Agri-environmental measures at European and state level, as well as landscape and nature conservation measures in special landscape management programs, have been implemented by many farms for years; in addition, there is experience with traditional forms of use that are important for nature conservation. Thus, farmers have a lot of experiential knowledge, which includes a close observation of agricultural practices and their effects on biodiversity. While some farmers have such profound knowledge to promote biodiversity, there are others who lack it and do little to conserve and promote biodiversity on their land due to a lack of knowledge or a perception of risk. For them, other farmers could serve as points of reference, role models or advisors. With its peer-to-peer approach, the Demo-Network Biodiversity planned by the MLR with 44 farms forms the ideal basis for a systematic analysis of the importance of farmers' experiential knowledge and, based on this, for answering the question of the extent to which a leverage effect for the promotion of biodiversity farms can be achieved by integrating the experiential knowledge of agricultural practice.
The aim of the PhD project is to identify a set of biodiversity measures that cause the least harm and effort for farms in different situations and natural contexts from an economic and labor management point of view, and at the same time have a maximum possible benefit for biodiversity.
