Sustainable intensification is a process by which agricultural productivity is enhanced whilst also creating environmental and social benefits. We aimed to identify practices likely to deliver sustainable intensification, currently available for UK farms but not yet widely adopted. We compiled a list of 18 farm management practices with the greatest potential to deliver sustainable intensification in the UK, following a well‐developed stepwise methodology for identifying priority solutions, using a group decision‐making technique with key agricultural experts. The list of priority management practices can provide the focal point of efforts to achieve sustainable intensification of agriculture, as the UK develops post‐Brexit agricultural policy, and pursues the second Sustainable Development Goal, which aims to end hunger and promote sustainable agriculture. The practices largely reflect a technological, production‐focused view of sustainable intensification, including for example, precision farming and animal health diagnostics, with less emphasis on the social and environmental aspects of sustainability. However, they do reflect an integrated approach to farming, covering many different aspects, from business organization and planning, to soil and crop management, to landscape and nature conservation. For a subset of 10 of the priority practices, we gathered data on the level of existing uptake in English and Welsh farms through a stratified survey in seven focal regions. We find substantial existing uptake of most of the priority practices, indicating that UK farming is an innovative sector. The data identify two specific practices for which uptake is relatively low, but which some UK farmers find appealing and would consider adopting. These practices are: prediction of pest and disease outbreaks, especially for livestock farms; staff training on environmental issues, especially on arable farms.
Two starting points inform this collection of articles on human rights and climate change. The first is that, as a matter of simple observation, climate change will undermineindeed, is already underminingthe realisation of a broad range of internationally protected human rights: rights to health and even life; rights to food, water, shelter and property; rights associated with livelihood and culture; with migration and resettlement; and with personal security in the event of conflict. 1 Few dispute that this is the case. Moreover, the interlinkages are deep and complex. The worst effects of climate change are likely to be felt by those individuals and groups whose rights protections are already precarious. 2 This is partly coincidence. As it happens, the most dramatic impacts of climate change are expected to occur (and are already being experienced) in the world's poorest countries, where rights protections are too often weak for a variety of reasons. But the effect is also causal and mutually reinforcing. Populations whose rights are poorly protected are likely to be less wellequipped to understand or prepare for the effects of climate change, less able to lobby effectively for government or international action and more likely to lack the resources needed to adapt to expected alterations * Research Director, International Council on Human Rights Policy. See the Acknowledgements for background to this chapter and for a list of those who contributed comments to sections of it. Special thanks to Robert Archer for valuable editorial and substantive suggestions. 1 On the rights of indigenous peoples under conditions of climate change, see IUCN (2008). On migration, see IOM (2008). On gender, see IUCN (2007). On conflict, see German Advisory Council on Global Change (2008); European Council Doc. 7249/08 Annex, Climate Change and International Security, Paper from the High Representative and the European Commission to the European Council (March 2008). 2 The literature on climate change vulnerability is vast and raises significant human rights concerns. See, for example,
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.