Biodiversity loss caused by livestock production is a key environmental issue. Biodiversity-friendly livestock systems aim to favour biodiversity mainly for its own sake. Environmental impacts of biodiversity-friendly livestock systems have not been studied, nor have trade-offs between higher productivity and lower environmental impacts of these systems.

This study aimed to (i) assess the productivity and environmental impacts of a sample of cattle-oriented production systems representing a wide range of external inputs, productivity and consideration of biodiversity; (ii) identify trade-offs among the objectives of lower input use, higher productivity, lower environmental impacts and higher energy return on investment (EROI); (iii) relate the systems’ production strategies to the trade-offs identified and (iv) identify perspectives for biodiversity-friendly livestock systems.

This study assessed the productivity and environmental impacts of a sample of seven cattle-oriented production systems: an agricultural rewilding system (biodiversity-friendly, in England), three suckler beef systems (two of them considered biodiversity-friendly, in France) and three dairy systems (one biodiversity-friendly and one conventional, in France). Life cycle assessment (LCA) was applied to assess six environmental impacts (i.e. terrestrial acidification, freshwater eutrophication, marine eutrophication, land occupation, and in particular, climate change and energy demand) and was combined with calculation of EROI.