Authors: Alif, Živa; Šumrada, Tanja;

While the dramatic loss of farmland biodiversity in Europe has typically been tackled through governmental interventions like agri-environmental schemes, this has brought little success in reversing the biodiversity decline and making farming wildlife-friendly. An alternative way to stimulate farmers to use biodiversity-friendly measures is through market-based solutions. Voluntary certification schemes are one such example where farmers implement a more sustainable production process in return for a higher price or better market access. Here we examine biodiversity-friendly certification schemes in Europe to determine what contributes to creation of successful schemes to conserve farmland biodiversity. We compare what criteria the schemes use for wildlife-friendly farming and examine the factors that lead to the founding of wildlife-friendly certification schemes and adoption by farmers through the diffusion of innovations theory. After the initial screening, we selected nine case studies from across Europe covering different agricultural sectors and performed interviews with the scheme leaders. Most schemes are led by NGOs and require producers to manage a certain proportion of their land for biodiversity. We identify key policy interventions that can stimulate the creation and promotion of wildlife-friendly certification schemes among farmers and consumers in the future as an alternative approach for farmland biodiversity loss prevention.