On 12 and 13 May 2022, the Agricultural Economics Society of Ireland (AESI) held its conference at the National University of Ireland, Galway. This two-day conference discussed topics, such as the drivers of sustainability at farm level, climate-friendly agriculture and economic and social drivers of farm succession. During the conference, the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, represented by Verena Scherfranz, gave an overview of SHOWCASE’s findings on farmers’ perceptions of different stakeholders in the context of biodiversity management.

SHOWCASE is working on identifying the most relevant experts influencing biodiversity-friendly practices in order to compose a comprehensive characterisation of the main determinants in the adoption of sustainable farming management. To this end, the project is conducting farmer consultations, which show that a number of private, public and community stakeholders have an influence on farmers’ pro-environmental decision-making. As a next step, identifying the most positively perceived of them and further involving them in the decision-making process could help create more powerful biodiversity initiatives.

Photo: Verena Scherfranz delivering a presentation.