Puzzling Biodiversity is a methodological development project that aims to link expected biodiversity gains with biodiversity-friendly practices in certain socio-ecosystems. In the case of managed forests, the idea is to compare a list of 16 biodiversity-friendly silvicultural management practices with each other. The list of practices was drawn up by field managers and is being evaluated online by biodiversity experts.
The experiment is conducted in five stages, the first three of which are sequential and mandatory. For each of the 16 management practices, 5 to 6 cumulative levels are proposed, depending on their commitment to biodiversity. Practice by practice, the initial objective is to rank these levels according to the expected biodiversity gain. The levels are thus repositioned by the participant so that their differences represent the relative difference between the expected biodiversity gains. Next, each practice is considered at its maximum level and all practices are ranked according to their expected biodiversity gain. Finally, the biodiversity gain of the least effective practice is adjusted in relation to the most effective one.
Two additional optional steps are then proposed to the participant, which add real value to the method. On the one hand, they provide a better understanding of the combinations between practices (when a practice is implemented, its expected gain can be improved or reduced by the presence of another practice). On the other hand, these final steps make it possible to assess the effect of certain characteristics of the implementation environment on the expected biodiversity gain (for example, in the case of wetlands: soil moisture or dryness, soil pH, and the openness or closure of the landscape within a 5 km radius).