmented the natural habitats of many native species. This fragmentation leaves small populations vulnerable to extirpation following shocks, where previously they would be replenished through immigration from surrounding populations. If conservationists are to protect these species they need to increase habitat connectivity between populations on a landscape level. In order to do this it is important that they understand the most efficient way in which to use the limited resources available.

What are we doing? Initially, we are gathering information on the costs to individual farms of becoming involved with environmental projects, and also the likelihood of their becoming involved, given varying incentives. In terms of the benefits, we are collecting information on the values that local people attach to particular changes to their surroundings, and to the protection of biodiversity in their local area. These cost and benefit data will be combined with a biological model of the response of water vole populations to habitat enhancement work. The predicted changes to the vole populations will be valued using existing studies. This information will be combined using a Geographical Information System. This GIS will then be set to derive the most efficient employment of habitat enhancement work given current grant incentives and the aims and specifications of a particular conservation programme. .

Layers of data involved in producing the GIS

How is this project making a difference?

Deliverables

Primarily the project will produce the GIS tool. In the process of developing this system we will gain insight into: "How rural communities value agri-environmental work and biodiversity, and how this value is affected by the degree to which they actively use the areas around them. " The variables that affect the farmers' willingness to participate in agri-environmental schemes. " The costs, benefits, and hence efficiency, of grants and schemes involved in environmental conservation.

Cascade effects

By working in partnership with the farming community, and being sensitive to their needs, this project aims to increase the uptake of conservation projects on farmland as part of the wider Upper Thames Project. The lasting legacy of our work will be a GIS tool that facilitates the planning of conservation work that maximises benefits to conservation, while minimising any potential negative impacts on productivity (and hence income), thereby leaving us all better off.

If you are interested in finding out more about the science involved in this project, we would be happy to send you further information. See our contact details. WildCRU is part of the University of Oxford, a tax-exempt charity. To maximise tax benefits to both donors and WildCRU, please see Donations.

Text by Adam Dutton