Biodiversity assessment in LCA: a validation at field and farm scale in eight European regions

Lüscher, Gisela; Nemecek, Thomas; Arndorfer, Michaela; Balázs, Katalin; Dennis, Peter; Fjellstad, Wendy; Friedel, Jürgen K.; Gaillard, Gérard; Herzog, Félix; Sarthou, Jean-Pierre; Stoyanova, S.; Wolfrum, Sebastian; Jeanneret, Philippe

doi:10.1007/s11367-017-1278-y

Cited by 21 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 34 publications

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“…From a natural science perspective, a method should have a clearly defined response variable. Many biodiversity LCIA methods refer to species diversity, including relatively broad methods like the one suggested by Lüscher et al [55]. In theory, a practitioner could commission a survey of an area used for a product system under scrutiny, and put any species-centric method to the test.…”

Section: Weaknesses Of the Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Valuing Biodiversity in Life Cycle Impact Assessment

et al. 2019

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In this article, the authors propose an impact assessment method for life cycle assessment (LCA) that adheres to established LCA principles for land use-related impact assessment, bridges current research gaps and addresses the requirements of different stakeholders for a methodological framework. The conservation of biodiversity is a priority for humanity, as expressed in the framework of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Addressing biodiversity across value chains is a key challenge for enabling sustainable production pathways. Life cycle assessment is a standardised approach to assess and compare environmental impacts of products along their value chains. The impact assessment method presented in this article allows the quantification of the impact of land-using production processes on biodiversity for several broad land use classes. It provides a calculation framework with degrees of customisation (e.g., to take into account regional conservation priorities), but also offers a default valuation of biodiversity based on naturalness. The applicability of the method is demonstrated through an example of a consumer product. The main strength of the approach is that it yields highly aggregated information on the biodiversity impacts of products, enabling biodiversity-conscious decisions about raw materials, production routes and end user products.

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Section: Weaknesses Of the Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Valuing Biodiversity in Life Cycle Impact Assessment

et al. 2019

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“…The ecosystem-based approach described earlier in the paper is the most effective tool to achieve integration for the sustainable management of agrosystems under climate change because it is based on the management of all ecosystem processes and services, thereby improving the ability of crops to maintain their yields [99][100][101]. This is to be done on a life cycle basis and has been successfully applied in the literature to agro-food systems (e.g., [134,135]) because it considers the interactions between resource use and potential impacts on biodiversity [136,137]. Finally, climate change impacts and resilience of agrosystems are highly dependent on local conditions (environmental, socio-economic, and management), which complicates the process of quantifying sustainable agriculture [138].…”

Section: Discussion and Recommendationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

How Can Sustainable Agriculture Increase Climate Resilience? A Systematic Review

Chami¹,

Daccache

Moujabber

2020

Sustainability

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In the last few decades, a great deal has been written on the use of sustainable agriculture to improve the resilience of ecosystem services to climate change. However, no tangible and systematic evidence exists on how this agriculture would participate in alleviating impacts on vulnerable rural communities. This paper provides a narrative systematic review (SR) integrated with a bibliometric analysis and a concept network analysis to determine how, in this changing climate, sustainable agriculture can increase the resilience of agrosystems. Our search ranged from the date of the first relevant article until the end of 2018. The results generated demonstrated the following: (a) Only single practices and methods have been studied to assess the impacts on single ecosystem services; (b) Soil quality and health are considered a key indicator of sustainable agriculture; (c) Although the assessed practices and methods were shown to improve the biodiversity of agrosystems, which makes them more resilient to extreme climate events, we are still far from developing interdisciplinary and multidimensional agriculture that integrates all management aspects and generates a full range of ecosystem services. In conclusion, this study addressed the following recommendations for the scientific community and policymakers to orient future research strategies and efforts: (a) The integration of all agrosystem services into sustainable management using an ecosystem-based approach on a life-cycle basis using the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) method; (b) Improving the scientific understanding of traditional knowledge to facilitate greater synergy and further integration; (c) The unification of assessment methods and indicators for the quantification of impacts; (d) The creation of a platform to share, monitor, screen, and approve assessments and evaluations of sustainable agriculture by region.

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“…This is to be done on a life cycle basis as it has been successfully used in the literature in the agro-food systems [e.g. 129,130] because it considers interactions between resources use and potential impacts on biodiversity [131,132]. Finally, climate change impacts and resilience of agro-systems are highly dependent on local conditions (environment, socio-economic and management), which complicates the process of quantification of sustainable agriculture [133].…”

Section: Discussion and Recommendationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

How Could Sustainable Agriculture Increase Climate Resilience? A Systematic Review

Chami¹,

Daccache²,

Moujabber³

2020

Preprint

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In the last few decades, a lot has been written on the use of sustainable agriculture to improve ecosystem services for resilience to climate change. However, no tangible and systematic evidence exists on how this would participate in alleviating impacts on vulnerable rural communities. This paper provides a narrative systematic review (SR) integrated with a bibliometric analysis and a concept network analysis to understand how, in a changing climate, sustainable agriculture builds the resilience of agro-systems. The search was set from the date of the first relevant article until the end of 2018. Results generated have demonstrated that: a. Only single practices and methods have been studied to assess impacts on single ecosystem services. b. Soil quality and health are considered a key indicator of sustainable agriculture. c. Albeit the assessed practices and methods have shown to improve the biodiversity of agro-systems, which makes them more resilient to extreme climate events, we are still far from reaching interdisciplinary and multi-dimensional agriculture which integrates all management aspects and generates a full range of ecosystem services. In conclusion, the study addressed the following recommendations for the scientific community and for decision-makers to orient future research strategies and efforts: a. Integration of all agro-systems services into sustainable management using an ecosystem-based approach on a life-cycle basis using Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) method; b. Improving the scientific understanding of traditional knowledge for higher synergies and for further integration; c. Unification of assessment methods and indicators for the quantification of impacts; d. Creation of a platform to share, monitor, screen, and approve assessments and evaluations of sustainable agriculture by region.

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Biodiversity assessment in LCA: a validation at field and farm scale in eight European regions

Cited by 21 publications

References 34 publications

Valuing Biodiversity in Life Cycle Impact Assessment

Valuing Biodiversity in Life Cycle Impact Assessment

How Can Sustainable Agriculture Increase Climate Resilience? A Systematic Review

How Could Sustainable Agriculture Increase Climate Resilience? A Systematic Review

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