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Organic Agriculture and Biodiversity |
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January 07, 2002
The 2000 IUCN Red List of threatened species of the world highlights habitat loss as the main threat to biodiversity, with agricultural activities affecting 70 per cent of all threatened bird species and 49 per cent of all plant species. However, despite agriculture being responsible for such well-documented losses in biodiversity, it can also provide a tool for biodiversity conservation if policies and approaches, which combine agricultural production and biodiversity conservation, can be defined and implemented.
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Organic agriculture is a system of production that is committed to the
conservation of biodiversity within agricultural systems, both from a
philosophical perspective and from the practical viewpoint of
maintaining productivity. The aim of this paper is to discuss the
evidence for the role organic agriculture can play in maintaining and
enhancing biodiversity. To do this, the relationship between organic
agriculture, biodiversity and the rural landscape, are discussed
broadly at each of the three levels at which biodiversity can be
assessed - genetic, species and ecosystem level. The paper explores the
scientific evidence that this relationship is beneficial and provides
examples of projects that are encouraging the dual aims of biodiversity
conservation and organic agriculture.
The paper concludes that there is a positive relationship between
organic production and biodiversity conservation, and as such organic
farmers and organizations should ensure that biodiversity conservation
has a place at the heart of the organic system. It is also noted,
however, that these positive contributions to conservation do not
necessarily guarantee the protection of individual threatened or
endangered species, particularly where the agricultural policy climate
stresses the economic necessity of land use intensity.
Conversion to organic farming is therefore at present only the first
step towards a modern system of agriculture that not only produces
crops but also increases biodiversity. To continue along this path
there are several more steps which need to be taken. Research needs to
go further than comparing farming systems and making the links between
farming systems and biodiversity losses and gains, and should instead
address questions on how to maximize biodiversity within the
agricultural landscape. The organic and conservation movements also
need to identify and act upon a number of changes to organic farming
practice, support and policy areas to ensure that the positive
interactions between farming and conservation are achieved. Finally, as
ecosystem diversity is a pre-condition for species diversity, the key
to increasing linkages between organic farming systems and biodiversity
conservation should perhaps first and foremost be to develop habitats -
within farms and as part of the wider landscape - which more fully
realize their potential for biodiversity conservation. Thus organic
farming in combination with management strategies aimed at biodiversity
conservation could play an important role in a sustainable enhancement
of biodiversity worldwide. The result should be that organic farming
becomes part of a system for landscape protection and improvement,
contributing to agro-ecosystem conservation and to the maintenance,
enhancement and management of the landscape and its related
biodiversity.
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