Reconciling Food Production and Biodiversity Conservation: Land Sharing and Land Sparing Compared

Abstract

The question of how to meet rising food demand at the least cost to biodiversity requires the evaluation of two contrasting alternatives: land sharing, which integrates both objectives on the same land; and land sparing, in which high-yield farming is combined with protecting natural habitats from conversion to agriculture. To test these alternatives, we compared crop yields and densities of bird and tree species across gradients of agricultural intensity in southwest Ghana and northern India. More species were negatively affected by agriculture than benefited from it, particularly among species with small global ranges. For both taxa in both countries, land sparing is a more promising strategy for minimizing negative impacts of food production, at both current and anticipated future levels of production.

Intensification of cattle ranching production systems: socioeconomic and environmental synergies and risks in Brazil

“…Agricultural intensification -increasing agricultural inputs to improve yields per unit of area -has been highlighted as one of the means to reach global food security and as a potential strategy for reducing agricultural expansion into natural ecosystems (Tilman et al, 2002;Strassburg et al, 2010;Phalan et al, 2011;Mueller et al, 2012;Strassburg et al, 2012a and. Over the last years, intensification has been brought into international scientific and political debate as a response to the steadily increasing demand for agricultural products (Barretto et al, 2013).…”

“…Because agricultural intensification increases yields per unit area, it carries the potential for reducing agriculture encroachment into natural areas in Brazil, an effect usually called 'land sparing' (Phalan et al, 2011). Martha et al (2012) have discussed that while beef production initially increased through pasture expansion, productivity gains explain 79% of the growth in beef Brazilian production between 1950 and 2006.…”

New Synthesis: Chemical Ecology and Sustainable Food Production

“…However, Baulcombe, in the report that he led on producing for the senior scientific academy of the UK (Royal Society, 2009), outlined the technologies necessary for sustainable intensification of food production, and many of these objectives can be tackled by chemical ecology. Recently, Phalan et al (2011) provided evidence that sparing is more viable in this way than sharing. Thus, it is towards intensification that chemical ecology should primarily be directed and not in trying to create systems where agricultural production shares the same land in an attempt to maintain or expand species diversity.…”

Regional suitability for agricultural intensification: a spatial analysis of the Southern Agricultural Growth Corridor of Tanzania

“…There is increasing concern about the potential negative environmental and social consequences of the Growth Corridor approach (Kaarhus, 2011;Kuhlmann, Sechler, & Guinan, 2011;Laurance & Balmford, 2013;Paul & Steinbrecher, 2013;Phalan, Onial, Balmford, & Green, 2011;Weng et al, 2013). At the same time, many African countries have made commitments to green growth or greener economies (e.g.…”