The economic efficiency of conservation measures for amphibians in organic
farming-- Results from bio-economic modeling (Schuler et al. 2012)
As humans start to realize how detrimental industrial farming is to the long
term health of our own population and the environment, it has become more and
more popular to support organic farming. Because of this, large scale organic
farms have begun to pop up around the world, especially in the US and Europe.
However, although a main goal of organic farming is to increase the
sustainability of agriculture, it often costly for farmers to reach this goal
and minimize negative effects on the environment. It is essential for
farmers to reach economic goals by keeping prices low enough to compete with
non-organic farmers. It is also essential to do this without sacrificing the
environmental goals of organic farming.
It is important to acknowledge that organic farming is still a form of
habitat loss and degradation, but negative effects on species could be
minimized by researching farming techniques that are less detrimental to
populations. The objective of this article is to present a model that can be
applied to other organic farms to assess the cost-efficiency of crop production
activities (CPA) for amphibian conservation. Crop production activities are
detailed descriptions of how certain crops are produced from beginning to end
(tillage-harvest). The authors performed a model-based analysis to assess the
environmental and economic effects of different CPAs. For example, the study
assessed the effects of various changes in timing and intensity of what they
referred to as "work steps" (ploughing, mulching, mowing etc.). They
also rearranged the spatial configuration of crops and the total coverage of
that crop.
The authors altered these variables over a six year time span on a large
scale organic farm in Northeastern Germany. After altering the variables, they
measured the suitability of a crop production activity for minimizing the
disturbance and injuries to amphibian populations. This variable they referred
to as habitat quality. The amphibian populations they investigated were of
three different species: common spadefoot toad (Pelobates fuscus), fire-bellied
toad (Bombina bombina) and the European tree frog (Hyla arborea).
The table below is a little bit overwhelming, but the numbers for each data
point represent the injury rate per work step (WR). This means that the higher
the number, the more detrimental it was to the amphibian population. The
different species are represented by letters. Overall, it appears as though the
different species of amphibians respond similarly to the work steps. There are
exceptions where adult tree frogs seem to be more sensitive to some work steps
than other species and life stages ( mowing, combine harvesting etc.) As we
might expect , ploughing had much more of a negative effect than any other work
step.
The authors conducted several other experiments, including assessing the
impact of buffer strips around amphibian breeding ponds, and assessing the
impact of different crop types on habitat quality. In addition, the economic
result of changing these variables was assessed in order to analyze trade-offs
between economic and environmental goals. Although the aim of the study
was to reorganize the farm so that the habitat quality of amphibians would be
increased, the main goal was still to maximize the total economic benefits in
conjunction.
In conclusion, the authors found that some improvements in habitat quality
for tree frogs could be satisfied by small changes in the organization of
the farm. However, a large increase in habitat quality would probably
result in significant economic losses to the farm. Also, their results
suggested that an increase in buffers did not have a significant positive
affect on amphibians unless a high level of habitat quality is aimed for. In
other words, farmers should minimize habitat loss in other, more cost-effective
ways than buffers if they wish to maximize both economic gain and habitat
quality. For example, the authors found that a decrease in peas led to an
increase in habitat quality and peas are also less profitable than many of the
other crops.
Studies such as this will be important in the future as organic farming
becomes the more preferred way of farming. It has become apparent that we
must find more sustainable, environmentally favorable ways to feed a growing
population or else we will continue to decrease biodiversity at an alarming
rate. By considering economic, social, and environmental aspects of farming,
this goal may be reach effectively.
Schuler J, Sattler C, Helmecke A, Zander P, Uthes S, Bachinger J,
Stein-Bachinger K. 2012. The economic efficiency of conservation measures for
amphibians in organic farming-- Results from bio-economic modelling. Journal of
Environmental Management. 114: 404-413
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