Indicators used for assessment of the ecological dimension of sustainable arable farming – review

VALTÝNIOVA, S., KŘEN, J.: Indicators used for assessment of the ecological dimension of sustainable arable farming – review. Acta univ. agric. et silvic. Mendel. Brun., 2011, LIX, No. 3, pp. 247–256 Our study off ers: • A review of basic indicators important for sustainability assessment of arable farming (balance of nutrients, organic matter and energy, pesticide use, biodiversity and soil protection); • A review and way of expression of the most frequent indicators for assessment of the above characters and impact of farming on the environment including the methods for a complex assessment of agricultural enterprises in which individual indicators have been used; • A knowledge and practical experience of using of the indicators for assessment in agricultural enterprises. indicators, agrosystem sustainability Sustainable management poses on three bases: ecological, economic and social of which the ecological plays a key role. Economy is automatically concerned as a crucial factor as without economy no agricultural business can survive even for a short period. However, man unconditionally needs natural resources for all his activities, development and food production. Degradation or destruction of natural resources cannot be replaced by expending any amount of money – see the concept of strong sustainability (Scasný et al., 2002; Neumayer, 2002). This does not only mean space and raw materials but also services or functions that the natural ecosystems off er (The Ministry of Environment, 2003). However, this is a long-term issue, observable in the time frame of decades or centuries. Therefore, it is not o en taken into account by a farmer, and thus monitoring of the adequate behaviour and motivation from the outside is needed. The manifestation of the increasing negative impacts of human activities, to signifi cant extent particularly of agriculture, gave birth to considerations of sustainability at the beginning of the 20th century, and in a society-wide measure since the 1960s. Therefore, at fi rst the assessment of the ecological aspect of sustainability was developed, and the indicators and methods comprising economic and social matters were gradually added later (Rosnoblet et al., 2006). Payraudeau and van der Werf (2005) state that from the environmental viewpoint, agricultural activity is sustainable if the produced polluting emissions, and range and way of exploitation of natural resources can be in the long term ensured through the natural environment. Thus, determination of the environmental impact of agriculture represents the fi rst step in the overall assessment of agricultural sustainability. Agricultural research is aware of the importance of agrosystem sustainability and the need to develop suitable ways of its measurement (Tellarini, Caporali, 2000). For this purpose, diff erent indicators have been developed in order to cover the need for tools in the assessment of impacts on the environment (Bockstaller, Girardin, 2003). 248 S. Valtýniova, J. Křen As mentioned by Halberg et al. (2005), Green Accounts or Input-Output Accounting systems (IOAs) have been developed in the countries with intensive agricultural production in order to support voluntary relation improvement and activities of farms with regard to the environment. It is typical for IOAs to use a set of indicators for expression of the level of environmental impact. One of the reasons for support and interest of IOAs in individual countries and at EU level seems to be the hypothesis that such voluntary systems for environmental improvement of farms can supplement the obligatory regulations, and that farmers can compare themselves one with the other. Together with the use of indicators, this will enhance their awareness of possible environmental improvements. It might be better to stimulate the farmers to be “managers of their own interaction“ between the production and environment rather than to force them to obey current rules and restrictions. According to Halberg et al. (2005), the farmer is, from the agrosystem viewpoint, the key to improving interaction management between agricultural enterprises and the environment, and given the right advise, he might be able to fi nd locally adapted improvements. The objective of our study is the characterisation and review of indicators employed for the environmental (concerned also as bio-physical or agronomic) sphere of the sustainability assessment of management of arable land. METHODS AND INDICATORS The methods for sustainability assessment of agricultural enterprises have been developed since the 1990s. The most frequently used means for the assessment are sets of indicators. These enable a comprehensible presentation even of complex phenomena. Rosnoblet et al. (2006) identifi ed 150 such methods in their research. They further found that the prevailing assessed aspect of the analyzed methods is impact on the environment. The assessment is most o en carried out at the agricultural enterprise level (in about half of the methods) and at higher organizational levels (region and country). The number of indicators range between 4 and 200 per method (median equals to 15) at which the most frequent way of indicator aggregation is their sum or arithmetic mean. Of this number, 55 so called Input-Output Accounting systems (IOAs) have been identifi ed in Europe (Goodlas et al., 2003; Halberg et al., 2005). These systems take into account inputs into a farm agrosystem, which are related to outputs and thus enable assessment of environmental impact of agro-business management and changes in the management. The basic and most frequently used indicators are balance of nutrients (N, P) and organic matter, and energy balance (Halberg et al., 2005; van der Werf, Petit, 2002; Payraudeau, van der Werf, 2005; Goodlas et al., 2003; Tellarini, Caporali, 2000). The assessment of pesticide use and agrosystem biodiversity is also included (Bockstaller et al., 1997; Eckert et al., 2000; Hani et al., 2003). According to indicator defi nitions mentioned e.g. by Bockstaller and Girardin (2003), its major function is to off er: 1. Information (o en simplifi ed) about the complex system (e.g. agroecosystem) or an immeasurable criterion (e.g. biodiversity, sustainability etc.); 2. Decision support, which helps to achieve the determined objectives, for example sustainability of a given agrosystem. Concerning the character of information which the indicators off er, the most frequent is OECD (1999) classifi cation into the indicators of pressure, state and response. The fi rst two types of indicators are in practice used for the assessment of farm management. Indicators can be the result of a series of measurements, calculated characters or they can be based on expert systems. At least two types of indicators can be distinguished (Girardin et al., 1999): • Simple indicators based on measurements or estimation (e.g. using a model) of an indicative variable; • Composite indicators which are obtained by aggregation of several variables or simple indicators (Bockstaller, Girardin, 2003). Several indicators are not aimed to predict the current impact, but to off er information about the risk or potential impact (Halberg, 1999). Indicators can also inform about the procedure in attaining political goals (Comission of European Communities, 2006). Thus, indicators can signalize both positive and negative trends. Some of the indicators are focused on inducing alarm, in the sense that they should off er information about a negative impact, even before it actually occurs.