OECD Workshop on Agri-Environmental Indicators Leysin, Switzerland, 23-26 March 2010

Agri-environmental indicators for biodiversity in the rice paddy landscape

David S. SPRAGUE, Shori YAMAMOTO, Tatsuya AMANO National Institute for Agro-Environmental Sciences, Tsukuba, Japan

Kenji MATSUMORI

National Institute for Rural Engineering, Tsukuba, Japan

mountainous terrace

alluvial fan

YATSU (small valley)

alluvial plain

reclaimed land

Paddy Landscapes The rice paddy landscape is a habitat mosaic

Rural landscapes differ by region because of differences in agriculture practices and

topography.

Rice Paddy Fields of Japan

a. Cropland abandonment rates in the Kanto Region of Japan by farm village units. b. Paddy construction in the Kasumigaura Basin. Sources: A. MAFF Agriculture-Forestry Census 2000, B. MAFF 4th

Agricultural Infrastructure Survey.

Broad indicators of rural environments • Large amounts of statistical data on agriculture collected by the

Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF).

• Agricultural statistics can be given environmental interpretations.

• Little direct information about biodiversity in statistical data.

Cropland abandonment Improved rice paddy

Vegetation map:

National Survey on the Natural Environment

National-scale biodiversity surveys • National Survey on the Natural Environment by the Ministry of the

Environment (MOE) Nation-wide vegetation maps and animal distribution data. Species sampled on broad spatial scales, focused on “hot spots.” Animal distribution data not linked to agriculture.

• Joint MAFF and MOE Rice Paddy Organism Survey Very detailed information on presence/absence of fishes, frogs, and aquatic insects. Focused mainly on improved waterways.

Rice Paddy Organism Survey:

Tanbo-no-Ikomono Chosa

Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport National Land Webmap (http://nlftp.mlit.go.jp/WebGIS/)

Narita City 1989 Tsuchiura City 1990

Designing agri-biodiversity indicators for the rice paddy landscape

• Two major applications: monitoring and targeting.

• Habitat indicators are based on a landscape approach.

a. Percentage of narrow rice paddies by farm village in the Kanto Region. b. Example of GIS analysis to extract narrow rice paddies from rice paddy polygons. Source: Agricultural Spatial Information Research Project, NIAES, 2009.

Yatsuta • Long, narrow, dendritic rice paddies, often in shallow valley bottoms

and surrounded by woodland.

• Small area, but accounts for a large proportion of the rice paddy edge and paddy-woodland interface.

RuLIS: Rural Land Information System

Common Data Base of National Geography in Japan ・topography, soil, climate, vegetation ・each data collated as 1 km grid data

Classification of Agro-ecosystem ・agro-ecosystem in Japan classified into 60 classes at 6 levels ・map shows 3rd level classes

● Class 1 ● Class 2 ● Class 3 ● Class 4 ● Class 5 ● Class 6 ● Class 7 ● Class 8

64 66 67 68

legend

Level 6 classes of the Tone River Basin ● 64 paddy in mountain foot ● 66 paddy in alluvial plain ● 67 upland fields & Yatsu paddy ● 68 upland fields in urban fringe

Database structure of the Rural Land Information System (RULIS)

Source: Rice Paddy Biodiversity Research Project, NIAES, 2010.

• Inventory on biodiversity, landscape, and human activities.

• Hierarchical classification of the agro-ecosystem, supplemented by monitoring sites for data on landscape change and species composition.

Relative number of fish species within an improved rice paddy system in a lowland plain region of Tochigi Prefecture analyzed within the RuLIS framework.

Source: 2008 NIRE Research Project: Habitat potential calculation models for organisms in rice paddy areas.

RuLIS: Rural Land Information System

• Detailed survey data matched to the RuLIS framework to model and map potential habitats.

Farmland birds • Farmland birds in Japan include many species

associated with open water because shallow water is retained in paddy fields during the rice growing season.

• Similar to trends suggested by European data, some species of farmland birds have been declining in Japan.

• Many waders and egrets seem to be vulnerable to a wide range of agricultural intensification.

• The association of habitat variables with the richness and abundance of bird species is highly complex, and varies with type of birds and seasons.

Functional biodiversity • A research program has started on identifying indicator

species among insects beneficial to agriculture.

• Natural enemies of crop pests, especially arthropod predators and parasitoids.

Rural Japan: Traditional and Modern

第11回 美しい日本のむら景観コンテスト

大分県 豊後高田市小崎

第4回 美しい日本のむら景観コンテスト

秋田県 東由利町土場沢

Rice paddy landscapes can support a large range of biodiversity because it is a mosaic of aquatic, woodland, and grassland habitats.

Indicators can identify places and species for which agri-environmental measures are most needed or would be most effective.

Traditional rice paddy fits the definition of “semi-natural habitat.”

Continuing work is needed on:

• Detailed data linking biodiversity with agricultural practice.

• Measures of agricultural intensification.

• Consequences of farmland abandonment.

• Operationalizing the Japanese concept of the countryside – the Satoyama.