"..Agricultural lands accounts in Russia for about 222 mln.ha (1999). They possess exclusively rich and valuable biodiversity making a significant share of European agrobiodiversity. Status of the Russian agrobiodiversity is very important for the stable and long-term conservation of many species and ecosystems. Russian agrobiodiversity is not only the valuable nature heritage but a source of the majority of agricultural products and profits for the most fragile social group – peasants accounting not less than 30% of the total population.."

Following the report «Biodiversity of Agricultural Lands in Russia: Current State and Trends» (I.E. Smelyansky, IUCN, Moscow, 2003) agrobiodiversity has different aspects:

First of all agriculture and agricultural landscapes provide important opportunities and advantages for biodiversity conservation and survival of certain species and ecosystems.

... These include plain and mountain steppes, near-gorge blocks of forest, diversified thickets of mesoxerophitic bushes in the steppe zone, bulk of lowlands swamps, marshes and relic bogs in the Western Siberia, saltwort deserts on waste saline lands in the northern part of Eurasia. More than 6000 species of plants, about 100 species of mammals, 150-180 species of birds and thousands species of insects and other invertebrates are inhabited grasslands.

There are whole regions and even natural zones in Russia where agricultural landscapes are the only shelter for biodiversity. There are a lot of species using fields and pastures as important stations for feeding, rest and migration. There are also many species whose existence could be endangered due to changes in agricultural practice...

On the other hand biodiversity is widely used in the course of agricultural production, in the economy of local communities. Semi-natural ecosystems of agro landscapes provide society with a number of services:

• they are widely used in Russia's agriculture as productive lands and are utilized directly for agricultural output production,
  
• they stabilize agricultural landscapes and ensure preservation of arable lands  fertility,
  
• natural ecosystems and wild species provide additional renewable resources for the agricultural territories,
  
• their biodiversity serves as the source of genetic material for agricultural development,
  
• natural ecosystems are the reservoir of natural enemies of agricultural pests,
  
• they also make an important contribution in carbon accumulation.

Details you can find in the book mentioned in this section. Report determines also the main threats to agricultural biodiversity. Together with those mentioned in the Strategy for biodiversity conservation in the RF they form a list of negative trends and factors requesting for the special attention of decision makers. They include traditional threats like soil erosion, overgrazing, chemicals use, e.t.c., modern changes in agriculture like transformation of land use structure, decrease of plowed area, reduction in the numbers of livestock, etc. and negative policy trends like: state support of agricultural producers does not take into account the goals of biodiversity conservation, tax policy bottlenecks, lack of conservation policy for agricultural lands.

In the Strategy and Report you will find recommendations on measures to be taken in order to preserve and sustainably use agricultural biodiversity in Russia.

The report reviews a specific, in Russia usually ignored aspect of agricultural lands existence - their role in biological and landscape diversity conservation. Agricultural lands comprise a considerable part of Russia’s territory while their importance for the national economy and provision of its genuine independence and cultural identity is disproportionately high. At the same time these lands support the rich biological and landscape diversity. Many biological species, ecosystems and even types of landscapes exist in Russia almost exclusively on agricultural lands. Moreover, agricultural lands’ biodiversity directly depends on farming methods and land use peculiarities. And on the other hand agricultural value of arable lands (including soils fertility) is to a considerable extent determined by their current and former biodiversity. However, this fact is forgotten in public mind and is not taken into account either in political and administrative decisions in respect of Russia’s agricultural lands or in their current use. The report summarizes the impact of agriculture on biodiversity and the usefulness of biodiversity for commercial use of lands. Particular attention is given to the current situation and trends witnessed in the last decade. In accordance with the objectives of the report the political aspects of the problem of agricultural lands’ biodiversity conservation are identified; most of them are due to the fact that this problem is completely misunderstood in public mind. Finally, the report outlines the position of environmental non-governmental organizations on the issue of agricultural lands’ biodiversity conservation which was mainly expressed at the Pan-European High-Level Conference on Agriculture and Biodiversity (Paris, June 2002).