24/01/2019
A study
has found that ‘land sparing’ – the setting aside of land for biodiversity
conservation – could revitalise certain British species. Andrew Balmford, a
professor of conservation science at the University of Cambridge, and a team of
researchers compiled the data, which shows that more intensive farming might
free up more land, creating the opportunity for rewilding greater areas of
countryside. This, in turn, could generate significant increases in populations
of some farmland birds.
The research lays out how farming intensively to increase yields while turning
over much larger areas of farmland to wildlife would – if combined with actions
to cut wastage and meat consumption – meet Britain's demand for food, while
simultaneously more than doubling the populations of breeding birds. The
findings were presented at a rewilding conference organised by the Cambridge
Conservation Forum, with Balmford and his team studying food production and
birdlife on the Cambridgeshire Fens in order to understand how larger amounts
of farmland could be given to wildlife.
In order
to meet Britain's growing demand for food, it's been estimated that farmed land
must increase by almost a third in the next 30 years – a figure that means
increasing yields is inevitable. If wastage and meat consumption were reduced
significantly, less intensive and wildlife-friendly farming could take place on
current farmed land in various ways, with 5 per cent spared for nature. The
research suggests 101 species would increase by some 50 per cent as a result.
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