TY - JOUR

T1 - Monitoring methods adapted to different perceptions and uses of functional biodiversity

T2 - Insights from a European qualitative study

AU - Cardona, Aurélie

AU - Tchamitchian, Marc

AU - Penvern, Servane

AU - Dufils, Arnaud

AU - Kramer Jacobsen, Stine

AU - Korsgaard, Maren

AU - Porcel, Mario

AU - Świergiel, Weronika

AU - Tasin, Marco

AU - Warlop, François

AU - Sigsgaard, Lene

N1 - Funding Information: The authors acknowledge all of the European farmers, advisors and field agronomists who were interviewed or participated to the workshops and who accepted to share their precious time and knowledge. The study was supported by the project ?Innovative design and management to boost functional bio-diversity of organic orchards (ECOORCHARD)? funded by the ERA-Net CORE Organic Plus Funding Bodies partners of the European Union's FP7 research and innovation program under the grant agreement No. 618107. National funding bodies included, the French National Institute for Agricultural Research (AIP P00308), the Swedish Research Council for Sustainable Development (Formas, 2014-01905), the Green Development and Demonstration Program under the Ministry of Environment and Food of Denmark (GUDP j.nr: 34009-14-0906). Publisher Copyright: © 2021 The Authors

PY - 2021

Y1 - 2021

N2 - The role of functional biodiversity for favouring natural regulation and reducing pesticide use in fruit production is generally acknowledged. Although a number of farmers attempt to favour biodiversity through different strategies (e.g. diversified hedges, nesting boxes), they often lack means to evaluate how their actions contribute in practice to functional biodiversity. We assumed here that to create useful and appropriate monitoring methods, it is necessary to take into account the variety of knowledge, perceptions and interests about functional biodiversity. To test our hypothesis, we adopted a comprehensive and participative approach based on interviews and workshops with farmers, advisors and field agronomists involved in apple orchard management. Our objective was to understand their different perceptions and uses of functional biodiversity and then, to design monitoring methods adapted to those perceptions and pre-existing uses. Our findings revealed both a plurality of perceptions of functional biodiversity along with a diversity of objectives and uses of monitoring methods. Based on these results, we identified four main attitudes towards the management of functional biodiversity: the wait-and-see attitude, the naturalist attitude, the regulation attitude and the multifunctional attitude. These attitudes do not correspond to person's profiles, since one person can adopt different attitudes in regard to different biodiversity components or in regard to the different practices supporting biodiversity. In addition, attitudes can vary over time. The identification of these attitudes allowed us to design, with the workshops’ participants, a guiding framework to create monitoring programs (i.e. combinations of monitoring methods) adapted to a variety of uses and targeted services.

AB - The role of functional biodiversity for favouring natural regulation and reducing pesticide use in fruit production is generally acknowledged. Although a number of farmers attempt to favour biodiversity through different strategies (e.g. diversified hedges, nesting boxes), they often lack means to evaluate how their actions contribute in practice to functional biodiversity. We assumed here that to create useful and appropriate monitoring methods, it is necessary to take into account the variety of knowledge, perceptions and interests about functional biodiversity. To test our hypothesis, we adopted a comprehensive and participative approach based on interviews and workshops with farmers, advisors and field agronomists involved in apple orchard management. Our objective was to understand their different perceptions and uses of functional biodiversity and then, to design monitoring methods adapted to those perceptions and pre-existing uses. Our findings revealed both a plurality of perceptions of functional biodiversity along with a diversity of objectives and uses of monitoring methods. Based on these results, we identified four main attitudes towards the management of functional biodiversity: the wait-and-see attitude, the naturalist attitude, the regulation attitude and the multifunctional attitude. These attitudes do not correspond to person's profiles, since one person can adopt different attitudes in regard to different biodiversity components or in regard to the different practices supporting biodiversity. In addition, attitudes can vary over time. The identification of these attitudes allowed us to design, with the workshops’ participants, a guiding framework to create monitoring programs (i.e. combinations of monitoring methods) adapted to a variety of uses and targeted services.

KW - Attitudes

KW - Ecosystem services

KW - Management

KW - Orchard

KW - Participatory action research

KW - Stakeholders

U2 - 10.1016/j.ecolind.2021.107883

DO - 10.1016/j.ecolind.2021.107883

M3 - Journal article

AN - SCOPUS:85108728797

VL - 129

JO - Ecological Indicators

JF - Ecological Indicators

SN - 1470-160X

M1 - 107883

ER -