Assessing and enhancing farmland biodiversity within the food industry: towards an evidence-based online tool

粮食和农业行业强烈要求找到衡量其农业实践对生物多样性及其提供的关键生态系统服务（如授粉和养分循环）的影响的方法。能够在农场层面衡量这些影响不仅有助于为个体农民的管理决策提供信息，而且对于食品和饮料公司通过其供应链增强生态系统服务和生物多样性至关重要。该项目将在Cool Farm Tool中开发一个模块来测量和管理生物多样性。Cool Farm Tool是一个行业主导的环境决策支持工具，被百事可乐（PepsiCo）、玛莎百货（Marks & Spencer）和喜力（Heineken）等主要食品零售商的供应商使用。独特的是，新模块将参考现有的科学证据来评估农业实践对生物多样性的影响。它还将为用户提供关于如何在其环境中改善生物多样性绩效的具体指导。该模块将结合一种符合行业指导的测量生物多样性影响的方法——荷兰农业与环境中心（CLM）开发的盖亚生物多样性标准——和剑桥大学开发的评估科学证据的严格方法。该项目由Cool Farm研究所、荷兰农业与环境中心、阿伯丁大学、剑桥大学和BESS项目理事会共同开发，于2013年9月在NERC环境数据短项目期间专注于生态系统服务。在这个项目中，我们选择关注生物多样性，而不是其他生态系统服务，因为在这个阶段证明生物多样性的方法是可行的，因为剑桥大学已经总结了相关证据，并且已经开发了一个行业认可的测量工具：盖亚生物多样性标尺。盖亚生物多样性标准特别包括对生态系统服务有贡献的物种群体的评估，如蚯蚓、昆虫传粉者和农田鸟类。对于许多最终的生态系统服务，例如作物授粉或支持具有文化价值的野生鸟类，评估和管理生物多样性的相关要素是管理生态系统服务的关键步骤。随着剑桥大学与BESS项目理事会和自然资本倡议正在进行的工作提供了相关证据摘要，该项目为使用类似方法来测量农业实践对其他生态系统服务的影响的工具创造了空间。Cool Farm工具是目前唯一可以提供有效决策支持的三个关键方面的工具。它1)在科学上严谨可信，2)对农民友好易懂，3)对更广泛的食品和饮料供应链产生影响。该工具由Cool Farm Institute提供，这是一家有限公司和非营利实体，其合作伙伴包括一些全球最大的食品和饮料公司：联合利华、喜力、百事可乐等（www.coolfarmtool.org）。可持续农业倡议平台——一个由50多家食品公司组成的竞争前联盟——支持凉爽农场工具（可持续农业倡议，2009年）。通过使用这一工具，该项目正在将生物多样性和生态系统服务科学纳入主要食品和饮料供应链的实践，通过一条对基础生态科学和BESS计划产生重大影响的途径。

There is strong demand from the food and farming industries to find ways to measure the impact of their farm practices on biodiversity and the critical ecosystem services it delivers, such as pollination and nutrient cycling. Being able to measure these impacts at a farm level not only helps inform the management decisions of individual farmers, but is essential for food and drink companies to enhance ecosystem services and biodiversity through their supply chains. This project will develop a module to measure and manage biodiversity within the Cool Farm Tool, an industry-led environmental decision-support tool used by suppliers of major food retailers including PepsiCo, Marks & Spencer and Heineken. Uniquely, the new module will consult the body of existing scientific evidence to evaluate the impact of farm practices on biodiversity. It will also provide specific guidance to users on how to improve biodiversity performance in their context. The module will combine a method of measuring biodiversity impact in line with industry guidance - the Gaia Biodiversity Yardstick developed by the Centre for Agriculture and Environment, Netherlands (CLM) - with a rigorous approach to evaluating scientific evidence developed at Cambridge University.This project was co-developed by the Cool Farm Institute, the Centre for Agriculture and Environment, Netherlands, University of Aberdeen, University of Cambridge and the BESS Programme Directorate, during a NERC Environmental Data Short Project in September 2013 focused on ecosystem services. In this project, we choose to focus on biodiversity, rather than other ecosystem services, because it is feasible to demonstrate the approach for biodiversity at this stage, as relevant evidence has already been summarised by the University of Cambridge and an industry-approved measurement tool is already developed: the Gaia Biodiversity Yardstick. The Gaia Biodiversity Yardstick specifically includes assessments of species groups that contribute to ecosystem services such as earthworms, insect pollinators and farmland birds. For many final ecosystem services, such as crop pollination or support of wild birds with cultural value, assessing and managing the relevant elements of biodiversity is a critical step towards managing the ecosystem service. The project creates the scope to use a similar approach for tools that measure impacts of farm practice on other ecosystem services, as summaries of relevant evidence become available through ongoing work by the University of Cambridge with the BESS Programme Directorate and the Natural Capital Initiative.The Cool Farm Tool is the only currently-available tool that delivers three crucial aspects of effective decision support. It is 1) scientifically rigorous and credible, 2) friendly and accessible to farmers and 3) has impact in the wider food and drink supply chain. The tool is delivered by the Cool Farm Institute, which is a limited company and not-for-profit entity with corporate partners that include some the largest global food and drink companies: Unilever, Heineken, PepsiCo, and others (www.coolfarmtool.org). The Sustainable Agriculture Initiative Platform - a pre-competitive consortium of over 50 food companies - endorses the Cool Farm Tool (Sustainable Agriculture Initiative, 2009). By working with this tool, the project is incorporating biodiversity and ecosystem services science into practice in major food and drink supply chains, through a route that delivers significant impact for the underlying ecological science and for the BESS Programme.