Birds, Bats and Farms with Trees – opportunities for sustainable biodiversity management

Birds and bats play a major role in the provision of multiple ecosystem services that are considered to be of high importance for more biodiversity-friendly and sustainable farming practices. In this short presentation, I will present an overview of our international research on this topic, including findings on the economic importance of bird- and bat-mediated pest suppression services in tropical agroforestry systems, multitrophic interactions and management implications. I also present cross-disciplinary approaches to investigate implementation gaps through socio-ecological studies and how their findings will be integrated into new projects in Peruvian cacao agroforestry systems and Italian olive groves.

Bea Maas’ work is focused on the conservation and management of biodiversity (i.e., multitrophic interactions and ecosystem services of birds, bats and arthropods) in agroecological landscapes. Integrating approaches from ecology, conservation, communication, and socio-ecology is central to her work in conservation science and practice – as well as promoting diversity, equity and inclusion in the international science community. Currently based at the University of Vienna in Austria, and co-affiliated to institutes in Peru, Germany and Italy, she works internationally as a senior scientist, lecturer, scientific editor and sustainability communicator. Bea Maas studied biology (specialized in ecology and conservation) at the University of Vienna in Austria (2004-2009) and completed her PhD in agroecology at the University of Göttingen in Germany (2014). For her research, she centered her life in Indonesia for seven years (2008-2014). Since 2016, she also works as Associate Editor of the scientific journals "Biological Conservation” and "Perspectives in Ecology and Conservation”. Since 2022, she is the principial investigator of three international research projects (ECO-CACAO in Peru; ECO-OLIVES in Italy and SOUNDS WILD in Austria) – all focused on the conservation and management of biodiversity, as well as the effective communication and implementation of conservation policies in agroecological landscapes.