Wildlife 'does better on reserves'

Wildlife is better protected on reserves and parks than nature-friendly farms, according to a controversial new study.

The findings are at odds with current conservation policy in Europe, where farmers are encouraged to help wild birds and animals feel at home on their land.

They suggest that "land-sharing" measures such as maintaining hedgerows, ringing fields with wild flowers, creating "beetle banks" and setting aside sites for ground-nesting birds may not be the most effective way to preserve wildlife. Instead, separating land for crops and nature might be a better way to balance food production and conservation.

Scientists from Cambridge University and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSBP) collected data on more than 600 land species in south-west Ghana and northern India. Demand for agricultural land is placing ever more pressure on wild species in these regions.

The researchers measured crop production as well as the abundance of birds and trees in forests and various types of farmland. They discovered that, for most species, populations could be increased by restricting the size of farms while protecting as much natural forest as possible.

Farms that retained some natural vegetation to encourage wildlife had far lower yields per hectare than intensive "monocultures" of oil palm, rice or wheat. Yet in terms of wildlife conservation, they could not compete with natural forests.

"As well as requiring more land to produce the same amount of food, the 'wildlife-friendly' farmlands were not as wildlife-friendly as they first appeared," said Dr Ben Phalan, from Cambridge University, who led the research, published in the journal Science.

In the UK and the rest of the EU, farmers already receive Common Agricultural Policy (Cap) subsidies that encourage wildlife conservation. Currently these are given under voluntary schemes in addition to the basic direct Cap payments. But under new European Commission proposals, from 2013 all subsidies could be tied to some level of wildlife preservation.

Martin Harper, conservation director at the RSPB, said: "Land-sparing is a very different approach to the European model - underpinned by the Common Agricultural Policy - which sees conservation measures promoted across our farmed countryside.

"This paper in Science suggests that unless the proposed green measures really deliver significant and lasting environmental benefits it would be better to use this money directly on nature reserves and saving threatened species."

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