For the past year, active work has been underway to develop farm-specific indicators to describe the ecosystem services provided by mountain farming. Following data entry by farmers in March/April, the calculation of eco-efficiency was initiated using the FarmLife tool. This forms the basis for the majority of the supplying and regulating services provided by mountain farming. To assess cultural ecosystem services and biodiversity, farm visits were conducted in August/September, including surveys and biodiversity assessments.
In addition to farm-specific feedback, two expert consultations took place in November to discuss the farm-specific indicators with other researchers from Austria who study ecosystem services. The feedback from the experts and farmers is being incorporated into the assessment scheme for ecosystem services. Next year, there will also be a feedback workshop, after which the project will be handed over to the University of Applied Sciences Steyr, which is working on implementing it as a business model.
