Landscape ecology, functional biodiversity, on-farm nature management, green services, ecology, organic farming, IPM
| Keywords | Landscape ecology, functional biodiversity, on-farm nature management, green services, ecology, organic farming, IPM |
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| Convenor | ||
| Liaison-Officer | ||
| Structure | We aim at 30 to 50 participants from research (from fundamental to applied) who take turns in organizing workshops at 1.5-2 yearly intervals. During these workshops, local stakeholders will be invited to enhance interaction between research and society. |
| Background and Aim |
Prevention of crop attack by pests, diseases and weeds may be considered
at different hierarchical scales. While the field scale has traditionally
received much attention in strategic and applied research, the higher
hierarchical scales of farm and landscape or region
have only recently gained attention. Interdisciplinary research on issues
such as functional biodiversity and landscape connectivity demonstrates
that new options for pest control arise when systems management is approached
from farm and regional scales. In addition to providing exciting new tools,
this change in perspective is highly relevant in relation to the public
debate on organic and integrated farming, the role of agriculture in landscape
and nature management, and the increasing pressure on the rural areas
to provide urban populations with 'green services'. Research at the farm
and landscape scale requires inputs from a range of disciplines, such
as meteorology, molecular biology, populations genetics, agronomy and
landscape ecology. IOBC represents an excellent platform for stimulating
and facilitating such inter-disciplinary discussions in this relatively
young scientific field. |
| Activities |
The group meets in principle every other year to discuss research activities of its members. During each workshop a relevant local project is presented and discussed in greater detail. Results of the Working Group's activities are published in bulletins. The first meeting of the group was held in Bologna, from 11-14 May 2003. Local organizer was dr Giovanni Burgio. Over 60 participants from Europe attended, as well as a guest from New Zealand. The setting was the old centre of Bologna and its nearly 1000 year old University. A wide range of topics, appropriate for a first meeting, was presented in the course of 2 days. The role of senior research colleagues as moderators for each session turned out to result in a lively programme with strong input from the audience to discussions. The second meeting took place in Zürich-Reckenholz, from 16-19 May 2006. Venue was the beautifully situated main building of the Agroscope FAL Reckenholz. Local organizer were drs. Lisa Eggenschwiler and Katja Jacott. At the meeting, which was attended by some 65 researchers from all over Europe, recent research results were presented both on agro-ecological and landscape ecological topics, and on institutional aspects which are major determinants for success of Functional Biodiversity schemes. A special session was devoted to success stories which had been collected and analyzed before the meeting. The third meeting is planned to be held from 14-17 May 2008 at ENITAB in Bordeaux. Local organizers are drs Maarten van Helden, Guillaume Pain and Joséphine Pithon. An IOBC Bulletin will be created before the meeting, as has become practice in the group. |
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| Achievements |
IOBC/WPRS Bulletin Vol. 26(4), 2003, 220 pp., table of contents (PDF, 18 KB) |
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| Calendar |
Call for Papers for the Third meeting to be held from 14-17 May 2008 at ENITAB in Bordeaux. More details on the programme can be found here. |
