Abstract
Within the scope of the new Common Agricultural Policy of the European Union, in coherence with other EU policies, new incentives are developed for farmers to deploy practices that are beneficial for climate, water, soil, air, and biodiversity. Such practices include establishment of multifunctional biomass production systems, designed to reduce environmental impacts while providing biomass for food, feed, bioenergy, and other biobased products. Here, we model three scenarios of large-scale deployment for two such systems, riparian buffers and windbreaks, across over 81,000 landscapes in Europe, and quantify the corresponding areas, biomass output, and environmental benefits. The results show that these systems can effectively reduce nitrogen emissions to water and soil loss by wind erosion, while simultaneously providing substantial environmental co-benefits, having limited negative effects on current agricultural production. This kind of beneficial land-use change using strategic perennialization is important for meeting environmental objectives while advancing towards a sustainable bioeconomy.
Highlights
Within the scope of the new Common Agricultural Policy of the European Union, in coherence with other EU policies, new incentives are developed for farmers to deploy practices that are beneficial for climate, water, soil, air, and biodiversity
To decarbonize the energy system, the EU will, e.g., prioritize solutions based on sustainable bioenergy that needs to comply with sustainability criteria[7]; (ii) the Biodiversity Strategy for 20308 includes general goals for the protection and restoration of nature and biodiversity, requiring high-diversity landscape features on at least 10% of the agricultural area; and (iii) the Farm to Fork Strategy[9] aims to promote the transition to sustainable food production
The results show that multifunctional biomass production systems in the form of energy crop cultivations, designed and utilised as riparian buffers and windbreaks, can lead to substantial environmental benefits with limited negative effects on current agricultural production
Summary
Within the scope of the new Common Agricultural Policy of the European Union, in coherence with other EU policies, new incentives are developed for farmers to deploy practices that are beneficial for climate, water, soil, air, and biodiversity. We model the implementation of multifunctional riparian buffers, with the primary objective to reduce nitrogen emissions to water, and windbreaks, with the primary objective to reduce soil loss by wind erosion, in over 81,000 landscapes in Europe (i.e., EU27 + UK), aiming to quantify resulting ecosystem services and environmental benefits, considering three deployment scenarios with different incentives for implementation.
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary 
Published Version (
Free)
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
