Ongoing Projects

Evaluating agricultural and food policies leading to transformation pathways towards a biodiversity-friendly land-use and food system (BEATLE)

Biodiversity loss, particularly in agricultural landscapes, calls for a transformation of our land-use and food systems. Policymakers are responding with various agricultural and food policy reforms and targets. However, suitable methods for assessing the potential environmental, economic and social impacts of these measures are lacking. Researchers and practitioners also need to agree on what constitutes a biodiversity-friendly land-use and food system and how it can be achieved.

This is where the BEATLE junior research group comes in. It aims to generate sound knowledge to support the transition towards biodiversity-friendly land-use and food systems. Using Germany as a case study, transformation scenarios will be developed together with stakeholders and assessed through model simulations. These scenarios will reflect both national and local narratives and consider the range of agricultural and food policy instruments available at EU and national levels.

The scenarios will be simulated using an ecological-economic model to quantify the environmental, economic and social impacts of biodiversity-friendly policies. In addition, the potential of non-governmental instruments to enhance biodiversity locally, such as citizen-funded conservation agreements, will be explored qualitatively. Together with stakeholders, these instruments will be assessed for their feasibility, barriers to implementation and factors contributing to success.
Transformation pathways will be identified based on the joint assessment of the scenarios and instruments. The project’s findings will be translated into options for societal action and policy recommendations and disseminated through the participating stakeholders and policy briefs.

Strengthening Pathways for Alternative socio-economic models to Realise biodiversity-positive and just futures (SPARK4B+)

The project examines how alternative socioeconomic approaches and forms of governance can contribute to protecting and restoring biodiversity while enabling a more equitable future. Together with practitioners, the project develops and tests concrete pathways for this transformation.

The University of Hohenheim leads the German case study in Hohenlohe. It focuses on how farms and other stakeholders can jointly plan and coordinate their biodiversity measures to improve habitat connectivity in agricultural landscapes.

Hohenheim Model Framework for Ecological-Economic Policy Evaluation (HOPE)

The project develops a spatially high-resolution, sectorally detailed ecological-economic modelling framework for Germany’s agricultural and food system. It aims to analyse biodiversity loss in agricultural landscapes and assess the effectiveness of policy measures, taking into account the supply of and demand for organic and conventional food. To this end, ecological, land-use and economy-wide models are further developed and integrated using data- and computationally intensive methods.

Doctoral Programme HABIT Leverage points for the transformation of agricultural landscapes (HABIT)

In peripheral regions, extensive land use shapes large parts of the landscape. Traditional, low-intensity livestock pastures in upland regions and the Alps are particularly important. Their significance varies across regions, both as a direct source of income and through their indirect contribution to preserving landscape character and biodiversity. From a nature conservation perspective, these extensively grazed pastures support exceptional biodiversity. As agriculture has intensified, farmers’ interest in using such areas for production has declined. However, preserving their scenic and conservation value requires at least some agricultural management, which must be embedded in the socioeconomic context and the agricultural policy support framework. This issue is rarely examined through scenarios that account for both economic and ecological dynamics; where such analyses exist, they are generally limited to specific local contexts because of the effort involved. Adaptive responses in peripheral regions, particularly those involving extensively grazed pastures and their ecological and socioeconomic dynamics, have so far received insufficient attention in agricultural policy modelling.

This doctoral research project therefore aims to link computer simulations of vegetation dynamics in extensively grazed pasture areas with socioeconomic and agricultural policy modelling.