Sidemo Holm, William
- Department of Economics, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
- Lund University
Abstract
To make the best use of the limited funding for biodiversity conservation, resources should be used cost-effectively. Support to organic farming is a widely implemented strategy to enhance farmland biodiversity, yet its cost-effectiveness for biodiversity conservation remains largely unexplored. Using an ecological-economic model calibrated with data from southern Sweden, we evaluated the cost-effectiveness of organic farming for enhancing biodiversity in landscapes of varying agricultural productivity (low and high). We focused on flowering plant diversity, which further has an essential role in supporting pollinators and natural enemies of crop pests. Our findings reveal that organic farming generally proves more cost-effective for enhancing biodiversity in high-productive compared to low-productive agricultural landscapes. We also found that depending on landscape characteristics, conversion of 10-20 % of arable land to organic management could substantially increase species richness at a relatively low cost (
Keywords
Cost-effectiveness; Biodiversity conservation; Organic farming; Policy; Spatial allocation; Agriculture
Published in
Biological Conservation
2024, volume: 294, article number: 110624
SLU Authors
Brady, Mark
- Department of Economics, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
- Lund University
- Department of Economics, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
Associated SLU-program
SLU Plant Protection Network
Global goals (SDG)
SDG2 Zero hunger
SDG15 Life on land
UKÄ Subject classification
Economics
Environmental Sciences and Nature Conservation
Publication identifier
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2024.110624
Permanent link to this page (URI)
https://res.slu.se/id/publ/130047