IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/agisys/v173y2019icp424-434.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Ecological-economic modelling to compare the impact of organic and conventional farming on endangered grassland bird and butterfly species

Author

Listed:
  • Gerling, Charlotte
  • Sturm, Astrid
  • Wätzold, Frank

Abstract

We applied an ecological-economic modelling procedure to analyse the impact of organic versus conventional management of meadows on endangered bird and butterfly species in Saxony, Germany. Applying the modelling procedure enables us to focus on two aspects that hitherto have been neglected in analysing the impact of organic farming on biodiversity. (1) Possible differences in the timing of land use between organic and conventional farming, and (2) differences in the uptake of agri-environment schemes (AES) by organic and conventional farmers. We found that for the species considered the difference in the impact of conventional and organic farming is minor, because in our case study region the timing of land use on most areas with organic farming is very similar to the timing on areas with conventional farming. We also found that in comparison with conventional farmers, organic farmers generally face lower opportunity costs when implementing AES measures. Additionally, organic farmers are offered lower payments for such measures. These factors influence organic farmers' decisions to take part in AES, which in turn has an important impact on biodiversity conservation. In order to better conserve species it may be necessary to adapt the payment structure of AES with respect to organic farming.

Suggested Citation

  • Gerling, Charlotte & Sturm, Astrid & Wätzold, Frank, 2019. "Ecological-economic modelling to compare the impact of organic and conventional farming on endangered grassland bird and butterfly species," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 173(C), pages 424-434.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:agisys:v:173:y:2019:i:c:p:424-434
    DOI: 10.1016/j.agsy.2019.02.016
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0308521X18303913
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.agsy.2019.02.016?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Mewes, Melanie & Drechsler, Martin & Johst, Karin & Sturm, Astrid & Wätzold, Frank, 2015. "A systematic approach for assessing spatially and temporally differentiated opportunity costs of biodiversity conservation measures in grasslands," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 137(C), pages 76-88.
    2. Frank Wätzold & Martin Drechsler & Karin Johst & Melanie Mewes & Astrid Sturm, 2016. "A Novel, Spatiotemporally Explicit Ecological-economic Modeling Procedure for the Design of Cost-effective Agri-environment Schemes to Conserve Biodiversity," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 98(2), pages 489-512.
    3. Sturm, Astrid & Drechsler, Martin & Johst, Karin & Mewes, Melanie & Wätzold, Frank, 2018. "DSS-Ecopay – A decision support software for designing ecologically effective and cost-effective agri-environment schemes to conserve endangered grassland biodiversity," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 161(C), pages 113-116.
    4. Johst, Karin & Drechsler, Martin & Watzold, Frank, 2002. "An ecological-economic modelling procedure to design compensation payments for the efficient spatio-temporal allocation of species protection measures," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(1), pages 37-49, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Timothy C. Durham & Tamás Mizik, 2021. "Comparative Economics of Conventional, Organic, and Alternative Agricultural Production Systems," Economies, MDPI, vol. 9(2), pages 1-22, April.
    2. Gerling, Charlotte & Strum, Astrid & Wätzold, Frank, 2020. "The impact of climate change on the profit-maximising timing of grassland use and conservation costs," MPRA Paper 102945, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Gerling, Charlotte & Drechsler, Martin & Keuler, Klaus & Sturm, Astrid & Wätzold, Frank, 2022. "Time to consider the timing of conservation measures: designing cost-effective agri-environment schemes under climate change," MPRA Paper 113877, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Markova-Nenova, Nonka & Wätzold, Frank & Sturm, Astrid, 2020. "Distributional Impacts of Cost-effective Spatially Homogeneous and Regionalized Agri-Environment Payments. A case study of a Grassland Scheme in Saxony, Germany," MPRA Paper 104759, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Gerling, Charlotte & Sturm, Astrid & Wätzold, Frank, 2017. "The impact of organic farming on endangered birds and butterflies: applying an ecological-economic model," MPRA Paper 83290, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Bartkowski, Bartosz & Droste, Nils & Ließ, Mareike & Sidemo-Holm, William & Weller, Ulrich & Brady, Mark V., 2021. "Payments by modelled results: A novel design for agri-environmental schemes," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 102(C).
    5. Hao, Zhengzheng & Sturm, Astrid & Wätzold, Frank, 2020. "A novel spatially explicit hydro-economic modelling procedure to design cost-effective agri-environment schemes for mitigating nitrogen and phosphorus from agricultural land," MPRA Paper 102860, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Sturm, Astrid & Drechsler, Martin & Johst, Karin & Mewes, Melanie & Wätzold, Frank, 2018. "DSS-Ecopay – A decision support software for designing ecologically effective and cost-effective agri-environment schemes to conserve endangered grassland biodiversity," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 161(C), pages 113-116.
    7. Gerling, Charlotte & Drechsler, Martin & Keuler, Klaus & Leins, Johannes A. & Radtke, Kai & Schulz, Björn & Sturm, Astrid & Wätzold, Frank, 2021. "Cost-effective conservation in the face of climate change: combining ecological-economic modelling and climate science for the cost-effective spatio-temporal allocation of conservation measures in agr," MPRA Paper 105608, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. Gerling, Charlotte & Drechsler, Martin & Keuler, Klaus & Leins, Johannes A. & Radtke, Kai & Schulz, Björn & Sturm, Astrid & Wätzold, Frank, 2021. "Modelling the cost-effective spatio-temporal allocation of conservation measures in agricultural landscapes facing climate change," VfS Annual Conference 2021 (Virtual Conference): Climate Economics 242352, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    9. Langhammer, Maria & Thober, Jule & Lange, Martin & Frank, Karin & Grimm, Volker, 2019. "Agricultural landscape generators for simulation models: A review of existing solutions and an outline of future directions," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 393(C), pages 135-151.
    10. Gerling, Charlotte & Strum, Astrid & Wätzold, Frank, 2020. "The impact of climate change on the profit-maximising timing of grassland use and conservation costs," MPRA Paper 102945, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    11. Gerling, Charlotte & Schöttker, Oliver & Hearne, John, 2022. "Irreversible and partly reversible investments in the optimal reserve design problem: the role of flexibility under climate change," MPRA Paper 112089, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    12. Schöttker, Oliver & Wätzold, Frank, 2017. "Cost-effectiveness of buying land for conservation versus paying land-users for conservation measures – the case of preserving an oligotrophic lake in a Natura 2000 area in North Germany," MPRA Paper 80661, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    13. Paulus, Anne & Hagemann, Nina & Baaken, Marieke C. & Roilo, Stephanie & Alarcón-Segura, Viviana & Cord, Anna F. & Beckmann, Michael, 2022. "Landscape context and farm characteristics are key to farmers' adoption of agri-environmental schemes," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 121(C).
    14. Markova-Nenova, Nonka & Engler, Jan O. & Cord, Anna F. & Wätzold, Frank, 2023. "A Cost Comparison Analysis of Bird-Monitoring Techniques for Result-Based Payments in Agriculture," MPRA Paper 116311, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    15. Eppink, Florian V. & van den Bergh, Jeroen C.J.M., 2007. "Ecological theories and indicators in economic models of biodiversity loss and conservation: A critical review," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(2-3), pages 284-293, March.
    16. Drechsler, Martin & Watzold, Frank, 2007. "The optimal dynamic allocation of conservation funds under financial uncertainty," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(2-3), pages 255-266, March.
    17. Sturm, Astrid & Schöttker, Oliver & Kadir, Karmand & Wätzold, Frank, 2024. "SMIBe – Konzept eines softwarebasiertes Mehrebenen-Informationssystem für Behörden zur digitalen Erfassung und Evaluierung von beweidungsbezogenen AUKM ["SMIBe – Concept of a software-based mu," MPRA Paper 119741, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    18. Wätzold, Frank & Drechsler, Martin, 2014. "Agglomeration payment, agglomeration bonus or homogeneous payment?," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 85-101.
    19. Schonhart, Martin & Schauppenlehner, Thomas & Schmid, Erwin, 2010. "Integrated land use modelling of agri-environmental measures to maintain biodiversity at landscape level," 120th Seminar, September 2-4, 2010, Chania, Crete 109401, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
    20. Lehmann, Paul & Schleyer, Christian & Wüstemann, Henry & Drechsler, Martin & Hagedorn, Konrad & Wätzold, Frank, 2005. "Promoting the multifunctionality of agriculture, forestry, and rural areas - design and implementation of public policies in Germany," UFZ Discussion Papers 12/2005, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ), Division of Social Sciences (ÖKUS).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:agisys:v:173:y:2019:i:c:p:424-434. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/agsy .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.