Quoted from www.MedicalNewsToday.com:

A new report written by staff from English Nature and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds reviewed 76 studies and found that there is more wildlife on organic farms than on conventional farms.

The report stresses that “the intensification and expansion of modern agriculture is amongst the greatest current threats to worldwide biodiversity. Over the last quarter of the twentieth century, dramatic declines in both range and abundance of many species associated with farmland have been reported in Europe… During the next 50 years, global agricultural expansion threatens to impact worldwide biodiversity on an unprecedented scale that may rival climate change in its significance”.

The report found that:
-- There are more birds, butterflies, beetles, bats and wild flowers on organic farms than conventional farms.

-- Many of these differences apply to species known to have experienced declines in range or abundance as a consequence of agricultural intensification, a significant number of which are now the subject of direct conservation action (e.g. skylark, lapwing, greater and lesser horseshoe bat, corn buttercup).

-- Organic management provides a clear advantage over agri-environment schemes because the farm as a whole is subject to organic standards, rather than limited areas under these schemes.

-- Organic farming could play a significant role in increasing wildlife across lowland farmland in Europe.

Peter Melchett, the Soil Association's Policy Director said: "The scientific case for the wildlife benefits of organic farming is now settled and beyond doubt. People feel powerless in the face of environmental disasters like the loss of wildlife from the British countryside over the last thirty years. Everyone assumes that reversing such destruction will be painful and unpleasant. Not any more. Anyone can enjoy fresh, tasty organic food from Britain, knowing that they are also helping British birds, bees, bats, beetles and butterflies.

“The results confirm what organic farmers have seen on their farms for decades: conversion to organic means more wildlife, a greater variety of wildlife, and more of the wildlife species that have declined on non-organic farms over the last 50 years. The results fully justify the Government's decision to pay organic farmers twice as much as non-organic farmers under the new agri-environment schemes to be launched next year.”

The Soil Association welcomes the publication of this review, which confirms the findings of a Soil Association report published in May 2000 (The Biodiversity Benefits of Organic Farming). The Soil Association report reviewed all the known studies that compared the levels of wildlife on organic and conventional farms and found that overall organic farms support substantially higher levels of wildlife in lowland areas, particularly of those wildlife groups which are declining.

The paper 'Does Organic Farming Benefit Biodiversity?' has been published electronically by the journal Biological Conservation and is available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2004.07.018.

For details about the Soil Association's report The Biodiversity Benefits of Organic Farming go to http://www.soilassociation.org/wildlife.

Key extracts from the EN/RSPB report (Soil Association emphasis):
p4 "During the next 50 years, global agricultural expansion threatens to impact worldwide biodiversity on an unprecedented scale that may rival climate change in its significance for the persistence of a panoply of species … A wealth of evidence now points to agricultural intensification as the principal cause of the widespread declines in European farmland bird populations..."

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