They rarely make the headlines: a hedgerow along a field edge, a ditch running between plots, a flower strip, a dry-stone wall on a terraced slope. Yet these modest features scattered through farmland are quietly among the most effective tools we have for keeping agricultural landscapes healthy. This week, LAFERIA launches a new communication campaign to put them centre stage.

Running across LinkedIn and Bluesky over the coming days, the campaign introduces the four families of landscape features (LFs) - woody, grassy, wet and stony - and shows what each one delivers for a working farm. From hedgerows and tree rows to ditches, ponds, flower margins, terraces and stone walls, each post distils the evidence on how these features support biodiversity, clean water, healthy soil and the character of the countryside.

The campaign draws on an evidence review carried out by the LAFERIA team, which brought together 40 review papers alongside additional primary studies to answer a deceptively simple question: what do LFs do for a farm? The answer that emerges is encouraging. Most of the documented effects are positive, and - importantly - the same features that benefit wildlife and water sit comfortably alongside crop yield, pollination and pest control, rather than competing with them.

Some findings stand out. Grassy features such as flower strips and buffer margins carry the strongest track record of all, supporting pollinators and natural pest enemies while cutting soil loss and runoff. Woody features like hedgerows store carbon at levels approaching woodland and intercept much of the nitrogen and phosphorus that would otherwise wash off a field. Wet features - ditches, small wetlands and riparian buffers - act as the water-cleaners of the farm, removing nutrients, pesticides and sediment. And stony features, though the least studied, show real promise for holding soil and water on slopes and for the heritage and recreational value they bring to rural landscapes.

A recurring theme runs through the campaign: LFs are at their best when they are joined up. Linked across a farm, they form a connected green-blue network - green for the hedgerows and margins, blue for the ditches and ponds - that lets wildlife move and water flow through the whole landscape.

This work speaks directly to Europe's wider ambitions for farmland, including the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 and the broader push to bring nature back into agricultural areas. By translating a dense body of scientific evidence into something a farmer, land manager or policymaker can act on, LAFERIA aims to make the case for LFs both clear and practical.

The campaign also looks ahead. Knowing that these features work is only part of the picture; the harder questions concern how to re-establish and integrate them into existing farms - the costs and benefits at farm level, successful examples of implementation, and the long-term maintenance that keeps them delivering. These are precisely the questions LAFERIA will tackle as the project develops.

Follow the series on LinkedIn and Bluesky over the coming couple of weeks as we take each landscape feature type in turn.