Biodiversity, species, habitats and landscapes

1. Biodiversity, species, habitats and landscapes

2. Introduction 5.1. Biodiversity concepts and policies • Trends – loss • CBD – MEA-Malahide • EU and RF policies • MP idea • Red list approach? • Landscape approach

3. GB approach to Chapter To extract information from EU and UN policy documents that show the reasons behind loss of biodiversity, and which show what needs to be done to halt the decline of biodiversity. i.e. there is a drastic insufficiency of integration of biodiversity needs in agriculture and forestry sector policy, mainly because of a lack of implementation of policy-making tools that operate on a landscape level.

4. 5.2.1. Biodiversity and forestry MCPFE Naturalness of forests and coverage of natural forests Missing key element after shifts- Forest policy not regulated by EU but via Protection of habitats and species, and via EU rural development policy

5. 5.2.2 Biodiversity and agriculture Biodiversity action plan for agriculture IRENA report – reports declining trends of biodiversity and stresses a need for improved targetting of agri-environment schemes Reports of insufficient or poorly targeted monitoring of effectiveness of agri-environment measures.

6. 5.2.3. A focus on landscapes European Landscape Convention

7. Guidance on maintenance of landscape connectivity features of major importance for wild flora and fauna Guidance on the implementation of Article 3 of the Birds Directive (79/409/EEC) and Article 10 of the Habitats Directive (92/43/EEC) ( Kettunen et al., 2007). IUCN, Institute for European Environment Policy

9. BUT • MCPFE SFM indicator 4.7 Landscape pattern • Who knows what that is and how to describe it, let alone make comparisons or determine what is good pattern or bad pattern?????? • 2. 2010 biodiversity target to stop the decline in biodiversity. • How can we determine the landscape targets to meet this? • For example, • Target area of HNV Farmland • Target amount of dead wood • Target spatial distribution of forest stands with a sufficient amount of dead wood

10. Step in the development Strategic level Tactical level Operational level Steps of implementation of strong sustainability in SFM on a landscape level Principles International and International and National policy Criteria Forest and agriculture policy Regional management institutions Indicators Coarse biodiversity monitoring tools Detailed biodiversity monitoring tools Performance targets Long-term targets Regional targets Management targets Evaluation methods eg. Gap analysis Habitat modelling Protection, management and restoration

12. Case study. Use of habitat modelling to predict songbird diversity GRID BIRD COUNTS

14. 76 landscape variables used in species-habitat model building: • proportions of the vegetation classes in the grid squares, • mean distances in the cells to different sized core areas of agricultural or forest land use, • mean distance to waterbody, road and railway, density of farms of different size, • density of edges of different type, • number of classes in the grid squares.

15. Nonparametric multiplicative regression (NPMR; McCune 2006) Hypernichesoftware Species-habitat models Forest specialist species richness models Farmland specialist species richness models Total richness models – low variation explained and not very informative

17. Figure 4. Response surface of Meadow Pipit Anthus pratensis to predictor variables average distance to farmland” (Di-lauk) and density of farmsteads in 1-km radius (De_vie1)

18. Figure 6. Response surfaces of Scarlet Rosefinch Carpodacus erythrinus to proportion of grasslands and shrub land. Species show individual habitat needs – niches. i.e. of 76 landscape factors, 42 used in building species-habitat models

19. Forest specialists Farmland specialists

20. Etool approach – Does the option have and effect on: Loss of species Endangered species fragmentation Fantasy

21. Are all necessary stakeholders (biologists, scientists) involved in forestry and agriculture sector policy making? • Are species-habitat models developed for focal species? • Are performance targets (population sizes, habitat area, spatial distribution, etc.) implemented? If no, impossible to assess option We have targets for pollutants, but not for habitats and habitat quality