Global food security, biodiversity conservation and the future of agricultural intensification

Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesResearchpeer-review

Authors

Under the current scenario of rapid human population increase, achieving efficient and productive agricultural land use while conserving biodiversity is a global challenge. There is an ongoing debate whether land for nature and for production should be segregated (land sparing) or integrated on the same land (land sharing, wildlife-friendly farming). While recent studies argue for agricultural intensification in a land sparing approach, we suggest here that it fails to account for real-world complexity. We argue that agriculture practiced under smallholder farmer-dominated landscapes and not large-scale farming, is currently the backbone of global food security in the developing world. Furthermore, contemporary food usage is inefficient with one third wasted and a further third used inefficiently to feed livestock and that conventional intensification causes often overlooked environmental costs. A major argument for wildlife friendly farming and agroecological intensification is that crucial ecosystem services are provided by " planned" and " associated" biodiversity, whereas the land sparing concept implies that biodiversity in agroecosystems is functionally negligible. However, loss of biological control can result in dramatic increases of pest densities, pollinator services affect a third of global human food supply, and inappropriate agricultural management can lead to environmental degradation. Hence, the true value of functional biodiversity on the farm is often inadequately acknowledged or understood, while conventional intensification tends to disrupt beneficial functions of biodiversity. In conclusion, linking agricultural intensification with biodiversity conservation and hunger reduction requires well-informed regional and targeted solutions, something which the land sparing vs sharing debate has failed to achieve so far.

Original languageEnglish
JournalBiological Conservation
Volume151
Issue number1
Pages (from-to)53-59
Number of pages7
ISSN0006-3207
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 07.2012

    Research areas

  • Ecosystems Research - Biofuel directive, Food wastage, Land grabbing, Land sparing vs sharing, Wildlife-friendly farming, Yield-biodiversity trade offs

Recently viewed

Researchers

  1. Christof Radewagen

Publications

  1. Urban versus remote air concentrations of fluorotelomer alcohols and other polyfluorinated alkyl substances in Germany
  2. Gamifikation im Tourismus
  3. Moving pictures moving audiences?
  4. Cradle-to-cradle design
  5. L’avventura della percezione tra rappresentazione e affetto
  6. Teilhabe durch*in*trotz Sozialpädagogik
  7. Focus on opportunities as a mediator of the relationship between business owner's age and venture growth
  8. Deregulation in Germany - An empirical analysis
  9. Communication Regimes and Creativity
  10. Die Determinanten von Commitment und Zufriedenheit von Genossenschaftsmitgliedern - eine explorative empirische Analyse.
  11. Öffentliche Meinung über die EU
  12. Kompositionseffekte bei der Notenvergabe in Mathematik auf der 4. Schulstufe der österreichischen Volksschule
  13. Global emission inventories for C4-C14 perfluoroalkyl carboxylic acid (PFCA) homologues from 1951 to 2030, part II
  14. Das Projekt einer kritischen Gesellschaftstheorie
  15. §1 Die Rechtsschutz- und Verfahrensidee im Unionsrecht
  16. Zur Wirkung von sprachlichen Hintergrundschallen auf mentale Informationsverarbeitungsprozesse
  17. Critique
  18. Einleitung: Von der "Klein-Hypothese" zur Beratung der Gesellschaft
  19. Rechtsphilosophie nach Hegel
  20. Miriam Köster, Integration und Kohärenz im Meeresumweltschutz- und Fischereirecht der EU (2019)
  21. Gesetzmäßigkeiten, Mechanismen und der soziale Tausch
  22. Sustainability Accounting for the Industrial Use of Biomass
  23. Heayy Metal in Germany
  24. Auf die Temperatur kommt es an!
  25. Kunst und Gender
  26. Humor, revolt, and subjectivity
  27. Informelles Lernen und Popmusik
  28. Multidimensional Performance Measurement Meets Sustainability
  29. Research Gains
  30. Menschlichkeit in der Lehrer-Schüler-Beziehung