Question 1

What is the H2020 FRAMEwork Project?

Accepted Answer

'Farmer Clusters for Realising Agrobiodiversity Management across Ecosystems' (H2020 FRAMEwork) was a research-in-action project promoting the transition to biodiversity sensitive farming.

The project was designed to explore pathways to a transition that benefits ecosystem services and supports biodiversity while safeguarding against agronomic and economic risks.

FRAMEwork was made up of a consortium of 18 research institutions, NGOs and SMEs.

We established 11 Farmer Clusters across 10 European countries in varying landscapes and agricultural systems. This pilot network was based on best-practice approaches from a successful network of over 100 UK Clusters. In our project, Clusters functioned as 'living labs' for new research spanning different academic disciplines, from ecology to economics.

This new network was supported through our community of practice, including the development of an open access online platform Recodo.(www.recodo.io)

The platform empowers the sharing of activity, information, data and resources between farmers, scientists, community groups, NGOs and policy makers. It can be accessed at www.Recodo.io (www.Recodo.io)until 2030, and afterwards archived at https://recodo.nodes.iiasa.ac.at/.(https://recodo.nodes.iiasa.ac.at/)

Question 2

Why is this work important?

Accepted Answer

The scale of damaging biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation in the EU and UK is becoming more widely appreciated.

This situation is bad for conserving species but also for the functional biodiversity and ecosystem services agricultural producers rely on.

Land sparing, rewilding and nature reserves alone are not enough.

Combatting biodiversity loss, ecosystem degradation and global heating impacts requires engaging farmers of all types.

This is because farming practices connect into wider landscape ecologies and natural resource systems.

A good example can be found in German nature reserves. These are protected conservation areas but studies show that their insect biomass has declined by 75% since the 1990s (1)(https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0185809).

Likewise, agricultural land management directly impacts our environmental resilience to flooding, wildfires and drought at a time of ever-increasing natural disaster risk. (2,(https://adas.co.uk/projects/investigating-how-uk-agriculture-can-adapt-to-drought-extreme-heat-and-wildfires/)3)(https://www.nature.com/articles/s41597-025-04484-0)

Land-based food production will also continue to play a significant role in food security.

This makes creating more sustainable farming systems, tailored to regional environmental conditions, imperative for sustainable transition goals.

FRAMEwork is exploring how biodiversity is valued at every level.

The EU's most recent Common Agricultural Policy (CAP 2022) has increased green farming requirements to combat many of these issues. Sustainable transition approaches are being explored around the world, raising a demand for experiential, technological and academic information to inform how stakeholders adapt to and thrive in new circumstances.

We aim to positively inform EU farming systems’ ‘green transition’ towards promoting ecosystem services and conservation while balancing agronomic and economic risk-benefits.

Through our Clusters, Farmers and their businesses are at the centre of our work.

Some FRAMEwork Cluster farmers are conventional, others are leaders in sustainable practices. To us, it doesn't matter. FRAMEwork is not about criticising farmers or pushing a rigid top-down approach to managing farmland biodiversity.

Instead, we try and place Farmers' local priorities and interests at the centre of our work - to explore solutions together which benefit their businesses as well as regional conservation and sustainability goals.

Question 3

What are some key facts about the situation?

Accepted Answer

Here's the situation in 10 facts:

• Land-based food production represents ~40% of land use in the EU, 70% in the UK (1,(https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=Land_use_statistics)2)(https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/united-kingdom-food-security-report-2021/united-kingdom-food-security-report-2021-theme-2-uk-food-supply-sources).

• 50% of all species in the EU rely on agricultural habitats for survival (3)(https://agriculture.ec.europa.eu/sustainability/environmental-sustainability/biodiversity_en).

• 76% of agricultural habitats and 70% of their species have unfavorable conservation statuses (4)(https://environmentalevidencejournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13750-022-00280-0)

• Since 1990, populations of farmland birds and pollinators have declined by more than 30% (5)(https://op.europa.eu/webpub/eca/special-reports/biodiversity-13-2020/en/).

• 27% of the EU's agroecosystems show degradation in at least three indicators (6)(https://biodiversity.europa.eu/europes-biodiversity/ecosystems/agroecosystems).

• A staggering 61% of EU soils are in an unhealthy state, according to the EU Soil Observatory soil health dashboard (7)(https://joint-research-centre.ec.europa.eu/jrc-news-and-updates/new-tool-maps-state-soil-health-across-europe-2023-03-13_en).

• Soil degradation affecting up to 73% of agricultural soils in the EU would mean erosion and drought causing increased crop losses and water management issues (8)(https://ieep.eu/publications/environmental-degradation-impacts-on-agricultural-production/).

• Biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation makes agriculture more vulnerable to the impacts of global heating (9)(https://openknowledge.fao.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/8081962a-4ebe-4930-8a1f-63aab7cb449e/content).

• Continuing pollinator decline could lead to a 25-32% reduction in the production of crops that depend on insect pollination (10)(https://ieep.eu/publications/environmental-degradation-impacts-on-agricultural-production/).