26 February 2025
Press Release
How can farmers, through their active participation, make insect conservation more effective? A research team is developing and testing measures to promote insect diversity in three agricultural regions of Germany in collaboration with practitioners. First results show that farmers actively contribute their own ideas and engage in the sustainable transformation of their landscapes. Many measures, such as perennial flower strips, more diverse crop rotation, planting hedges and strip cultivation, could only be implemented and realize their potential ecological impact in the landscape through this cooperative partnership. Many measures, such as perennial flower strips, more diverse crop rotation, planting hedges and strip cultivation, could only be implemented and realise their potential ecological impact in the landscape through this cooperative partnership. The Journal of Innovation Management has published a paper led by the Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research on the importance of working with farmers in the joint design and implementation process, and the lessons learned from the insect conservation project in Germany.
To make agricultural landscapes more insect-friendly, three so‑called landscape labs have been established in different regions of Germany. Landscape labs are large-scale experimental spaces where science, agriculture, and other regional stakeholders work together on sustainable solutions for the agricultural landscape. They allow innovative measures to be tested not only on individual fields but at the landscape level, and their long-term impacts to be analyzed.
The three landscape labs of the project are located in the following regions:
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Havelländisches Luch (Brandenburg): A moist lowland area with a high proportion of grassland and an extensive network of drainage ditches, used for both livestock and arable farming (maize, wheat, barley, and rapeseed). Here, farms and fields are on average larger than in the other regions.
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Elm (Lower Saxony): A hilly landscape dominated by arable farming with very heterogeneous soils and an average farm size of 180 ha. Mainly winter cereals and rapeseed are grown, along with many other field crops.
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Rottal (Bavaria): An agricultural landscape with fertile soils and small field sizes, strongly influenced by maize cultivation. Here, erosion due to heavy rainfall is a major challenge.
Increasing biodiversity together
The acceptance and implementation of more effective measures to promote insects by farmers is widely regarded in ecology as a “bottleneck” to more effective insect conservation. In a joint call, over 300 scientists worldwide have recently demanded not only better-designed measures and improved monitoring, but also a stronger involvement of farmers in developing these measures. In the three landscape labs of the FInAL project, led by the Braunschweig Thünen Institute, farmers work together with researchers to design more insect-friendly agricultural landscapes and production systems.
“Our goal is to actively involve farmers in the joint development and implementation of the measures,” explains
Dr. Maria Busse from ZALF. “They know best what works in practice. Through close collaboration, we can co-develop solutions that they are eager to try. This increases their identification with the project and the measures. The measures are selected so that they both provide habitat for insects and are economically viable.”
How Was the Collaboration Carried Out?
The research team employed a collaborative design process — so‑called “co‑design” — in which scientists, farmers, and other regional stakeholders jointly developed measures. This approach ensures that solutions arise not only from scientific input, as is often the case, but also from agricultural practice. The ideas and knowledge are linked in such a way that they create solutions that would not have been possible without this collaboration. Such a process requires a well‑thought‑out concept, extensive coordination, and scientific support to make successes visible and to adapt the process as needed. The following steps and methods were applied sequentially from development through testing to evaluation:
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Interviews: At the start of the project, farmers were interviewed about what motivates them to participate, their expectations, and the importance they assign to insects in the agricultural landscape.
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Workshops: In participatory workshops involving scientists, farmers, conservation organizations, municipal authorities, and agricultural advisory services, the goals for each landscape lab are jointly defined, challenges and potential solutions are discussed, and measures for the entire landscape are jointly developed and evaluated.
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Planning Meetings: Meetings with individual farmers complement the workshops to address specific needs.
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Experimental Areas in the Landscape Lab: In collaboration with researchers, farmers implement measures on their fields, for example, multi‑annual flowering strips, test flowering field crops, or switch to perennial cropping systems.
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Field Visits: These are especially popular among farmers, as they provide the best opportunity to exchange ideas with colleagues about the measures implemented and to generate new ideas.
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Participatory Mapping: In workshops, measures are mapped at the landscape level using both digital and analog tools to better understand their spatial impact.
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Reflection Rounds: Participants regularly evaluate the feasibility of the measures and adjust them to meet their needs. The entire design process is also regularly reviewed and refined.
“It is especially valuable for farmers that, in this project, agriculture, conservation, and science work together, creating new impulses that foster mutual learning and actively advance insect conservation. Our practitioner partners also greatly appreciate the opportunity to try out measures without financial risk, demonstrating their active commitment to insect conservation,” adds Dr. Busse.
Experimenting Under Real Conditions
Farmers rate the co‑design approach as flexible, constructive, and trust‑building. They have learned a lot about the needs of insects and how to implement insect‑friendly measures. However, there are still challenges in cooperating with other farmers, as they have to keep an eye on the profitability of their farms and have so far been less used to considering the ecological, cross-farm relationships in the landscape.
Such close collaboration between practice and science, according to Dr. Busse, is only possible if there is a designated contact person in each landscape lab to coordinate activities and interactions. It is also important in the long term to establish economically viable solutions that embed insect conservation in agricultural practice beyond the project.
“A trusting and long‑term cooperation—a stable network between agriculture, science, and administration that pursues common goals—is needed to achieve sustainable change,” adds Prof. Jens Dauber, project leaser and one of the co‑authors from Thünen Institute.
What Happens to the Results?
The findings from the landscape labs will now be made available to other actors in agricultural landscapes so that these measures can be implemented on a larger scale. Policy recommendations and guidelines for agriculture will be developed. It will also be examined whether the collaboration between practice and science in landscape labs is a transferable approach and how long‑term cooperation can be ensured.
Project Partners:
- Johann Heinrich from the Thünen Institute, Federal Research Institute for Rural Areas, Forest and Fisheries (Thünen Institute) – Project Leadership
- Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF) e. V.
- Julius‑Kühn‑Institut (JKI)
- Bayerische Landesanstalt für Landwirtschaft (LfL)
- Landwirtschaftskammer Niedersachsen (LWK Ni)
Funding:
This work was funded by the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL) via the Agency for Renewable Resources (FNR; Project Number 22012018) based on a decision of the German Parliament.
Further Information:
https://doi.org/10.24840/2183-0606_012.003_0012
