Typology of Agricultural Land Systems to Support Tailored Agri-Environmental Schemes for Farmland Biodiversity: A Case Study from Germany

CONTEXTDespite considerable efforts, European conservation policy measures have largely failed to halt or reverse the decline of farmland biodiversity. To effectively mitigate pressures from agricultural intensification on biodiversity, conservation measures - such as agri-environmental schemes - should be tailored based on spatially explicit land system classifications that account for the interdependencies between agricultural land use and biodiversity. However, such classifications remain lacking.OBJECTIVEUsing Germany as a case study, we present a spatially explicit typology of agricultural land systems for tailoring biodiversity-focused agri-environmental schemes.METHODSWe applied a participatory, cluster-based methodology to identify patterns of agricultural land systems. The typology was derived from indicators of land cover, landscape structure, land-use intensity of different production systems, climate and topography. Experts from agriculture, conservation, and administration contributed to refining both the indicators and clustering results.RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONSClustering revealed eight distinct agricultural land system types in Germany, including arable cash crop-dominated, animal husbandry-dominated, and mosaic land-use agricultural land system types. Each type represents a characteristic combination of indicators, offering key insights into pressures on farmland biodiversity. Using the typology, we discuss entry points for tailoring of agri-environmental schemes to effectively reduce pressures on biodiversity.SIGNIFICANCEThe typology can help to increase the ecological effectiveness of agri-environmental schemes by tailoring them to the specific properties of agricultural land systems. The methodological approach presented here can be applied in other countries or scaled beyond the national level.