Nature restoration and food production_Birdelife seminar
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These slides were presented by Evelyn Underwood, Head of the Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services Programme at IEEP, during a Birdlife seminar on 3 May 2023 'Restoring nature as driver for resilient food systems'.
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Nature restoration and food production_Birdelife seminar
- 1. www.ieep.eu @IEEP_eu The close links between nature and our food Nature restoration and food production Evelyn Underwood, Birdlife seminar on proposed EU nature restoration law 3 May 2023 With thanks to IEEP CAP & Food team
- 2. www.ieep.eu @IEEP_eu My talk • The impact of industrial practices and climate change on ecosystems and farming (including the costs of inaction) • How nature and its restoration contribute to improve resilience of food production • Concerns on food production and security from an `impact` point of view (including concerns that substantial amounts of land would be taken out of production and hence would negatively affect economic viability)
- 3. www.ieep.eu @IEEP_eu Food production today and tomorrow – business as usual? • Soil – about 60 to 70% of EU soils are not healthy ‒ losing soil organic matter ‒ receiving more nutrients than they need ‒ eroding ‒ compacted ‒ secondary salinization ‒ Soil sealing • Soil biodiversity – ?
- 4. www.ieep.eu @IEEP_eu Food production today and tomorrow – business as usual? • Water – 20 % of European territory and 30 % of population affected by water stress each year ‒ Water extraction for agriculture – 28% ‒ Water pollution from agriculture – nitrates in freshwater • At least 1.2 million barriers fragmenting rivers
- 5. www.ieep.eu @IEEP_eu Food production today and tomorrow – business as usual? BIODIVERSITY ON FARMLAND Grasslands and other farmed habitats: • grazing land – 4.5% of EU area Pollinators: • estimated to contribute 4.517 billion EUR to the value of agricultural production in the EU • estimated 51% of farmland with pollinator dependent crops had a low pollination potential in 2012 • Absence of insect pollination would reduce production of insect-dependent crops by -25-32% Soil biodiversity: • How much is its contribution to food production worth?
- 6. www.ieep.eu @IEEP_eu Climate change – what is coming? • Impacts of heat and drought on yields in southern Europe will not be offset by increased yields in northern Europe ‒ wheat yields in 2 degrees scenario – down 12% in southern regions (in some areas halved), up 5% in northern areas ‒ Grain maize yields in 2 degrees scenario – down 11% in southern, down 5% in northern Europe but without increased irrigation – declines of over 20% and up to 80% in Med countries • Impacts on food storage and transportation – extreme weather events, impacts on energy availability and prices • Impacts on food safety – mycotoxins, vector- borne animal diseases • Impacts on animal welfare – heat stress, reduced pasture yields from drought • Impacts on pollination and soil biodiversity
- 7. www.ieep.eu @IEEP_eu Restoration of farmland in the EU nature restoration law • Restoration of soil organic matter (Article 9.2b) ‒ Increasing trend at national level of organic carbon in cropland mineral soils • Restoration of landscape features on farmland (Article 9.2c) • Restoration of pollinator populations (Article 8 & Article 9.2a) ‒ Reverse decline by 2030 and increase thereafter ‒ Increasing trend at national level of grassland butterfly index • Restoration of farmland bird populations (Article 9.3) ‒ Common farmland bird index at national level reaches 110 / 105 by 2030 • Restoration of species rich grasslands (Article 4) ‒ At least 30% of habitat area with restoration measures by 2030 • Restoration of wetlands and peatlands (Article 4 and Article 9.4)
- 8. www.ieep.eu @IEEP_eu How will nature restoration improve resilience? • Pollinator populations ‒ flower strips and field margin flowers increase pest predator and pollination services • Soil organic matter ‒ cover crops, intercrops, diversified crop rotations with grass leys – diversify production, allow for more mixed crop-livestock production • Landscape features on farmland ‒ positive effects on soil quality and erosion risk, carbon sequestration, biodiversity, pollination, pest and disease- control and water retention • Species-rich grassland ‒ Increasing species richness and reducing fertilisation of grassland can increase yield in dry years (legumes) • Wetlands and peatlands ‒ Flood retention capacity, water storage capacity for summer crops
- 9. www.ieep.eu @IEEP_eu Evelyn Underwood, eunderwood@ieep.eu
Editor's Notes
- The close links between nature restoration and our food – Evelyn Underwood (Institute for European Environmental Policy) With thanks to my team and the CAP and food team at IEEP Primary source references: Midler, E (2022) Environmental degradation: impacts on agricultural production. Institute for European Environmental Policy, Brussels. And Nadeu, E (2022) Nature restoration as a driver for resilient food systems. Institute for European Environmental Policy, Brussels. https://ieep.eu/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Nature-restoration-as-a-driver-for-resilient-food-systems_IEEP-2022.pdf
- I have been asked to address these points in my talk this evening. I will go through the main facts on the current environmental sustainability of farmland in the EU, asking the question: can business as usual continue? Then I will recap the provisions of the nature restoration proposal that impact farmland and farming. I will finish with some of the evidence available to show how nature restoration is needed for the resilience of food production in the EU.
- What is the impact of current farming practices on ecosystems and farmland productive capacity? SOIL Nearly two thirds of the EU’s soils are not healthy, according to the EU wide LUCAS survey and other statistics (Veerman et al 2020). Unhealthy soils have one or more of these problems: They are losing soil organic matter – most mineral soils under arable farming (Fernández-Ugalde et al 2020) They are receiving more nutrients than they need – in the graph you can see the areas that had a nitrogen surplus in 2012 – over 100 kg too much in the black areas (JRC). They are eroding - a quarter of the EU’s farmland has an unsustainable soil erosion rate from water, with 12% having moderate to severe erosion rates (Panagos et al 2020). This costs. We know that: Every year about 1 billion tons of soil are washed away by erosion in the EU, causing an estimated loss of agricultural production worth €1.25 billion per year. (xx) The EU soil strategy included an estimate that the cost of inaction on soil degradation in Europe outweighs the cost of action by a factor of 6. (EC 2021) As for soil biodiversity, we do not really know what is going on nor what it is costing us. Graph: Nitrogen surplus in Europe in 2012 (JRC) References: Veerman et al (2020) Caring for soil is caring for life. Interim report of the Soil Health and Food Mission Board. Independent expert report to European Commission, Publications Office of the European Union. https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-law-and-publications/publication-detail/-/publication/32d5d312-b689-11ea-bb7a-01aa75ed71a1 EC (2020) Caring for soil is caring for life. Ensure 75% of soils are healthy by 2030 for food, people, nature and climate. Report of the Mission Board for Soil health and food. Fernández-Ugalde, O, Ballabio, C, Lugato, E, Scarpa, S and Jones, A (2020) Assessment of changes in topsoil properties in LUCAS samples between 2009/2012 and 2015 surveys. JRC Technical Reports JRC120138, EUR 30147 EN, Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg. ISBN 978-92-76-17430-1, doi:10.2760/5503. Panagos et al (2020) A soil erosion indicator for supporting agricultural, environmental and climate policies in the European Union. Remote Sensing No 12 (9), 1365. European Commission (2021) EU Soil Strategy for 2030 - Reaping the benefits of healthy soils for people, food, nature and climate. COM(2021) 699 final, European Commission, Brussels.
- What about our current farming and water? According to the EEA, a fifth of the European territory and a third of the population are affected by water stress each year now (EEA 2021). Agriculture accounted for 28% of total water abstraction in 2019 (EEA 2021), mostly for irrigation. The map shows share of irrigated area in the EU regions (ESTAT). This is increasing each year. The new CAP strategic plans in the Mediterranean countries are continuing to provide investments to expand the irrigated area (IEEP own analysis). Nitrates in freshwater in 2019 - 24% of monitoring stations on freshwater bodies showed moderate quality (19% for groundwater stations) and 9% poor quality (10% for groundwater stations) due to nitrates (EEA 2021). Food production also includes fish - It has been found that over 1,2 million barriers fragment European rivers, with many being obsolete (Dam Removal Europe 2023). We have a decline of 93% in freshwater migratory fish populations in Europe (DRE 2023). This is a loss of the economic value of fish such as salmon and trout, when considering the quantity of fish that were available in historic times (Lenders et al 2016), but also the value of tourism, flood water retention, and the water storage capacity of floodplains and riverine habitats. Graph: Share of irrigated areas per NUTS2 regions in the EU-28 in 2019 (ESTAT) EEA (2021) Water resources across Europe — confronting water stress: an updated assessment. EEA Report No 12/2021. https://www.eea.europa.eu/publications/water-resources-across-europe-confronting EEA (2021) Drivers of and pressures arising from selected key water management challenges: A European overview. EEA Report No 9/2021, European Environment Agency, Copenhagen. Dam Removal Europe (2023) Dam removal progress report 2022. https://damremoval.eu/dre-report-2022/ EEA (2021) Tracking barriers and their impacts on European river ecosystems. Briefing no. 30/2020. https://www.eea.europa.eu/themes/water/european-waters/water-use-and-environmental-pressures/tracking-barriers-and-their-impacts Lenders, H J R, Chamuleau, T P M, Hendriks, A J, Lauwerier, R C G M, Leuven, R S E W and Verberk, W C E P (2016) Historical rise of waterpower initiated the collapse of salmon stocks. Scientific Reports No 6 (1), 29269.
- In terms of biodiversity, national reports on the status of the agro-ecosystem habitats listed in the EU habitats directive continue to show an unfavourable status – and many unfavourable-bad, which indicates that these remaining areas are under significant risk of being lost to degradation (DG AGRI 2020 and EEA 2020). These habitats are critical for biodiversity but actually only make up around 4.5% of the EU’s area, mostly extensive grazing. We also have some estimates of the cost of losing pollinator populations – estimated to contribute four and a half billion EUR to the value of agricultural production in the EU (Vallecillo et al 2018) It was estimated that half of the EU’s farmland with pollinator dependent crops had a low pollination potential in 2012 – because of its lack of habitats for wild pollinators (Vallecillo et al 2018) The absence of insect pollination would reduce production of insect-dependent crops by a third in the EU – and for some crops like apples and pears almost completely (Zulian et al 2013) Soil biodiversity: How much is its contribution to food production worth? We do not know Graphic: DG AGRI (2020) Agricultural habitats (grasslands) by conservation status (%) in 2018. CMEF dashboard indicators: biodiversity. https://agridata.ec.europa.eu/extensions/DashboardIndicators/Biodiversity.html References: DG AGRI (2020) CMEF dashboard indicators: biodiversity. https://agridata.ec.europa.eu/extensions/DashboardIndicators/Biodiversity.html And EEA (2020) https://www.eea.europa.eu/ims/conservation-status-of-habitats-under Vallecillo et al (2018) Vallecillo, S, La Notte, A, Polce, C, Zulian, G, Alexandris, N, Ferrini, S and Maes, J (2018) Ecosystem services accounting Part I Outdoor recreation and crop pollination. JRC Technical Reports, EUR 29024 EN, Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg. https://ec.europa.eu/jrc/en/publication/ecosystem-services-accounting-part-i-outdoor-recreation-and-crop-pollination Zulian et al (2013) Zulian, G, Maes, J and Paracchini, M L (2013) Linking land cover data and crop yields for mapping and assessment of pollination services in Europe. Land No 2 (3), 472-492. (JRC research)
- We know that in a 2 degrees scenario the impacts of heat and drought on yields in southern Europe will not be offset by increased yields in northern Europe : wheat yields would be down 12% in southern regions (in some areas halved), up 5% in northern areas (Feyen et al 2020) Grain maize yields would be down 11% in southern Europe, down 5% in northern Europe. But without increased irrigation there will be declines of over 20% and up to 80% in Med countries (Feyen et al 2020). We know that crop losses due to drought and heat in the EU have tripled over the last 50 years [from −2.2% between 1964 and 1990, to −7.3% in the 1991–2015 period (Brás et al.,2021)] In the 2018 drought, yields of cereals, potatoes, sugar beet and other crops that account for a large share of crop production in northern European countries were much lower than those in 2017. Drought also heavily affected pasture (generally not irrigated), which had detrimental effects on the livestock and diary sector. (Hristov et al 2020 and Naumann et al 2021). Last summer there were also significant yield losses. The current news from Spain is very worrying – in some areas like Catalonia the rain-fed wheat and barley harvest may fail completely, and irrigated areas may deliver only half their expected yield. Climate change will also affect agriculture in other ways (EEA 2019): Food storage and transportation will be affected by extreme weather events and spikes in energy prices or drops in energy availability, for example if drought hits hydropower or nuclear cooling capacity. Food safety will be increasingly challenged for example by mycotoxins and vector-borne animal diseases. Climate change will also affect animal welfare, increasing stress for animals without shade during heat waves or on pastures that are under drought. Climate change will reduce the effectiveness of pollinator agents as species will be lost from certain areas, or the coordination of pollinator activity and flower receptiveness will be disrupted in some regions. We don’t know yet what impact climate change is having on soil biodiversity nor what this means for crop production. Graph: Areas in Europe with additional water stress in the future under a temperature increase of 3 °C. EEA 2022. https://www.eea.europa.eu/data-and-maps/figures/areas-in-europe-with-additional Feyen et al (2020) Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation in Europe. JRC PESETA IV final report. EUR 30180EN, Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg, ISBN 978-92-76-18123-1, doi:10.2760/171121, JRC119178. Hristov, J, Toreti, A, Pérez Domínguez, I, Dentener, F, Fellmann, T, Elleby, C, Ceglar, A, Fumagalli, D, Niemeyer, S, Cerrani, I, Panarello, L and Bratu, M (2020) Analysis of climate change impacts on EU agriculture by 2050. EUR 30078 EN, Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg, ISBN 978-92-76-10617-3, doi:10.2760/121115, JRC119632. EEA (2019) Climate change impacts and adaptation in the agricultural sector in Europe. EEA Report No 4/2019, European Environment Agency, Copenhagen. Brás, T A, Seixas, J, Carvalhais, N and Jägermeyr, J (2021) Severity of drought and heatwave crop losses tripled over the last five decades in Europe. Environmental Research Letters No 16 (6), 065012. Naumann, G, Cammalleri, C, Mentaschi, L and Feyen, L (2021) Increased economic drought impacts in Europe with anthropogenic warming. Nature Climate Change No 11 (6), 485-491.
- As a reminder, the Commission proposal has targets for farmland in three articles. The pressures and expected changes I described over the decade to come mean that farming cannot continue as now – we need to help a large number of farms transition to more resilient sustainable systems.
- How will nature restoration increase the resilience of farming? I point out here just some examples of the benefits from restoration: Restoring pollinator populations sometimes requires quite small-scale interventions on farmland that increase flower resources in and around fields – these take up the lower yielding areas and have no overall negative effect on yields (Albrecht et al 2020). Stopping pesticide drift and removing insecticides from the crop protection regime are two key measures. Also protecting species rich grassland (Larkin & Stanley 2021). Soil organic matter restoration on arable land requires farm practices that also increase the diversity of cropping on farm – diversifying production and allowing for more mixed crop and livestock production. (Martin et al 2020, Tamburini et al 2020, Beillouin et al 2021, Tibi et al 2022) Increasing and replacing lost landscape features on farmland – hedges, trees, uncultivated field margins, wider buffer strips, and so on – will also increase soil quality and boost pollinators, as well as increasing climate adaptation and resilience in many ways, including animal welfare (Liquete et al 2022) Species rich grassland has been shown to have higher production in drought periods – because of the legumes. (Cole et al 2019) Restoration of wetlands and peatlands and floodplains as a big potential to increase flood retention capacity on farmland and to increase the water storage capacity of the soil for summer crops. (Waterloo et al 2019, EEA 2021) I will finish with two examples of win-win situations: Wildlife-friendly field edges have no adverse impact on arable crop yield on UK farm (Pywell et al 2015) In a replicated intervention within 50–60 ha patches across a 900 ha commercial arable farm in central England, 3% or 8% of the field edge was taken out of production to create wildlife habitat. The creation of these field-edge habitats in lower yielding areas led to increased yield in the cropped areas of the fields, a positive effect that became more pronounced over 6 years. As a consequence, yields at the field scale were maintained and even enhanced for some crops, despite the loss of 8% of the cropland to habitat creation. These results suggested that over a 5-year crop rotation, there would be no adverse impact on overall yield in terms of monetary value or nutritional energy. The results of the study are widely applicable to other similar commercial arable farms in Europe and show that such ecosystem restoration, and resulting increases in biodiversity (including pollinators) and related ecosystem services, can be achieved whilst maintaining or even increasing crop yields and values. Intercropping and reduced irrigation in mandarin crops in Spain (Martin-Gorriz et al 2022) The Horizon 2020 Diverfarming project looked at diversifying crops across the EU in ways that could improve both sustainability and resilience. One project study in south-eastern Spain looked at the impact of introducing intercropping and deficit (reduced) irrigation in a conventional mandarin monocropping system. It found that intercropping improved soil organic carbon and nitrogen, and reduced soil erosion and run-off. Whilst intercropping increased labour costs, these were offset by the profits from the crops, which also reduced vulnerability to volatile prices in the main crop. REFERENCES Albrecht et al (2020) The effectiveness of flower strips and hedgerows on pest control, pollination services and crop yield: a quantitative synthesis. Ecology Letters No 23 (10), 1488-1498. Larkin, M and Stanley, D A (2021) Impacts of management at a local and landscape scale on pollinators in semi-natural grasslands. Journal of Applied Ecology No 58 (11), 2505-2514. Martin, G, Durand, J-L, Duru, M, Gastal, F, Julier, B, Litrico, I, Louarn, G, Médiène, S, Moreau, D, Valentin-Morison, M, Novak, S, Parnaudeau, V, Paschalidou, F, Vertès, F, Voisin, A-S, Cellier, P and Jeuffroy, M-H (2020) Role of ley pastures in tomorrow’s cropping systems. A review. Agronomy for Sustainable Development No 40 (3), 17. Tamburini, G, Bommarco, R, Wanger Thomas, C, Kremen, C, van der Heijden Marcel, G A, Liebman, M and Hallin, S (2020) Agricultural diversification promotes multiple ecosystem services without compromising yield. Science Advances No 6 (45), eaba1715. Beillouin, D, Ben-Ari, T, Malézieux, E, Seufert, V and Makowski, D (2021) Positive but variable effects of crop diversification on biodiversity and ecosystem services. Global Change Biology No 27 (19), 4697-4710. Tibi, A, Martinet, V, Vialatte, A, (coord.) and et al (2022) Protect crops by increasing plant diversity in agricultural areas Summary report of the collective scientific assessment. [Augmenter la diversité végétale des espaces agricoles pour favoriser la régulation naturelle des bioagresseurs et protéger les cultures] ESCo condensed report, INRAE, France. Liquete, C., Prakash, S., Addamo, A.M., Assouline, M., Barredo, J.I., Bosco, S. et al.(2022) Scientific evidence showing the impacts of nature restoration actions on food productivity, EUR 31137 EN, Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg. doi:10.2760/3032, JRC129725. Cole, A J, Griffiths, R I, Ward, S E, Whitaker, J, Ostle, N J and Bardgett, R D (2019) Grassland biodiversity restoration increases resistance of carbon fluxes to drought. Journal of Applied Ecology No 56 (7), 1806-1816. Waterloo, M J, Gevaert, A, Kersbergen, A, Hegnauer, M, Becker, B and de Roover, S A W (2019) Wetland restoration impact on streamflow in the Rhine River Basin. Natural sponge effects in the German Middle Mountains. Final report commissioned by Wetlands International, Bureau Stroming and WWF Netherlands, Acacia Water, Gouda, The Netherlands. Pywell et al (2015) Wildlife-friendly farming increases crop yield: evidence for ecological intensification. Proceedings of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences No 282 (1816), 20151740-http://dx.doi.org/20151710.20151098/rspb.20152015.20151740. Martin-Gorriz, B, Zabala, J A, Sánchez-Navarro, V, Gallego-Elvira, B, Martínez-García, V, Alcon, F and Maestre-Valero, J F (2022) Intercropping practices in Mediterranean mandarin orchards from an environmental and economic perspective. Agriculture No 12 (5).