‘Understanding and predicting the effects of landscapes of practices on biological regulation’
The mobilization of territorial levers (semi-natural habitats, phytosanitary pressure, and crop diversity) can promote biological control and reduce the use of pesticides, but scientific uncertainties surrounding this issue have greatly limited the spread of this idea among the agricultural profession. PREPARE aims to work with local stakeholders to develop a precise analysis of the effects of different combinations of territorial levers on the biological control of pests. The project is based on five study areas (120 landscapes), including part of the Lower Durance Valley Workshop Zone. These areas have been monitored annually since 2014 for biological control, agricultural management, and landscape properties. PREPARE will develop a dynamic statistical analysis of the relationships between territorial levers and regulation based on annual data collected between 2014 and 2020. At the same time, it will develop a spatially explicit simulation tool to visualize scenarios of landscape changes and their effects on regulation and pesticide use. An initial participatory workshop will enable the co-construction of scenarios for mobilizing combinations of territorial levers with the aim of reducing pesticide use, together with local stakeholders in each study area. A second workshop will be dedicated to analyzing, together with local stakeholders, the effects of these scenarios on regulation and pesticide use levels.
AFB funding 2019-2022
