An indicator to monitor farmland biodiversity in OECD countries

The OECD uses a wide range of agri-environmental indicators to monitor effects of the agricultural sector on the environment. However, the only indicator of farmland biodiversity is the farmland bird index, and this is not reported by all member states. Therefore, work is ongoing to design a more general indicator of farmland biodiversity that can be reported by all member states.

There are many challenges in creating an indicator that can be applied across all OECD countries. These countries have very diverse farming systems, land ownership, climate, biophysical conditions, and species pools. In addition, there are big differences in the type and amount of data available with which to calculate an indicator. Some countries already have monitoring programmes, tailored to their specific national needs and priorities. It may be challenging to harmonize reporting across countries, when data are collected in different ways and from different sources.

As a first step, the OECD published in 2023 guidelines for the development of an OECD farmland habitat biodiversity indicator (https://doi.org/10.1787/09d45d55-en). The aim is to calculate an indicator based on all agricultural habitats within a country, both those of high nature value, but also the ordinary and those that are currently of very low value.

In 2024, several countries are testing calculation of the indicator using national data. This presentation will describe the proposed indicator and share experiences from work to calculate the indicator for Norway.