Scaling Biodiversity Across Food Supply Chains: Strategy, Metrics & Capital

Introduction: Why Biodiversity Matters Now

Biodiversity refers to the variety of life in all its forms. From soil microbes to plants, insects, and animals. In agriculture, nature is the backbone of productivity: pollination, soil health, water cycles, and climate resilience all depend on healthy ecosystems. When biodiversity thrives, farms are more productive and resilient.

Yet biodiversity has declined by 70% since 1970, largely due to land use changes. Especially in agriculture, which now covers 40% of the planet’s surface. The challenge? There’s often no direct economic reason to preserve biodiversity on-farm. That’s why measuring it isn’t enough. We need to value and reward it.

In this blog, we show how that’s already happening. From Ireland’s results-based funding model to cutting-edge measurement tools, we explore how biodiversity is becoming a core metric in agri-food supply chains. You’ll see how one farm increased its biodiversity from 7% to 10%, without sacrificing yields, and learn three practical ways to boost biodiversity today.

How Ireland Uses Public Funds to Power Biodiversity on Farms

Ireland is leading the way in integrating biodiversity into the agri-food sector. With ACRES, a €1.5 billion scheme co-funded by the EU and Irish government, nature-positive farming is now actively supported. Rather than treating biodiversity as a burden, Ireland is implementing it into agricultural policy in a way that empowers farmers to act. Nature thrives when farmers are given the tools, not the blame, to protect it.

Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES)

A key pillar of Ireland’s biodiversity strategy is the Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES). With a budget of €1.5 billion, ACRES supports up to 50,000 farmers in adopting nature-positive practices that boost biodiversity, water quality, and climate resilience.

To qualify for eco-scheme payments, farmers must dedicate at least 7% of their land to ‘Space for Nature’, which includes biodiversity-rich features such as:

🌿 Hedgerows, field margins, and native woodlands
🐝 Pollinator-friendly habitats and flower strips
💧 Riparian buffers, ponds, and wetland areas

Payments can reach up to €10,500 per year, depending on the practices adopted and the ecological results achieved. Farmers are guided by clear indicators to track their progress, such as:

📊 Habitat quality scorecards for grasslands, peatlands, and field edges
🌾 Vegetation diversity and native species counts
🐦 Presence of indicator species (e.g. birds, butterflies, amphibians)
🧪 Reduction in fertilizer and pesticide use
🌳 Coverage of tree lines, buffer strips, and unmanaged margins

Farming for Nature: Colum Ginnelly’s Story

One farmer leading by example is Colum Ginnelly, a sheep farmer from County Mayo (Ireland). With fewer chemicals and smarter land management, he’s showing that nature recovery is possible. As part of the Wild Atlantic Nature project, Colum has fenced off 30 acres of upland land worn by storms and grazing, to see how it regenerates when pressure is reduced. It’s a simple shift that brings long-term benefits, healthier land, better grazing, and a deeper understanding of how nature responds when given the chance. See this full story in the video below.

How To: Measure Biodiversity in Agricultural Supply Chains

Measuring biodiversity is about understanding the health of the land your business depends on. Biodiversity exists at three levels: genetic, species, and habitat. Measuring all three gives us a complete picture. But doing it across an entire supply chain has traditionally been slow, expensive, and inconsistent. Fortunately, new tools and technologies are making biodiversity measurement more scalable, cost-effective, and auditable.

1. Genetic Level: What’s in the Soil and Water? 🧬

At the genetic level, environmental DNA (eDNA) offers a breakthrough. Farmers and researchers can take soil or water samples, send them to a lab, and extract traces of DNA to identify what species, plants, animals, and microbes are living in that environment. It’s non-invasive, highly accurate, and gives insight into everything from soil health to rare or threatened species. However, it’s expensive to implement across large supply chains compared to other biodiversity metrics.

2. Species Level: Listening to Nature 🐦

Species-level biodiversity is increasingly measured through sensor-based tools. Companies like Chirrup.ai record birdsong, and AI models identify which birds are present based on their unique calls. More birds often mean more biodiversity, and this method offers a non-disruptive way to track species presence, even in remote areas.

3. Habitat Level: Mapping the Land 🌿

In the past, monitoring habitats meant walking through fields and drawing maps by hand. Today, we map habitats from above using remote sensing. Satellite images that reveal land cover types like grasslands, hedgerows, and woodlands. AI analyzes the colors and patterns to quickly classify land types and calculate their area. This offers a fast, consistent, and scalable way to track how much natural habitat remains, one of the most reliable biodiversity metrics we have.

What Level of Biodiversity Should You Be Measuring?

To work across supply chains, biodiversity metrics must be:

Scalable – applicable across thousands of hectares and multiple suppliers
Cost-effective – affordable to monitor regularly
Auditable – backed by transparent data
Repeatable – consistent over time

Habitat area, especially when tracked using satellite and AI, is one of the few indicators that checks all these boxes. It’s simple to understand (% natural habitat), tied to strong ecological science (species-area relationships), and makes biodiversity visible in landscapes where people and production coexist.

🌱 Discover what habitat measuring can do for your supply chain. Book a demo today.

How Farm Zero C Boosted Biodiversity from 7.5% to 10% Without Sacrificing Profit

Inside Farm Zero C

Farm Zero C is a bold research and innovation project aiming to create the world’s first carbon-neutral dairy farm. Based at Shinagh Farm in West Cork, it brings together Carbery Group, BiOrbic Research Ireland Centre for Bioeconomy , Trinity College Dublin, University College Dublin, and ODOS. The goal? To prove that net-zero emissions and profitable dairy farming can go hand in hand. The farm serves as a live testing ground for cutting-edge practices that balance productivity with climate and biodiversity goals, making it a model for sustainable agriculture across Europe.

What role did ODOS play?

To help Farm Zero C hit its biodiversity targets, we used habitat mapping tools to assess the entire landscape. The focus? Transform underproductive or hard-to-manage areas into nature-positive features, without impacting productivity.

Strategies that we implemented:

🌿 Widening hedgerows to improve habitat connectivity
🌾 Turning lawns and regularly cut grass areas into semi-natural grasslands
💧 Rewilding wet, hard-to-manage areas into functioning wetlands
🌳 Converting a conifer plantation into a semi-natural native woodland

The results? A measurable increase in biodiversity from 7.5% to 10%, carbon emissions fell, and productivity remained intact.

🔍 Find the hidden biodiversity opportunities in your supply chain. Talk to us

Sustainability Tips: 3 Tips To Boost Your Biodiversity

Improving biodiversity doesn’t mean taking land out of production—it means using it more wisely. The key is to find the win-win: changes that benefit nature and your bottom line. Here are three high-impact strategies used by leading farms across Europe:

1. Start with nonproductive areas

Unused spaces like lawns, field edges, and corners around infrastructure offer a perfect opportunity for low-effort biodiversity gains. These areas typically serve no productive purpose and can be quickly rewilded into pollinator zones or semi-natural grasslands.

✅ Implementation Tip: Start by identifying areas that are regularly mown or rarely used. Converting them into flowering habitats or native vegetation patches can increase ecological value while reducing maintenance time and cost.

2. Convert your hardest-to-farm zones

Wet patches, steep slopes, and low-yield soils often cost more to manage than they return. By converting these zones into wetlands, scrublands, or woodlands, farms can increase biodiversity, reduce input costs, and improve long-term sustainability.

✅ Implementation Tip: Use satellite imagery or on-farm experience to identify the least productive zones. Focus first on areas where machinery access is difficult or where flooding is frequent—ideal sites for wetland restoration or habitat corridors.

3. Connect existing habitats

Biodiversity thrives when habitats are linked. Creating linear features like hedgerows, grassy strips, or wide field margins between existing natural areas boosts species movement and resilience across the farm landscape.

✅ Implementation Tip: Instead of installing new fences, plant native hedgerows or seed linear grasslands. Even short connections, between a woodland and a ditch, or two separate tree lines, can significantly enhance ecological connectivity.

🌱 Data-driven biodiversity starts with the right tools. Let’s explore how ODOS can help.