Field margins in the Hoeksche Waard for biodiversity and natural attenuation

Abstract

Nowadays, the need for a transition to sustainable agriculture is increasing, following the decline in farmland biodiversity and other environmental issues due to the intensification of agriculture. A decline in biodiversity can affect the delivery of ecosystem services, including those that are important for agricultural practices. The RIVM is developing a social cost-benefit analysis of the implementation of field margins based on ecosystem services. Within this project, this study focused on the effect of field margins on the ecosystem services ‘biodiversity’ and ‘natural attenuation’ in the Hoeksche Waard in two scenarios: arable land and arable land with field margins. Models for biodiversity and natural attenuation were developed and implemented: (1) attributes were identified that could be used to quantify the delivery of an ecosystem service or the subfunctions underpinning the ecosystem service, (2) a conceptual multi-attribute model for quantification of biodiversity and natural attenuation was developed, (3) input data and information on the potential attributes was collected and organized in tables, (4) the collected data was used for calculating ecosystem services for the two scenarios (arable fields with and without margins). The implementation of field margins in the Hoeksche Waard, with reference value 1 for arable land without field margins, had a positive effect on the biodiversity (biodiversity capacity: 1.31-1.81) and natural attenuation (natural attenuation capacity: 1.78-2.06). The results of this study can be used as information for the social cost-benefit analysis, together with the other non-monetarized ecosystem services. Furthermore, this information is valuable for creating awareness on sustainable agriculture and shows the importance of future research relating to functional agrobiodiversity and sustainable agriculture.