Developing the agri-environment biodiversity index for the assessment of eco-friendly farming systems

Abstract

Eco-friendly farms play an instrumental role in biodiversity conservation worldwide, but there are no applicable assessment and monitoring tools available. Based on the protocol of the Singapore City Biodiversity Index, we proposed a simplified, rapid assessment method, the Agri-Environment Biodiversity Index (ABI, including 3 aspects, 5 indicators, and 10 secondary indicators), to score the biodiversity performance of 9 best-practice farms from a total of >300 eco-friendly farms in China. Using the Delphi method and correlation analysis, we confirmed the suitability of the ABI scoring system and found that the scores were significantly correlated with most of the landscape factors and the majority of the farming methods measured, suggesting that the scoring system could be used as a strategic biodiversity evaluation tool. The results showed that the farm area and the proportion and diversity of natural/seminatural habitats were significantly correlated with ABI scores; this suggests that eco-friendly farms are positive contributors to the whole landscape mosaic, and establishing more of them might benefit biodiversity conservation. This study may guide the landscape and farming management of ecological farms and inform the process of on-farm biodiversity monitoring and assessment.

Keywords

• Eco-friendly farms
• Birds diversity
• Plants diversity
• Habitat richness
• Biodiversity accounts