Provide or maintain hedgerows on farmland

Overall effectiveness category Awaiting assessment
Number of studies: 1
Share Tweet Email

View assessment score

How is the evidence assessed?

Effectiveness

not assessed
Certainty

not assessed
Harms

not assessed

Calculating overall effectiveness category

Background information and definitions

Agricultural intensification, including increases in field sizes and pesticides use, has resulted in a loss of field boundary habitats, such as hedgerows. These features can provide a relatively undisturbed habitat for wildlife in intensively managed agricultural landscapes. Hedge planting and maintenance of existing hedges has, therefore, been proposed as a means of preserving and enhancing biodiversity. Such management is sometimes funded through agri-environmental schemes.

This action does not include studies on the effect of uncultivated margins, which are included in Create uncultivated margins around arable or pasture fields.

Study locations

Key messages

One study evaluated the effects of providing or maintaining linear features on reptile populations. This study was in Madagascar.

COMMUNITY RESPONSE (1 STUDY)

Community composition (1 study): One site comparison study in Madagascar found that reptile communities in cultivated areas with hedges were more similar to those found in forests than were communities from cultivated areas without hedges. The study also found that more reptile species were found only areas with hedges than only in areas without hedges.

POPULATION RESPONSE (0 STUDIES)

BEHAVIOUR (0 STUDIES)

About key messages

Key messages provide a descriptive index to studies we have found that test this intervention.

Studies are not directly comparable or of equal value. When making decisions based on this evidence, you should consider factors such as study size, study design, reported metrics and relevance of the study to your situation, rather than simply counting the number of studies that support a particular interpretation.

Supporting evidence from individual studies

A site comparison study in 2012 in two sites of tropical dry forest and farmland in south-western Madagascar (Nopper et al. 2017) found that a site with hedges throughout different habitats had smaller differences in reptile communities than those without hedges, and that cultivated areas with hedges had more species than cultivated areas without hedges. The similarity of reptile communities in cultivated areas, undegraded forest and degraded forest was higher in the site with hedges than in the site without hedges (result reported as a dissimilarity index). Nine species were found in cultivated areas with hedges (1–19 individuals) that were not found in cultivated areas with no hedges, whereas the opposite was true for only two species (1–3 individuals). Two sites were selected that contained undegraded forest, degraded forest and cultivated areas. In one site, hedges (2 m high, containing non-native Opuntia spp. and native vegetation e.g. Euphorbia stenoclada) surrounded cultivated areas and bordered degraded forest. The other site had no hedges. Eight 100 m transects were established in each habitat, and all reptile species were recorded within 1.5 m of the transect line (10 surveys in February–April 2012). In cultivated areas transects followed field boundaries with or without hedging.
Study and other actions tested
Referenced paper
Nopper J., Lauströer B., Rödel M.O. & Ganzhorn J.U. (2017) A structurally enriched agricultural landscape maintains high reptile diversity in sub-arid south-western Madagascar. Journal of Applied Ecology, 54, 480-488.

Please cite as:

Sainsbury K.A., Morgan W.H., Watson M., Rotem G., Bouskila A., Smith R.K. & Sutherland W.J. (2021) Reptile Conservation: Global Evidence for the Effects of Interventions for reptiles. Conservation Evidence Series Synopsis. University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.

Where has this evidence come from?

List of journals searched by synopsis

All the journals searched for all synopses

This Action forms part of the Action Synopsis:

Reptile Conservation

Related Actions

Actions	Effectiveness	Studies	Category
Cease livestock grazing: Grassland & shrubland Action Link	Awaiting assessment	15	Synopsis Link
Prevent access to livestock water feeders Action Link	Awaiting assessment	1	Synopsis Link
Create uncultivated margins around arable or pasture fields Action Link	Awaiting assessment	2	Synopsis Link