Wheatbelt Agroforestry Biodiversity Values: Review, Recommendations and Rating System

This report reviews the current literature to provide a summary of the biodiversity benefi ts of agroforestry systems which could be utilised in the Western Australian Wheatbelt. Recommendations are then made for potential habitat manipulations appropriate for agroforestry systems to increase biodiversity outcomes. A new scoring system is also proposed, in which various agroforestry systems can be compared in terms of their potential benefi ts to biodiversity. The literature review...
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This report reviews the current literature to provide a summary of the biodiversity benefi ts of agroforestry systems which could be utilised in the Western Australian Wheatbelt. Recommendations are then made for potential habitat manipulations appropriate for agroforestry systems to increase biodiversity outcomes. A new scoring system is also proposed, in which various agroforestry systems can be compared in terms of their potential benefi ts to biodiversity. The literature review demonstrated that all agroforestry systems tend to increase the habitat value of the site beyond that of normal farmland, but that the systems do not directly mimic natural vegetation, with particular taxa usually missing from the system. This increase in habitat value is most clearly evident for birds for which most research on agroforestry systems has been carried out.