measures may include establishing wide,
regularly mown buffer strips along the edges
of cultivated fields and regular monitoring
(Low and Booth 2007; Searle et al. 2016). The
use of marginal land and part of small agricultural parcels located in areas of better soil
agricultural suitability is often unprofitable for
economic reasons. Currently, in Poland, more
than 2.7 million ha of agricultural land is not
declared as area for agricultural activity by the
farmers. This assessment includes 2.03 million ha of unutilised areas of effective production (parcels >0.3 ha), which constitutes
14.2% of the overall agricultural area. A significant proportion of the unutilised agricultural land constitutes medium and high
productivity soils. This situation is particularly visible in Małopolskie, Podkarpackie,
Świętokrzyskie, Śląskie, and part of Mazowieckie voivodeships (Pudełko et al. 2018).
• The development of a network of small agricultural biogas plants (constructed by farmers). Bioenergy is a largely CO 2 -neutral
energy source and it is permanently renewable, as it is produced out of biomass, which is
actually living storage of solar energy through
photosynthesis. In recent years public opinion
regarding large-scale biogas plants became
more negative, its economic feasibility dropped dramatically and its implementation is
decreasing sharply, among others in Germany,
Belgium and the Netherlands. An interesting
alternative is the production of renewable
energy from small-scale anaerobic digestion,
which mainly uses manure and agricultural
residues of the farm. In order to promote such
a solution, the BioEnergy Farm 2 project was
created. This is a project co-financed by the
European Union, the aim of which is to provide practical guidance to farmers to produce
biogas on farm based scale in small biogas
plants and at the same time contributing to
farm income and delivering environmental
friendly energy (Paterson et al. 2015).
• Liming the acidic and highly acidic soil in
order to reduce acidification of agricultural
soils. Liming to recommended soil pH values
increases productivity, benefits soil structure,
improves degraded soils and, when used with
other appropriate management practices, can
benefit grassland biodiversity. It also reduces
some greenhouse gas emissions, among others
nitrous oxide (N 2 O) (Goulding 2016). As
indicated by Kreišmane et al. (2016), if raising
the pH of soil, the amount of N 2 O emissions
in the result of nitrification decreases. Therefore, it is important to perform also maintenance liming if applying nitrogen fertilisers.
Oertel et al. (2016) state, however, that there
are no significant correlations between NO
and N 2 O emissions and pH-value. Therefore,
emission measurements under field conditions
are necessary.
• Increasing green areas and forest cover as well
as the introduction of tree planting (especially
in areas with poor sandy soils susceptible to
erosion) and the creation of forest ecological
corridors. Forest management, combined with
global environmental changes, increases the
capacity of carbon uptake of ordinary managed forests (Dybala et al. 2019). Forest
plantations, particularly the ones subject to
short-rotation forestry systems, potentially
have high soil carbon accumulation, especially in agricultural lands. Moreover, the
trees outside forests may represent a sensible
carbon stock. These aspects have important
implications after the recent recognition of the
Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry
(LULUCF) sector in the EU target within the
2030 Climate and Energy Policy Framework
(Calfapietra et al. 2015; Nabuurs et al. 2017).
The LULUCF regulation is the third pillar of
the EU’s 2030 climate and energy framework.
Together with the Effort Sharing Regulation
and the revised ETS directive, it creates a
binding legal framework for the EU’s efforts
to reduce overall greenhouse gas emissions by
at least 40% by 2030, compared to 1990
levels (European Commission 2018). The
current annual mitigation effect of EU forests
via contributions to the forest sink, material
substitution and energy substitution is estimated at 13% of total current EU emissions
(Nabuurs et al. 2017). Agroforestry systems
may provide diverse ecosystem services and
158
P. Wiśniewski
regularly mown buffer strips along the edges
of cultivated fields and regular monitoring
(Low and Booth 2007; Searle et al. 2016). The
use of marginal land and part of small agricultural parcels located in areas of better soil
agricultural suitability is often unprofitable for
economic reasons. Currently, in Poland, more
than 2.7 million ha of agricultural land is not
declared as area for agricultural activity by the
farmers. This assessment includes 2.03 million ha of unutilised areas of effective production (parcels >0.3 ha), which constitutes
14.2% of the overall agricultural area. A significant proportion of the unutilised agricultural land constitutes medium and high
productivity soils. This situation is particularly visible in Małopolskie, Podkarpackie,
Świętokrzyskie, Śląskie, and part of Mazowieckie voivodeships (Pudełko et al. 2018).
• The development of a network of small agricultural biogas plants (constructed by farmers). Bioenergy is a largely CO 2 -neutral
energy source and it is permanently renewable, as it is produced out of biomass, which is
actually living storage of solar energy through
photosynthesis. In recent years public opinion
regarding large-scale biogas plants became
more negative, its economic feasibility dropped dramatically and its implementation is
decreasing sharply, among others in Germany,
Belgium and the Netherlands. An interesting
alternative is the production of renewable
energy from small-scale anaerobic digestion,
which mainly uses manure and agricultural
residues of the farm. In order to promote such
a solution, the BioEnergy Farm 2 project was
created. This is a project co-financed by the
European Union, the aim of which is to provide practical guidance to farmers to produce
biogas on farm based scale in small biogas
plants and at the same time contributing to
farm income and delivering environmental
friendly energy (Paterson et al. 2015).
• Liming the acidic and highly acidic soil in
order to reduce acidification of agricultural
soils. Liming to recommended soil pH values
increases productivity, benefits soil structure,
improves degraded soils and, when used with
other appropriate management practices, can
benefit grassland biodiversity. It also reduces
some greenhouse gas emissions, among others
nitrous oxide (N 2 O) (Goulding 2016). As
indicated by Kreišmane et al. (2016), if raising
the pH of soil, the amount of N 2 O emissions
in the result of nitrification decreases. Therefore, it is important to perform also maintenance liming if applying nitrogen fertilisers.
Oertel et al. (2016) state, however, that there
are no significant correlations between NO
and N 2 O emissions and pH-value. Therefore,
emission measurements under field conditions
are necessary.
• Increasing green areas and forest cover as well
as the introduction of tree planting (especially
in areas with poor sandy soils susceptible to
erosion) and the creation of forest ecological
corridors. Forest management, combined with
global environmental changes, increases the
capacity of carbon uptake of ordinary managed forests (Dybala et al. 2019). Forest
plantations, particularly the ones subject to
short-rotation forestry systems, potentially
have high soil carbon accumulation, especially in agricultural lands. Moreover, the
trees outside forests may represent a sensible
carbon stock. These aspects have important
implications after the recent recognition of the
Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry
(LULUCF) sector in the EU target within the
2030 Climate and Energy Policy Framework
(Calfapietra et al. 2015; Nabuurs et al. 2017).
The LULUCF regulation is the third pillar of
the EU’s 2030 climate and energy framework.
Together with the Effort Sharing Regulation
and the revised ETS directive, it creates a
binding legal framework for the EU’s efforts
to reduce overall greenhouse gas emissions by
at least 40% by 2030, compared to 1990
levels (European Commission 2018). The
current annual mitigation effect of EU forests
via contributions to the forest sink, material
substitution and energy substitution is estimated at 13% of total current EU emissions
(Nabuurs et al. 2017). Agroforestry systems
may provide diverse ecosystem services and
158
P. Wiśniewski