More and more people outside and inside academic specialisms are becoming aware of the pressing need to halt dramatic losses in biodiversity worldwide.
The EU H2020 project, FRAMEwork is mounting an ambitious response to these critical problems.
The project will create a Biodiversity Sensitive Farming System that will encourage and enable farmers to conserve biodiversity, promote a rebalancing of agriculture in a way
that capitalises on the value of native biodiversity, and
improve the capacity of farming to deliver food and
nutritional security in the face of climate change, disease pandemics and other pressures on the system.
Engage
Research
Dr Paul van Rijn
University of Amsterdam (UVA) Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics (IBED)
Agroecologist and entomologist.
Dr Paul van Rijn's research focusses on predator-prey- plant interactions in systems where the predator is also feeding other (non-prey) food sources (omnivory). The aim of the research is to understand and improve the methods of biological and natural pest control. In his research, he combines experimentation with mathematical modelling and field observations. His recent research largely focuses on natural pest control in arable crops, and how field margin strips and more permanent habitats, providing floral resources and alternative prey for the predators, can be designed to maximise the performance of natural enemy populations. Also, the spatial arrangements of these habitats within the landscape are taken into account, mainly by modelling exercises. He is leader of a project at the arable cropping area of the Hoeksche Waard investigating -over a number of years- the various benefits of flower strips around arable field in terms of (terrestrial and aquatic) biodiversity, pest control and pollination.