BURRASCANO, Sabina, Milan CHYTRÝ, Tobias KUEMMERLE, Eleonora GIARRIZZO, Sebastiaan LUYSSAERT, Francesco Maria SABATINI and Carlo BLASI. Current European policies are unlikely to jointly foster carbon sequestration and protect biodiversity. Biological Conservation. Elsevier, vol. 201, September, p. 370-376. ISSN 0006-3207. doi:10.1016/j.biocon.2016.08.005. 2016.
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Basic information
Original name Current European policies are unlikely to jointly foster carbon sequestration and protect biodiversity
Authors BURRASCANO, Sabina (380 Italy), Milan CHYTRÝ (203 Czech Republic, guarantor, belonging to the institution), Tobias KUEMMERLE (276 Germany), Eleonora GIARRIZZO (380 Italy), Sebastiaan LUYSSAERT (528 Netherlands), Francesco Maria SABATINI (380 Italy) and Carlo BLASI (380 Italy).
Edition Biological Conservation, Elsevier, 2016, 0006-3207.
Other information
Original language English
Type of outcome Article in a journal
Field of Study 10600 1.6 Biological sciences
Country of publisher United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Confidentiality degree is not subject to a state or trade secret
WWW URL
Impact factor Impact factor: 4.022
RIV identification code RIV/00216224:14310/16:00091612
Organization unit Faculty of Science
Doi http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2016.08.005
UT WoS 000384782800044
Keywords in English Afforestation; Carbon management; Climate change mitigation; Common Agricultural Policy; Grassland biodiversity; Habitats Directive
Tags AKR, rivok
Tags International impact, Reviewed
Changed by Changed by: Mgr. Lucie Jarošová, DiS., učo 205746. Changed: 13/3/2018 10:26.
Abstract
The extension of forest area is a globally accepted tool to offset CO2 emissions from deforestation and the combustion of fossil fuels. The common assumption is that in addition to the perceived climate benefits increasing forest area will also support biodiversity, thus making afforestation a “win-win scenario”. Based on the existing scientific evidences, we show that joined climate and biodiversity benefits are strongly context-dependent and that the outcome of afforestation is often highly questionable. In Europe, grasslands managed at low intensity contribute substantially to biodiversity conservation and carbon storage. However, many of these grasslands have been lost due to abandonment and subsequent spontaneous succession towards woody vegetation, or due to land use intensification. Moreover, grasslands are the ecosystems most often deliberately afforested in the context of EU carbon-centered policies that may thus counteract biodiversity conservation programmes. By reviewing the main EU policies targeting forests and grasslands, we found a striking ambivalence between policies and funding schemes addressing grassland conservation on the one hand (e.g. Habitats Directive, green payments within the Common Agricultural Policy) and those supporting afforestation on the other (e.g. rural development funds). We suggest three measures towards a better harmonization of the European Union policies that target forest and grassland ecosystems: (1) promoting the alignment of the decisions taken across different policy sectors; (2) focusing on the whole range of ecosystem services and biodiversity issues rather than on carbon management only; (3) valuing systems managed at low-intensity for their multifunctionality.
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