Obstacles
When driving through the countryside, most people don’t spend a second thought on the diversity of landscapes that are part of Europe: forests and fields, meadows and marshes, just to name a few. But, the most dominant type of environment is farmland. Roundabout 70% of the European landmass is used in order to produce food and other resources. This means that the largest amount of the species that make up biodiversity lives on land used for farming. As a result, the way we farm has a direct impact on the amount of biodiversity present [34].
The farming practices in Europe create a variety of obstacles for biodiversity. Below we will present some examples.
Why is it so hard for biodiversity to thrive?
Maximal production with minimal costs
Agricultural practices in Europe are centred around maximising food production while minimising the cost. This way of farming is putting a lot of stress on the environment as there is a great number of nutrients required in order to sustain the large monocultures, vast fields that only grow one kind of crop. By extracting such a large amount of resources from the ground this changes the environmental conditions for all species that live in the area. It also causes the soil quality to decrease and creates the need to use commercial fertilizers in order for the crops to keep growing [9].
Harmful substances
While these fertilizers enable the crops to grow, they also increase the growth of other plants on the same piece of land. Here, farmers oftentimes use weed control measures such as insecticides and herbicides in order to ensure the growth of their crops. However, these pesticides are especially harmful to the biodiversity on the farmland. The pesticides not only reduces the diversity of plant and animal species on the piece of land by killing off the weeds and insects living there but in doing so also reduces the amount of food available for mammals and birds [34].
Wrong land management
Another aspect greatly influencing Biodiversity is the management of land that is not currently used for farming. Oftentimes, these pieces of land are still treated similarly to the farmland in order to prevent unwanted animals and plants cultivating so close to the active farmland. Other reasons for treating these unused pieces of land include funding by the government for certain farming practices and the prevention of abandonment of the land (34). However, by allowing the local flora and fauna to reclaim a piece of land if only temporarily, this gives species a sanctuary to recover and restore. It not only increases the biodiversity on the piece of land but also allows the soil to regain some of its former nutrient density [9].