At the start of April, the Food4Sustainability team welcomed the DLG (German Agricultural Society) and ZMFK Museum Koenig Bonn (The Leibniz Institute for the Analysis of Biodiversity Change) for a visit to Companhia das Lezírias, within the framework of the European project BioMonitor4CAP.
To establish advanced biodiversity monitoring systems, BioMonitor4CAP will assess, test and demonstrate the diversity of target species and habitats. Five regions representative of the main agroecological regions of the EU were selected, together with one region in Peru that represents one of the critical points of global biodiversity.
In Portugal, Companhia das Lezírias was selected as one of the five representative regions of the EU. The participants visited the vineyards and one of the largest areas of cork oak forest in Portugal. Companhia das Lezírias combines the excellence of the space and a rich biodiversity with multiple agricultural activities and has been the target of studies and monitoring of birds, insects and mammals. In this visit, the areas of investigation were identified, the fields were selected, and the experimental design and evaluation protocol were discussed.
The project will combine classical indicator systems that are part of the European monitoring framework (e.g. Farmland Bird Index) with various indicator systems mostly recently developed and applied in form of standalone systems: i) new indicator species (e.g. grasshopper), ii) genetic diversity (eDNA), iii) on-site sensors (e.g. wing beat frequency, acoustic sounds), iv) functional diversity (e.g. pollinators), and iv) various spatial measures.
Supporting development and implementation of revised agricultural policies and ensuring rural development the project will involve among multiple stakeholder groups particularly farmers, conversationalists, and service provides as the value and/or marketability of public and/or private goods delivered through maintained and enhanced biodiversity and related monitoring systems are hardly understood.
BioMonitor4CAP will support the development, implementation, and review of agricultural policies with the guarantee of rural development and improvement of agricultural activity. You can find out more about the project here.