Biodiversity indices for the assessment of air, water and soil quality of the "Biodiversity Friend" certification in temperate areas

Friend is a standard certification developed in 2010 by World Association to evaluate the biodiversity and promote its conservation in agriculture. The procedure to obtain the certification considers the environmental impacts of the agricultural activities on the agrosystem and the biodiversity and suggests operational strategies to improve the environmental quality of the agriculture areas. The evaluation is referred to 12 actions related to low-impact methods of pest and weed control, reconstitution of soil fertility, rational management of water resources, diffusion of hedges, woodlands and nectariferous plants, conservation of agricultural biodiversity, soil, air and freshwater quality through Bio- diversity Indices, use of renewable sources for energy supply, lower CO2 production and CO 2 storage and other actions that may have beneficial effects on biodiversity. The environmental conditions of the agrosystem are evaluated by biomonitoring of air, water and soil. The biodiversity of soil and aquatic macroinvertebrates and the biodiversity of epi- phytic lichen communities decrease very quickly when the soil, water and air conditions are altered by different causes such as pollution, synthetic and organic pesticides, bad land use practices, etc. The protocol of the three indices of the standard certification Biodiversity Friend: Lichen Index (LBI-bf), Freshwater Index (FBI-bf), and Soil Index (SBI-bf) are here presented in detail.