ABSTRACT
Biodiversity as a prerequisite of sustainable organic farming Lukas Pfiffner and Laura Armengot, Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL), Switzerland
1 Introduction
2 Biodiversity and land-use intensity
3 Impact of organic farming on biodiversity
4 Biodiversity at different spatial scales
5 Impact of organic farming on selected functional groups
6 Future trends and conclusion
7 References
For hundreds of years, agriculture has substantially contributed to the diversity of species and habitats, and has formed many of today’s landscapes. However, over the last century, the intensification of agriculture with high inputs of synthetic pesticides and fertilisers combined with monocrop specialisation has been detrimental to the diversity of genetic resources of crop varieties and livestock breeds, to the wild flora and fauna species and to the diversity of ecosystems (Tscharntke et al. 2005). Among terrestrial vertebrates, 322 species have become extinct since the 1500s. Populations of the remaining species show 25% average decline in abundance (Dirzo et al. 2014). The patterns of invertebrates are equally dire: 67% of monitored invertebrates show a 45% mean abundance decline. A global assessment of land-use change and related pressures has already reduced local biodiversity intactness (Newbold et al. 2016). The average proportion of biodiversity remaining in local ecosystems is beyond its recently proposed planetary boundary across 58% of the world’s surface, where 71% of human beings live. The large net losses of biodiversity in many regions that have already occurred potentially lead to harm ecosystem functions and services (Hooper et al. 2012; Newbold et al. 2016).
