Promoting biodiversity at the landscape level - implementing cooperative agri-environmental schemes in a participatory manner (KOOPERATIV)

The intensification of agricultural landscapes is leading to progressive biodiversity loss and is endangering important ecosystem services. Therefore, measures are urgently needed to enhance biodiversity and ecosystem services in agricultural landsapes. Agri-environmental measures can be an important tool in this context but so far they have been implemented mainly on single and sometimes isolated plots while the promotion of many species requires measures at landscape level. An innovative approach is the coordinated implementation of measures at landscape level, in which several farms participate jointly. Cooperation and participation can promote joint thinking and action and generate situation-specific and solution-oriented expertise. However, from both a socio-economic and ecological point of view, many questions regarding the cooperative implementation of agri-environmental measures are still unresolved.

Taking into account the ecological effects and economic consequences, the project KOOPERATIV will develop and implement a participatory and cooperative approach to the implementation of agri-environmental measures at the landscape level. The aims are (1) to improve the state of biodiversity and related ecosystem services as cost-efficiently as possible and (2) to implement and institutionalize cooperative measures on a permanent basis. The optimal area shares and spatial configuration of agri-environmental measures will be determined. The project is based on an integrative and interdisciplinary approach that includes the development of cooperative governance structures as well as the ecological and economic evaluation of the joint implementation of agri-environmental measures. The interactions and synergies between governance, ecology and economy will be considered holistically.

Cooperative partners in the KOOPERATIV project are the University of Göttingen with the departments Functional Agrobiodiversity and Socio-Ecological Interactions in Agricultural Systems, the University of Rostock with the Department of Agricultural Economics and the Landvolk Northeim-Osterode.

The KOOPERATIV project is funded in the Federal Program for Biological Diversity by the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation with funds from the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection.