tailieunhanh - How effective are European agri-environment schemes in conserving and promoting biodiversity?

Over the period of study, the number of volumes in the HathiTrust Digital Library more than doubled, growing from about 3 million items to more than million items; the number of titles increased by 90%, from just over million titles in June 2009 to about million titles in June 2010. Growth was variable from month to month, ranging from a low of about 43,000 new titles in April 2010 to a high of more than 297,000 new titles in November 2009. On average, the number of unique titles in the database increased by about 6% each month | Journal of Applied REVIEW Ecology 2003 40 947-969 How effective are European agri-environment schemes in conserving and promoting biodiversity DAVID KLEIJN and WILLIAM J. SUTHERLANDf Nature Conservation and Plant Ecology Group Wageningen University Bornsesteeg 69 6708 PD Wageningen The Netherlands and Centre for Ecology Evolution and Conservation School of Biological Sciences University of East Anglia Norwich NR4 7TJ UK Summary 1. Increasing concern over the environmental impact of agriculture in Europe has led to the introduction of agri-environment schemes. These schemes compensate farmers financially for any loss of income associated with measures that aim to benefit the environment or biodiversity. There are currently agri-environment schemes in 26 out of 44 European countries. 2. Agri-environment schemes vary markedly between countries even within the European Union. The main objectives include reducing nutrient and pesticide emissions protecting biodiversity restoring landscapes and preventing rural depopulation. In virtually all countries the uptake of schemes is highest in areas of extensive agriculture where biodiversity is still relatively high and lowest in intensively farmed areas where biodiversity is low. 3. Approximately 24 3 billion has been spent on agri-environment schemes in the European Union EU since 1994 an unknown proportion of it on schemes with biodiversity conservation aims. We carried out a comprehensive search for studies that test the effectiveness of agri-environment schemes in published papers or reports. Only 62 evaluation studies were found originating from just five EU countries and Switzerland 5 . Indeed 76 of the studies were from the Netherlands and the United Kingdom where until now only c. 6 of the EU agri-environmental budget has been spent. Other studies were from Germany 6 Ireland 3 and Portugal 1 . 4. In the majority of studies the research design was inadequate to assess reliably the effectiveness of the schemes. .