Concerns over the loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services in farmland have prompted the development of agri-environment policy measures aimed at reducing farming pressure and maintaining semi-natural habitats in farmed landscapes. However, further knowledge is needed to guarantee successful agri-environment measures implementation. The current study assessed the quantity and the quality of semi-natural habitats in farms across a gradient of farming intensities in two contrasting regions in Ireland. Policy protection seemed fundamental for semi-natural habitats preservation. Habitats not protected by agricultural policy relied on extensive farming and are in danger of disappearing if they are intensified or abandoned. Due to the lack of policy incentives for habitat quality, no correlations were found between farming intensity and share of semi-natural habitats with habitat quality. Therefore, extensive farming and retention of habitats alone may not reverse the decline of farmland quality and biodiverisity and, thus, measures incentivising the environmental quality may be more successful.

中文翻译：

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评估爱尔兰农田的半自然栖息地和景观特征：为欧盟共同农业政策实施提供信息的新见解。

对农田生物多样性和生态系统服务丧失的担忧促使制定农业环境政策措施，旨在减轻农业压力并维持农业景观中的半自然栖息地。然而，需要进一步的知识来保证农业环境措施的成功实施。目前的研究评估了爱尔兰两个对比地区不同农业强度梯度的农场半自然栖息地的数量和质量。政策保护似乎是半自然栖息地保护的基础。不受农业政策保护的栖息地依赖粗放式耕作，如果集约化或被遗弃，就有消失的危险。由于缺乏对栖息地质量的政策激励，在耕作强度和半自然栖息地的份额与栖息地质量之间没有发现相关性。因此，仅靠粗放耕作和保留栖息地可能无法扭转农田质量和生物多样性的下降，因此，激励环境质量的措施可能更成功。