Collective Innovation Boosts Biodiversity in French Vineyards

The need to mainstream biodiversity into agricultural activities has been advocated for some time. Several approaches have been described, ranging from plot to farm or landscape scale and involving different practices. We studied the development of a biodiversity enhancing project in French vineyards based on agronomic and sociological data. We conducted interviews and farm surveys to analyze management practices influencing biodiversity both within fields and in adjacent areas not used for production. We studied farmers' motivations to join the winegrowers' association project and their perception of the importance of biodiversity in their own vineyard management. Results show that individual initiative and the farmers' association both played a key role in project development, even though people's perception of biodiversity matters and personal involvement had been extremely variable. Although the project can be considered a collective success, it remains difficult for winegrowers, individually, to take biodiversity into account in their agronomic practices.