LAFERIA – LAndscape FEatures Reintroduction in Intensive Agricultural land

Agricultural intensification in EU farmland led to the loss of landscape features which provide ecosystem services and support for biodiversity. To tackle this, the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 aims to increase the prevalence of landscape features to 10% of the agricultural area, but there are several technical, administrative, economic and social barriers to achieve this.

The overall goal of LAFERIA is to identify the key factors that can promote the reintroduction of landscape features in intensive agricultural areas and develop strategies to overcome key barriers to achieving the EU objective.

Specific objectives include:

Quantify landscape features coverage and connectivity across different agricultural systems.
Establish a comprehensive picture of the benefits and costs of landscape features for biodiversity, ecosystem services, climate change adaptation, yields, incomes, and society at large.
Explore the drivers and challenges for the reintroduction of landscape features.
Develop strategies and business models to reintroduce landscape features.

The research plan is organised around three major thematic blocks:

A first block focuses on environmental sciences and addresses the current prevalence of landscape features across distinct agricultural systems in the EU, their importance for ecological connectivity, and their potential for biodiversity and ecosystem benefits.

A second block builds on social sciences, and focuses on the key factors which may lead to the reintroduction of landscape features in areas of intensive agriculture, through a co-learning process with stakeholders, analysing factors of success and failure in existing initiatives, complemented with detailed research at regional (case study) level.

In a final block we will translate the results into the design and development of strategies, encompassing the identification of priority regions and agricultural systems to reintroduce landscape features, the maximisation of the biodiversity and ecosystem services potential from landscape features, and the development of policy tools, business models and market-based solutions taking advantage of landscape features.