For agriculture with biodiversity and a future

For agriculture in which nature counts

Jaén, an agricultural territory and a symbol of one of the most representative farming landscapes in the Mediterranean, hosted the 1st International Congress on Biodiversity and Agriculture within the framework of the LIFE Olivares Vivos+ project. The congress brought together science, the farming sector, companies, cooperatives, public administrations, social organisations and citizens. 

A shared conviction emerged from this meeting: biodiversity is not something separate from agriculture, nor is it an additional requirement imposed on those who produce food. It is an essential condition for the future of farming, the stability of production systems, farm profitability and food security.

For too long, many farming models have treated nature as a limitation, a cost or a constraint. However, scientific evidence, experience gained from working farms, the commitment of a growing number of farmers and increasing public awareness all point in the same direction: biodiversity can and must be recognised as an agronomic, economic and strategic ally of agriculture.

This is not about setting production and conservation against each other, idealising the past or rejecting innovation, but about moving towards agricultural modernisation that integrates scientific knowledge, farming experience, technical innovation, nature-based solutions, profitability and social value.

This Declaration seeks to promote a shift in perspective and action: placing biodiversity at the heart of the agricultural model, farm management, public policies, markets and consumer decisions.

We declare

1. Agriculture needs biodiversity to be viable

Biodiversity supports essential functions for agricultural production: soil fertility, natural pest regulation, pollination, erosion control, water retention, ecological stability and resilience to climate change.

The degradation of these functions increases dependence on external inputs, reduces adaptive capacity, raises costs and makes agriculture more vulnerable to environmental, economic and geopolitical crises.

Therefore, conserving and restoring biodiversity in agricultural systems is not only an environmental responsibility, but also essential for production and a strategic necessity.

2. Biodiversity must be part of the management model

Integrating biodiversity into agriculture cannot be reduced to a set of isolated practices: it must become part of farm management and day-to-day decision-making.

This requires diagnosis, planning, action, measurement and evaluation. It means making decisions about vegetation cover, crop rotations and diversification, plant protection treatments, ecological infrastructure, soil management, water management, farm work calendar, machinery and farm organisation, while considering their effects on biodiversity and on the ecological functioning of the system.

There are no universal recipes: measures must be adapted to the production system and to the ecological, landscape and territorial context. Through planning, measurement and evaluation, biodiversity is no longer an abstract idea; it becomes an agronomic, economic and territorial variable that can and must be managed to support agriculture.

3. Farmers are central actors in the solution, but must not be left to face the transition alone

Those who work the land and make a living from it play an essential role in restoring biodiversity in agricultural landscapes. Their work cannot be reduced to compliance with requirements: it must be recognised as an essential contribution to the common good.

Integrating biodiversity requires adapting management practices, allocating resources and assuming risks. For this reason, the transition cannot rest on farmers alone: it requires technical advice, training, financing, adapted machinery, appropriate incentives and stable regulatory frameworks, as well as shared responsibility from public administrations, the food chain and consumers.

Asking the farming sector without providing the necessary support to those who must lead the transition would be both unfair and ineffective.

4. Agricultural modernisation must integrate nature-based solutions

Modernising agriculture cannot mean only intensifying production, adopting more technology, increasing mechanisation or operating at larger scales. It also requires restoring ecological functioning, reducing dependence on inputs, diversifying production systems, improving biological efficiency and conserving natural capital.

Technology, digitalisation and mechanisation are necessary, but they must respond to the diversity of farms and territories and respect their ecological and social limits. Nature-based solutions must be recognised as part of this modernisation and occupy a central place in innovation and support policies for the sector.

5. Profitability must include risk reduction, stability and added value

Agricultural profitability cannot be assessed only in terms of short-term output. It must also take into account risk and cost reduction, medium- and long-term stability, soil health, adaptive capacity, market differentiation, access to new markets and the capacity to keep farms viable and rural territories alive.

A farming model that preserves soil fertility, improves water management and strengthens fundamental ecological processes reinforces the productive base of the farm. Many of these benefits build up and become consolidated over time: they provide stability, sustain nature’s services, reduce dependence on inputs and save costs.

Enhancing biodiversity means investing in the future of agriculture.

6. The food chain must recognise and distribute the value of biodiversity

The value of biodiversity generated in the field must be preserved and distributed throughout the entire food chain. It must not be diluted among intermediaries, confusing messages or commercial systems that fail to distinguish production models that generate environmental and social benefits.

Cooperatives, producer organisations, olive mills, wineries, processors, retailers, the restaurants and food companies play a key role in aggregating production, facilitating traceability, reducing certification costs, improving farmers’ bargaining position and ensuring that this value reaches those who generate it.

Measurement, traceability and certification systems must be rigorous, based on scientific evidence and verifiable results, governed by clear rules and designed to avoid confusion and greenwashing. The transition requires collective models and territorial alliances: isolated decisions are not enough to achieve change at landscape scale.

7. Biodiversity must be visible in the market so that purchasing decisions drive its conservation and restoration in the field

The transition towards agriculture in which nature counts does not take place only in the field: it is also driven from the table. Purchasing decisions can generate demand, guide the market and help ensure fairer recognition and reward for those who produce food while conserving and restoring biodiversity.

To exercise this power of choice, consumers need clear, understandable, reliable and verified information at points of sale. Making the value generated on farms visible is a shared responsibility of the food chain and public administrations; it cannot rest solely on consumers.

Biodiversity must be communicated in a close and tangible way, linking it to fertile soils, water, landscapes, birds, pollinators, capacity to adapt, wellbeing and rural life. When this value is clearly identified and understood, purchasing decisions can recognise the efforts of those who generate it and help conserve and restore biodiversity in the field.

8. Science and innovation must guide change and respond to the diversity of farming

Basic and applied science is essential to understanding the relationship between agriculture and biodiversity and to determining which measures work in each context. Their effectiveness must be evaluated using appropriate indicators and over sufficient timeframes. Only in this way can intuitive, not sufficiently rigorous or merely declarative solutions be avoided.

Agricultural and ecological research must respond to the real needs of farms and territories. Public funding for research must not focus only on increasing production, intensifying systems or expanding scale; it must also support the development of knowledge, technologies, machinery and solutions for models based on efficiency, biodiversity, resilience, quality and added value.

Knowledge must be translated into useful tools that can be applied and evaluated: diagnostic and monitoring methods, technical advisory support, demonstration projects, adapted solutions and farmer-to-farmer exchanges. These models do not need less science or innovation, but science and innovation that respond to their needs.

9. Public policies must fund and reward the environmental and social benefits of agriculture and adapt to farming realities

Farming models that conserve and restore biodiversity generate essential benefits for society: fertile soils, landscapes, climate change mitigation and adaptation, food security, employment, territorial cohesion, prevention of land abandonment and rural vitality. Maintaining these benefits requires sufficient and stable public funding to support the transition and reward agriculture’s contribution to the common good.

The Common Agricultural Policy and other public instruments must reflect this value in the design and allocation of support, link it to verifiable environmental and social benefits and respond to the ecological, social and production diversity of each territory. They must also pay special attention to high nature value farming systems and avoid one-size-fits-all responses that are disconnected from farming realities.

Reducing the administrative burden is necessary. To this end, agricultural policy must establish clear, proportionate, coherent and stable procedures that are easy to apply and verify. But simplification cannot mean deregulation or lower environmental and social ambition.

10. The future of agriculture depends on people who are willing and able to work in the countryside

Without people who are willing and able to work in farming and make a living from it, the transition will not be possible. The lack of generational renewal and labour shortages are structural problems that threaten the continuity of farms and shape the agricultural model. The challenge is not only who will be in charge, but also who will carry out the work.

Addressing this situation requires improving profitability and working conditions, facilitating access to land and the entry of new professionals, and developing organisational, technical and technological solutions adapted to the diversity of farming. Innovation must help address labour shortages without making intensification the only response.

Training and advisory support are essential. Farmers, workers and technical specialists need practical and accessible training in biodiversity and soil management, nature’s services, natural pest regulation and value-added models. Universities and agricultural training centres must update their content to respond to these needs.

The countryside must be a dignified, attractive and innovative career path with a future. Achieving this is not just another objective: it is a condition for making all the above possible.

A shared conviction

These ten principles express a shared conviction: the future of agriculture will not be built by leaving nature aside, but by recognising its role and working with it.

Without biodiversity, there is no viable agriculture.

Without farmers and agricultural workers, agricultural biodiversity is not possible.

Without alignment between policies, markets and society, the transition will not reach the necessary scale.

Call to action

The entities, organisations and individuals promoting this Declaration call on:

Public administrations, to promote stable and coherent policies, with sufficient funding, that reduce the risk of the transition, simplify procedures and recognise the public value generated by agriculture.

European institutions and Common Agricultural Policy policymakers, to ensure an ambitious, stable policy adapted to the diversity of farming, and to direct its incentives towards those who conserve biodiversity and sustain rural territories.

Farmers and agricultural workers, to share their experience, take part in the design of measures and lead their implementation on farms, with the necessary support, tools and safeguards.

Cooperatives and producer organisations, to promote collective models, strengthen traceability, generate added value and improve farmers’ position in the food chain.

The scientific, technical and technological community, to generate rigorous knowledge, develop adapted machinery and solutions and facilitate their application through tools, advisory support, demonstration projects and exchanges of experience.

Agri-food companies, retailers and the hospitality sector, to differentiate and promote products from farming models that conserve and restore biodiversity, and to fairly reward those who produce them.

Consumers and citizens, to incorporate this value into their decisions, with clear information and accessible options, and to choose food that help protect soil, water, landscapes and wildlife, and support rural communities.

Training centres, universities and vocational training bodies, to update their programmes and incorporate agricultural biodiversity, nature’s services and value-added models as essential content for the future of the sector.

Commitment of the signatories

Those who endorse this Declaration recognise the need to move towards a form of agriculture that integrates biodiversity as the foundation for its ecological, economic and social viability.

By endorsing it, they express their willingness to contribute, within their own spheres of responsibility, to:

• recognising biodiversity as an essential asset of agricultural systems;
• integrating it into management and decision-making;
• promoting public policies, funding and incentives that reward the environmental and social value generated by agriculture;
• fostering collective models, markets, certification schemes and traceability systems that bring this value to producers and consumers;
• strengthening science, training, technical advisory support, knowledge transfer and farmer-to-farmer exchange;
• helping to make the countryside a dignified professional option with a future;
• supporting demonstration initiatives that are measurable, replicable and adapted to each context;
• building alliances between science, farming, businesses, public administrations and society.

The Jaén Declaration is a starting point for building a broad, diverse and active community that places biodiversity, farm viability and the people who sustain the countryside at the centre of the future of agricultural.