How Can Farmers Test Biodiversity Interventions Before Implementation?

FRAMEwork has released FRAMEtest, a decision support tool that decision makers explore management scenarios before committing to land-use changes.

Land use decision makers, from farm businesses to policymakers, need confidence that proposed changes will deliver results. FRAMEtest simulates how interventions like hedgerow restoration, wildflower strips, reduced pesticides, or organic conversion would affect biodiversity, ecosystem services and farm economics across multiple years. By visualising outcomes in advance, the tool reduces uncertainty and supports more sustainable land use decisions.

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From research to working tools

Ecological research has documented how farming practices influence biodiversity. Yet farmers and land managers struggle to translate this knowledge into concrete decisions suited to their circumstances, budget constraints and conservation priorities. FRAMEtest bridges this gap through three core components. An agent-based model simulates how individual farming decisions aggregate into landscape-scale biodiversity patterns, capturing realistic farmer behaviour and decision-making.

Machine learning modules trained on the model enable rapid scenario evaluation without computationally expensive simulations, making the tool accessible to practitioners. An ecosystem services calculator quantifies multiple benefits—pollination, pest control, water quality, soil carbon—alongside biodiversity outcomes, supporting nuanced decision-making that aligns conservation with farm profitability. You can look back at the development journey here.

Making complex models accessible

The virtual landscape generator creates realistic scenarios based on farm type, regional soils, climate and existing practices. Users input their land, current approaches and conservation goals, then explore intervention outcomes. The system visualises how different practices could affect biodiversity and farm economics across years. Farmers can compare scenarios not only by biodiversity gain but also by economic viability, soil health and carbon sequestration potential.

Farming decisions involve trade-offs—between conservation gain and economic viability, between soil health and carbon storage. FRAMEtest enables farmers to compare multiple intervention scenarios across multiple dimensions, supporting nuanced decision-making grounded in evidence. By placing evidence-informed decision-making directly in the hands of land managers, the tool democratises access to sophisticated ecological modelling. This approach is particularly valuable for cluster-level decisions, where effective coordination requires careful assessment of shared objectives and local conditions.

To watch a webinar on the tool on this site visit https://www.framework-biodiversity.eu/watch. To learn more about FRAMEtest and how to access the tool visit our Info Hub: https://recodo.io/page/frametest-decision-support-tool, read the report here: https://zenodo.org/records/17174569, and explore related project publications at: https://www.framework-biodiversity.eu/publications.