Organic farms aid land biodiversity
Almost half of the bird populations in the EU 27 are somewhere between “near threatened” and “critically endangered” according to the Birdlife International report. Ireland has 16 threatened species, the report says, which is almost 10% of our 162 species.
The EU Commission’s State of Nature in the EU report, if anything, paints an even bleaker picture. While couched in the wishy washy language of a “mixed picture” the reality is anything but mixed. Somehow, the fact that half of Europe’s bird species are “secure” is presented as a positive.
For species in general, about a quarter are listed as having a favourable habitat. Populations of grassland butterflies halved in the 20 years up to 2011, while a quarter of European bumblebee species are now threatened by extinction.
Though not the only threat to biodiversity, agriculture scores worst in the report. Farming’s “modification of cultivation practices, grazing by livestock (including the abandonment of pastoral systems/lack of grazing), fertilisation and pesticides are the most frequently mentioned pressures and threats,” the report says.
Indeed agriculture is also cited as having the joint-biggest impact on the other major threat, “modification of natural conditions”.
2010 was the year Europe started to try to halt biodiversity loss with a new Directive. There have been very occasional successes, mostly big animals in remote mountainous areas. Otherwise the EU has failed — and failed miserably — to protect its flora and fauna.
Organic farming could be part of the solution to this biodiversity loss.
Not just for the oft cited and quite robust reason that biodiversity scores better across the taxa and the different types of measurements on organic farms.
New research has suggested that even simply having organic farms in a landscape of conventional farms and other rural elements increases biodiversity on the landscape in general — even off the organic farm itself.
In other words, the fields around organic farms have more types of wild plants, which provide benefits for wildlife. French and UK researchers looked at fields sowed with winter wheat in the intensively farmed French region of Poitou-Charente.
The study found that conventionally farmed fields “may reach a similar biodiversity level to organic fields in field margins”, once there are enough organic farms nearby.
“Wild plants are important for birds, bees and other farmland species,” researcher Dr Luca Borger of the department of biosciences at Swansea University said.
“Organic farming has advantages in maintaining these, but even a mixture of organic and non-organic farming in an area can help maintain this biodiversity. Even only 25% of fields being organically farmed can make a difference.”
Few studies have been conducted on the biodiversity impact of organic farming in Ireland. However those that have have shown positive results.
Most recently, these have shown positive biodiversity scores for organic dairy farms. Pavel Poc, a vice-chair of European parliament’s environment, public health and food safety committee, recently pointed to the Continent’s rise in organic farming as one of the positives in the overall biodiversity picture for the EU.
Ireland is at the absolute bottom of the EU table (apart from Malta) with a little over one per cent of farms certified organic. We have a way to go to catch up Spain (7.5%) Italy (8.9%) Czech republic (13.1%) and Austria (18.6%).
Indications are however, that 2015 marks something of a turning point. The numbers applying to join the Organic Farming Scheme are the strongest in quite a few years. And with markets buoyant at home and abroad, biodiversity may just be one of the beneficiaries of the growth in organics here.
