Multi-level Exchange Platforms for Biodiversity Conservation in Agricultural Landscapes

Article: Multi-level Exchange Platforms for Biodiversity Conservation in Agricultural Landscapes 
Social Innovations Journal ,Vol. 22 (2023)
Sarah Velten, Christine Kewes, Ronald Brudler, Katrina Marsden, Greta Theilen
The loss of biodiversity continues unhalted globally. Agriculture plays a crucial role because it is both heavily dependent on the ecosystem services based on biodiversity and, with its current practices, a main driver of the loss of natural biodiversity. In Europe, the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) plays a crucial role in shaping agricultural land use. However, despite the inclusion of environmental goals and measures, it has not been able to reverse the trend for biodiversity in agricultural landscapes. One reason for this ‘ecological ineffectiveness’ is the low uptake of environmental measures by European farmers. The project named CAP4GI was conceived to develop policy recommendations to improve the implementation of the current CAP as well as the design of future agricultural policies after the end of the current funding period. It focuses not only on ways to render measures more ecologically effective but also more economically and socially feasible for farms. For that purpose, CAP4GI takes a transformative co-design approach. The core element of the co-design is the realization of a multi-level stakeholder exchange platform process in two German federal states (Baden-Württemberg and Thuringia). In this article, we present and describe our multi-level exchange platform approach and relate our experiences from the first (out of three) years of the platform process. Additionally, we reflect on the transformative potential of this multi-level approach as well as on potential barriers to the realization of this potential.

Report: Barriers to implementation of environmental measures on agricultural land in Thuringia and Baden-Württemberg: Results of scoping interviews and first exchange platforms in the context of project CAP4GI (German only)
Carolina Wackerhagen, Christine Kewes, Ronald Brudler, Sarah Velten

Article: "Digging into Complexity: The Wicked Problem of Peatland Protection"
Advanced Sustainable Systems (2024)
Marie Meyer-Jürshof, Greta Sophie Theilen, Sebastian Lakner
The significance of rewetting peatlands, as a key instrument for peatland protection and response to climate change, is increasingly recognized by both experts and the public. Its widespread implementation however still faces numerous challenges. Characteristics of the issue itself as well as the corresponding policies transform the issue into a wicked problem. Showcasing the lack of clarity in funding structures at the German national and federal-state levels highlights the linked obstruction of necessary actions, implementation options, and financial resources for peatland protection. This poses challenges to climate protection, adaptation efforts, and the achievement of related Sustainable Development Goals. In Germany, an update of peatland protection policies highlights the structural challenges in coordinating peatland protection efforts and helps identify gaps and opportunities. A mixed methods approach is used to analyze both strategic documents and the results of a survey on associated funding. The results indicate a multi-level policy structure with several German federal states recognizing the potential and relevance of peatland protection but still facing obstacles regarding the distribution of responsibilities, data availability, and overall structures. Recognizing peatland protection as a wicked problem can highlight research gaps and help in developing individual solutions that can be transferred to an international level.

Article: Developing multidisciplinary mechanistic models: challenges and approaches
Socio-Environmental Systems Modelling, Vol. 6 (2024)
Daniel Vedder, Samuel M. Fischer, Kerstin Wiegand, Guy Pe'er
Current biodiversity models often struggle to represent the complexity of global crises, as the affected ecosystems are shaped by many different ecological, physical, and social processes. To understand these dynamics better, we will need to build larger and more complex ecological models, and couple ecological models to models produced by other disciplines, such as climate science, economics, or sociology. However, constructing such integrated models is a significant technical undertaking, which has received little attention by ecological modellers so far. We review literature from computer science and several other environmental modelling disciplines to identify common challenges and possible strategies when creating large integrated models. We show that there is a software-architectural trade-off between modularity and integration, where the former is required to keep the technical complexity of a model manageable, and the latter is desirable to represent the scientific complexity of a studied system. We then present and compare five different software engineering techniques for navigating this trade-off. Which technique is most suitable for a given model depends on the model’s aims and the available development resources. The larger a model becomes, the more important it is to use more advanced techniques, such as integrating models from different domains using a model coupling framework. Our review shows that ecological modellers can learn from other modelling disciplines, but also need to invest in increased software engineering expertise, if they want to build models that can represent the numerous processes affecting ecosystems and biodiversity loss.

Summary of master thesis: Butterfly and plant diversity at the margins between agricultural and agriculturally influenced areas 
across an intensity gradient in Thuringia (German only)
by Lea Kahoun (supervised by Guy Pe'er), 2024

Using the potential of the CAP for more biodiversity:  Impulses from practice in Thuringia and Baden-Württemberg 
CAP4GI Policy Brief, May 2024, (in German, English version coming soon)
Sarah Velten, Björn Pasemann, Ronald Brudler, Greta Theilen, Carolina Wackerhagen, Christine Kewes, Sebastian Lakner, Guy Pe'er

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Arbeitspaket 1: Austauschplattformen

Wo der Schuh drückt: Was hindert Landwirt*innen daran, mehr Maßnahmen für den Erhalt der Artenvielfalt umzusetzen?

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Arbeitspakete 2 und 3: Sozio-ökonomische Untersuchung
Entscheidungen und Präferenzen von Landwirt*innen verstehen

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Arbeitspaket 4: ABM
Wie verändern alternative Ansätze der Förderung von Umweltmaßnahmen die Landschaft? Einblicke in ein sozial-ökonomisches Modell

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Arbeitspaket 5:
Wie reagiert die Natur? Ein Computermodell als Entscheidungshilfe für eine naturfreundliche Landwirtschaft

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Zum Newsbeitrag über die Online-Diskussionsrunde

Vortrag "GAP - aktuelle Herausforderungen" - Sebastian Lakner

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Vortrag  "Neue GAP, neue Chancen" - Guy Pe'er

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Vortrag "Einführung CAP4GI" - Sarah Velten

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Speed Talk for a World Café session about the CAP4GI stakeholder platforms - Sarah Velten

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Poster about social-economic agent-based model (WP4) - Lea Kolb 

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Poster about ecological individual-based model Persefone (WP5) - Daniel Vedder

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Presentation of first results and lessons learned of CAP4GI (in German)

Presentation "Utilising the potential of EU agricultural funding: Initial findings from CAP4GI" from Sarah Velten (in German)

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Presentation "CAP at a crossroads: Is greening being lost?" from Sebastian Lakner (In German)

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Poster "What would make this farmer plant the hedge? How policy can support farmers in restoring habitat connectivity - Simulations on policies for hedge plantings" by Lea Kolb (WP 4)

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Presentation  "CAP4GI - with the CAP towards diverse landscapes" by Greta Theilen (in German)

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