Dr. Jessica Knapp

Title

A view across fields: interdisciplinary perspectives for bees in agricultural landscapes

Summary

Biodiversity conservation must be both functional and sustainable to respond to global environmental change. By modifying environments, humans are critical to this. However, international policy lacks an appreciation beyond the 'rational' (ecology and economic) of what motivates or constrains people's conservation efforts (Fig. 1). We will address this through the lens of pollinator conservation in agricultural systems. First, we will extend and validate an ecological model to generate systematic predictions of two bee species' (with contrasting ecologies) reproductive output and pollination services in different landscape contexts. We will then combine this information with predictors of people's engagement (e.g. perceptions) in conservation with specific practices costs to provide stakeholders (policymakers and farmers) with robust, generalisable, and holistic recommendations for pollinator conservation. Furthermore, we integrate ecological and economic perspectives into a validated ecological-economic model to elucidate how landscape-scale management of high-scoring conservation practices can maximise cost-effectiveness for farmers, policymakers and society. In doing so, we aim to demonstrate how a paradigm shift to an interdisciplinary approach can provide policy-ready solutions to land-use change and ultimately increase engagement in biodiversity conservation.

Funding Agency

FORMAS: Swedish Research Council for Sustainable Development

Date From

2023

Date To

2027

Title

RESToring POLLinator habitat across European agricultural landscapes based on multi-actor participatory approaches

Summary

RestPoll is a highly transdisciplinary project aiming to provide society with tools to reverse wild pollinator declines and to position Europe as a global leader in pollinator restoration. RestPoll will, together with stakeholders ranging from individual land managers to governments, co-design, evaluate, and refine measures and cross-sectoral approaches to restore pollinators and their services. The RestPoll consortium combines the expertise of natural and social scientists, NGOs, businesses, and ministries. Stakeholders along the food value chain will be engaged through newly developed participatory approaches at diverse social, ecological, and political scales. Central to RestPoll is the establishment of a Europe-wide network of pollinator restoration case-study areas and Living Labs (LL), which are unique hubs for experimentation, demonstration, and mutual learning. RestPoll aims to position Europe as a global leader and set the future agenda for pollinator restoration worldwide. The transdisciplinary RestPoll consortium will develop, test, evaluate and refine cross-sectoral pollinator restoration approaches to conserve biodiversity and to benefit nature and society. To restore wild pollinator diversity and their vital pollination services, RestPoll will co-design measures with different stakeholders (ranging from individual land managers to governments) at various spatial scales (field, farm, landscape, European scales), in agricultural landscapes that are dominated by intensively managed crops or grasslands. Our holistic approach, informed by cutting-edge transdisciplinary research, will integrate stakeholders and actors at multiple levels as well as natural and social science disciplines to engage in participatory planning and development of new business models. Learning outcomes will be disseminated by regional to European multi-actor partners and collaborators, which will ensure impact beyond the end of the project.

Funding Agency

Horizon Europe

Title

Plan Bee: interdisciplinary pollinator conservation for changing agricultural landscapes

Summary

Biodiversity conservation must be ecologically effective and socially sustainable to mitigate environmental change, now and in the future. We will address this through a lens of bee conservation in agricultural systems, where multiple drivers such as habitat loss, climate change and pesticide risk threaten bees and pollination services. Our project will extend our ecological model to generate predictions of bees' reproductive output and pollination services in response to habitat loss and climate change. We will test these drivers in isolation and combination to improve the assessment of the combined effects of these multiple drivers on biodiversity. We will then use our ecological model to explore strategies to handle these combined effects - pollinator conservation practices, to fight the twin challenges of habitat loss and climate change in agricultural systems. Finally, we combine this information with people's intent to implement these conservation practices to identify synergies (e.g. increased bee populations and crop pollination services) or trade-offs (e.g. increased bee populations at a cost to the farmer) that may facilitate or impede future bee conservation efforts. Thus, we aim to demonstrate how a paradigm shift to an interdisciplinary approach can provide policy-ready solutions to environmental change and ultimately increase engagement in biodiversity conservation.

Funding Agency

BECC: Biodiversity and Ecosystem services in a Changing Climate

Date From

2023

Date To

2024