Significance of the Finnish agri-environment support scheme for biodiversity and landscape (MYTVAS)
Background
The intensification of agricultural practices has caused a large-scale decline in farmland biodiversity in Finland. Since joining the EU in 1995, the common agricultural policy (CAP) of the EU has provided an essential means to stop and reverse this trend. It is implemented through the agri-environment support scheme, which offers the Finnish farmers a chance to apply for financial compensation for their actions that benefit the environment.
The Finnish agri-environment support scheme includes several obligatory and optional support measures. Most of these are aimed to reduce nutrient run-off from farms, while some are targeted to enhance biodiversity. The effectivity of these measures has been studied in the MYTVAS 2 -research project (2000-2006). It continues the environmental monitoring studies started in the first programme period (1995-1999).
MYTVAS 2 consists of two separate projects: the one described here concentrates on the effects on biodiversity and landscape ("Nature-Mytvas"), while the other one studies the effectivity of the support scheme in enhancing water and air quality ("Water-Mytvas"). Objectives
Nature-Mytvas aims to estimate the effects of the supported agri-environmental measures on farmland biodiversity and landscape. It also produces base line data on the level of biodiversity in ordinary Finnish agricultural areas on several taxa - birds, vascular plants, butterflies, day-active moths and bees. This creates a solid base for long-term monitoring of Finnish farmland biodiversity.
Nature-Mytvas is further divided into two major parts: a large-scale species monitoring project conducted on a group of randomly selected study sites, and several smaller case studies on the biodiversity effects of specific supported measures.
The project includes researchers from the Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE), the Finnish Game and Fisheries Research Institute (RKTL), the University of Helsinki (HY) and the Finnish University of Art and Design (TaiK). Monitoring the species and landscape of ordinary farmland areas
The central part of the project is monitoring the diversity of birds, vascular plants, butterflies, day-active moths and bees in ordinary agricultural areas. Changes in the overall landscape structure are also monitored on the same sites.
Inventories on the mentioned five taxa were conducted in 2001 and 2005 in a total of 58 randomly selected study areas (locations of the MYTVAS -study sites; see also Kuussaari et al. 2004 below). These 1 km2 squares were selected from four sampling areas in different parts of Southern Finland, where most of the agricultural land is concentrated. The graphs below briefly illustrate the study design. The aim is to continue to monitoring of both the species and the landscape structure also in the up-coming A-E -programme period of 2007-2013.
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Two examples of 1 km2 study squares. The upper figures show the 50 m long plant and insect transects (red lines) within two of the 0.25 km2 sampling subsquares. Bees were sampled with yellow-traps placed on two of these transects, while birds and habitat structure were surveyed from the whole 1 km2 area. The lower figures show the digitised habitat maps corresponding the aerial photographs above.
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Sub-projects
Several case studies have been conducted in order to evaluate the effectiveness of certain optional supported measures. The following studies were done in SYKE:
- Evaluation on the quality of the contract areas and their treatment: special supports for the maintenance of traditional rural habitats and other species-rich habitats
- Importance of the special support for traditional rural habitats in maintaining the flora of valuable semi-natural grasslands
- Responses of butterflies, moths and plants on restored cattle grazing in semi-natural grasslands
- Biodiversity effects of organic farming (RKTL)
- Monitoring visual landscapes (HY and TaiK)
Further information
- Project coordinator: Mr. Mikko Kuussaari, Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE), firstname.surname@ymparisto.fi.
Publications
- Kuussaari M., Heliölä J. & Luoto L. 2004. Farmland biodiversity indicators and monitoring in Finland. (PDF-file, 5,2 Mb)
- Pykälä, J. 2003. Effects of restoration with cattle grazing on plant species composition and richness on semi-natural grasslands. - Biodiversity and Conservation 12: 2211-2226.
- Pöyry, J., Lindgren, S., Salminen, J. & Kuussaari, M. 2004. Restoration of butterfly and moth communities in semi-natural grasslands by cattle grazing. - Ecological Applications 14: 1656-1670.
- Pöyry, J., Lindgren, S., Salminen, J. & Kuussaari, M. 2005. Responses of butterfly and moth species to restored cattle grazing in semi-natural grasslands. - Biological Conservation 122: 465-478.
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