SHOWCASing synergies between agriculture, biodiversity and Ecosystem services to help farmers capitalising on native biodiversity.
About SHOWCASE
SHOWCASE is a European research project about sustainable farming. We are studying the role of biodiversity in agriculture, and testing ways to increase beneficial biodiversity, e.g. earthworms or pollinators. Farmland biodiversity is steeply declining throughout Europe. Society at large is increasingly concerned about this decline, as it includes iconic wildlife and cultural landscapes. Long-term monitoring of biodiversity across European countries is increasingly reliant on efforts by members of the public.
In the context of achieving the European goal of sustainable farming production, a bridge of knowledge between incentives of agricultural producers and biodiversity management practices is key. Various platforms allow people to volunteer biodiversity observations opportunistically, covering a wide range of species and habitats.
Yet, the unstructured and often closed nature of those data make it difficult to determine biodiversity trends, particularly when needing to appraise changes in land use in specific regions or landscape types. On this app, citizen scientists and famers can record and share their data from standardised counts. This will contribute to establish reliable biodiversity trends.
