Keeping track of biodiversity in agricultural landscapes: new roles for farmers and naturalists in pollinator monitoring

Lundquist, E., Öckinger, E., Mauchline, A. L. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1168-8552, Bartomeus, I., Edwards, S., WallisDeVries, M. F., Potts, S. G. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2045-980X, Ruck, A. and van der Wal, R. (2026) Keeping track of biodiversity in agricultural landscapes: new roles for farmers and naturalists in pollinator monitoring. People and Nature. ISSN 2575-8314 doi: 10.1002/pan3.70361 (In Press)

Abstract/Summary

1. The decline in biodiversity, particularly in agricultural landscapes, is a pressing global challenge. Monitoring is vital to assess biodiversity trends and conservation effectiveness, yet farmland remains underinvestigated. Engaging farmers and encouraging naturalists to take on new roles could help expand monitoring efforts and strengthen connections to biodiversity. 2. Framing biodiversity monitoring as a social practice rooted in naturalist communities, we consider how this practice is reconfigured when it enters a farming context. Drawing on case studies from Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom, we examine processes aimed at involving farmers in pollinator monitoring on farmland, through three modes of participant involvement: farmer-led, collaborative and naturalist-led, focusing on motivations, experiences and perceived impacts of participation. A joint survey, capturing experiences, ensured comparability of social data across studies. 3. While farmers were motivated to contribute to conservation and deepen their understanding of biodiversity, those engaging in the farmer-led mode struggled with the skills and technologies required for monitoring. Farmers who instead received feedback from naturalists valued this but expressed that they lacked time and knowledge to carry out independent monitoring. This suggests that although farmers are eager to learn about biodiversity on their land, they are unlikely to adopt naturalist roles at scale. Naturalists were motivated by a desire to share knowledge, support farmland biodiversity and learn more about farming systems. In one new initiative, naturalists emphasised knowledge-sharing but found building relationships with farmers difficult; in another more established monitoring network, they focused on expanding data coverage, acknowledging the time and effort required to engage meaningfully with farmers. These findings point to the importance of supportive structures to sustain farmer–naturalist collaboration. 4. Our study shows that participation in biodiversity monitoring fosters understanding between farmers and naturalists and strengthens pro-conservation attitudes among farmers. Monitoring becomes a learning process that reinforces farmers' openness to science and nature conservation and arms the collaboration with valuable local knowledge regarding land management. However, time constraints and steep learning curves remain key barriers for both groups. Unlocking the full potential of collaborative monitoring requires long-term investment in locally embedded facilitation, adaptive technologies and relationship-building.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://centaur.reading.ac.uk/id/eprint/130121
Identification Number/DOI	10.1002/pan3.70361
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Life Sciences > School of Agriculture, Policy and Development > Department of Sustainable Land Management > Centre for Agri-environmental Research (CAER)
Publisher	Wiley
Download/View statistics	View download statistics for this item