Biodiversity management can actively support the processes farmers rely on to remain productive – from enhancing natural pest control and pollination by attracting beneficial insects, to improving soil health through nutrient recycling. Yet many dominant agricultural practices, such as monoculture and the excessive use of chemical pesticides and fertilisers, still work against biodiversity and can even be detrimental. To encourage a transition away from these approaches, farmers need clear, field-based evidence of both the costs and the benefits of biodiversity-friendly management.

This was the central aim of the EU-funded SHOWCASE project, which is now the subject of a dedicated feature article on CORDIS, the European Commission’s research and innovation results platform. The article presents the project’s findings and lessons learned from large-scale field testing across Europe, showing how biodiversity management can deliver real benefits for both nature and farm productivity.

Working hand in hand with farmers, SHOWCASE tested a wide range of biodiversity management strategies in real farming conditions. “We wanted to show the whole picture, to better understand why so few farmers have adopted biodiversity measures and show what needs to be done,” explains project coordinator David Kleijn from Wageningen University in the Netherlands.

Boosting biodiversity, strengthening productivity

SHOWCASE established networks of farmers, advisors, local communities and researchers across 11 Experimental Biodiversity Areas in 10 European countries. The results were consistent: nature-friendly farming boosted biodiversity everywhere it was tested.

In Hungary, for example, pollinator-friendly practices such as sowing native wildflowers increased populations of wild bees, hoverflies and butterflies. These wildflower fields proved especially important in late summer, when arable landscapes offer few other floral resources. In the United Kingdom, meanwhile, cover crops planted to protect soil over winter delivered major gains, with 26 % more spiders and 53 % more earthworms recorded in cover-cropped plots.

These and many other findings are brought together in the project handbook ‘Farming with Biodiversity’, a practical, evidence-based guide for farmers, advisors and policymakers translated in 11 European languages.

Understanding what drives farmers’ decisions

Beyond ecological impacts, the project also explored what motivates farmers and what holds them back. “In France, we looked at whether managing grasslands to produce more flowers could improve sunflower yield,” says Kleijn. While flower-rich grassland did attract more bees and increase pollination, a key conclusion was that financial support is critical to make such measures viable.

“What we found was that while many farmers are interested in biodiversity, they also see a number of barriers,” Kleijn notes. “These include a lack of advice on switching to more sustainable practices, and a lack of funding mechanisms.” Other challenges ranged from concerns about peer perceptions to questions about whether biodiversity measures fit prevailing ideas of what ‘good farming’ looks like. “We found that trust was really important,” he adds.

Recognition and rewards for conservation management

The project’s findings also point to the need for better communication and better incentives. SHOWCASE has produced a wide range of awareness-raising materials, from fact sheets on biodiversity and food security to guidance on free and effective pest control solutions.

Another central message highlighted in the CORDIS feature is that farmers need to be better recognised and rewarded for conservation management. “If society wants farmers to embrace biodiversity and still compete in the global market, then society needs to pay them,” says Kleijn.

He also points to the role of other actors, including the food industry, in supporting biodiversity-friendly farming systems. “The EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive is really helpful in this respect,” Kleijn adds. “If we can make biodiversity management more competitive, this will attract more farmers to conservation.”

SHOWCASE also referenced in CORDIS Results Pack on nature-based solutions

In addition to the dedicated CORDIS feature article, SHOWCASE is also referenced in a new CORDIS Results Pack on nature-based solutions (NbS) for sustainable farming. In this publication, SHOWCASE appears alongside many other EU-funded projects and is cited specifically for its extensive field experiments and its work on assessing the full costs and benefits of biodiversity management strategies.

The Results Pack presents a broader landscape of research on agroecology, agroforestry, soil health, crop diversity and digital tools for biodiversity-friendly farming.

Image created on Canva and used photo from project partner Elena Velado-Alonso