Farming and Biodiversity

• How can we increase biodiversity?


  Maintain and plant hedgerows, create ponds to provide food and habitats for plant and animal species.

  Do not drain fields, cut verges and reduce chemical use.

  Native tree planting.

  Crop rotation with nitrogen fixing crop.

  Natural meadows for hay instead of grain silage.

  Increase field margins where chemicals are not applied.
• What in farming has led to reduction in habitats and species diversity?


  Removal of hedgerows and woodlands,

  Creating monocultures,

  Filling in ponds, draining marsh and wetlands,

  Overgrazing.
• What is creating monocultures?


  Replacing natural meadows with cereal crops or grass for silage.
• How has Farming reduced Biodiversity?

  Improved genetic varieties of plants and animals.

  Greater use of chemicals, fertilizers or pesticides (polluting rivers)

  Large farms and conservation of land into farmland (lack of crop rotation)