Enhance Biodiversity
This theme focus on halting the decline in farmland biodiversity, identification and evaluation of measures to enhance farmland biodiversity. Biodiversity plays a critical complementary role in nature-based solutions for areas such as climate, water, carbon management and flood mitigation. Market reputation for sustainability of agri-food products will be increasingly reliant on sufficient progress on biodiversity. Research is needed to improve the quantification of habitat quantity and quality across agricultural systems and to provide baselines for future assessment of biodiversity trends in non-designated areas.
Priorities
- Enhance biodiversity in agricultural systems across a gradient of intensities and enterprises
- Develop effective indicators (KPI) and digital tools to aid farm-scale assessments of sustainability that include farmland wildlife
- Include the assessment of biodiversity in the National Farm Survey to give representative information on quantity and quality of farmland habitats over time
- Improve the environmental effectiveness and economic efficiency of management plans for High Nature Value farming and forestry systems
- Improve the understanding of the relationship between diversity and ecosystem function within agricultural systems
- Establish a national soil biodiversity baseline and soil health indicators to support the implementation of the EU Soil Health Regulation.
- Identify measures to improve biodiversity within existing low diverse forests.
Immediate actions
Enhancing biodiversity in all farming systems; include an assessment of biodiversity in the National Farm Survey; developing effective farm scale biodiversity indicators supported by use of digital technologies; improve the biodiversity management plans for High Nature Value farming and forestry systems.
Current Research Projects
Current Climate Centre research projects focusing on Enhancing Biodiversity
Citizens Assembly on Biodiversity Loss - What was the process?
On this episode of The Signpost Series which took place on Friday, 26 May 2023, Mark Gibson, Head of Teagasc Outreach & Innovation Department was joined by Dr. Aoibhinn Ní Shuilleabhain, Chair of the Citizens Assembly on Biodiversity Loss to discuss the Citizens Assembly on Biodiversity Loss - What was the process?. A questions and answers session took place at the end of the webinar which was facilitated by Catherine Keena, Countryside Management Specialist, Teagasc.