Sparing Land for Biodiversity at Multiple Spatial Scales

Abstract

A common approach to the conservation of farmland biodiversity and the promotion of multifunctional landscapes, particularly in landscapes containing only small remnants of non-crop habitats, has been to maintain landscape heterogeneity and reduce land-use intensity. In contrast, it has recently been shown that devoting specific areas of non-crop habitats to conservation, segregated from high-yielding farmland ("land sparing"), can more effectively conserve biodiversity than promoting low-yielding, less intensively managed farmland occupying larger areas ("land sharing"). In the present paper we suggest that the debate over the relative merits of land sparing or land sharing is partly blurred by the differing spatial scales at which it is suggested that land sparing should be applied. We argue that there is no single correct spatial scale for segregating biodiversity protection and commodity production in multifunctional landscapes. Instead we propose an alternative conceptual construct, which we call "multiple-scale land sparing," targeting biodiversity and ecosystem services in transformed landscapes. We discuss how multiple-scale land sparing may overcome the apparent dichotomy between land sharing and land sparing and help to find acceptable compromises that conserve biodiversity and landscape multifunctionality.

To integrate or to segregate food crop and energy crop cultivation at the landscape scale? Perspectives on biodiversity conservation in agriculture in Europe

“…We reasoned that a strict segregation of food and energy crops with a restriction of energy crop cultivation on economically marginal land and land unsuitable for food crop production is unlikely to mitigate the current situation of biodiversity loss originating from intensive agricultural systems on productive land, especially in the European context. If no alternative measures for biodiversity conservation were developed within intensive agriculture, we would share the concern of Ekroos et al [43], who argued that segregation strategies could increase the existing negative effects on biodiversity, and even erode ecosystem services that could underpin sustainable, high-yielding farming systems based on ecological intensification [35]. Our analysis demonstrated that most of the LUC in the sparing strategy would occur within the economically marginal land category.…”

“…[42]) to avoid negative land-use change (LUC) effects, including the impacts on biodiversity and ecosystems. The concepts of land sparing and land sharing can be applied to any energy crop production system on a range of spatial scales (sensu [43]). There are two types of land-sparing approaches.…”

“…This is because "optimal" landscapes will likely have features of both strategies [63]. Moreover, there is a wide variation in definitions of what constitutes the spared land, ranging from natural habitats, grazed grasslands to field boundaries [43]. Likewise, there is a range of ideas about the spatial scale at which land sparing is applicable [40,64].…”

“…Likewise, there is a range of ideas about the spatial scale at which land sparing is applicable [40,64]. Ekroos et al [43] suggested a multiple-scale land-sparing approach where the respective scale at which land-sparing options were applied corresponds to the most appropriate aspects of biodiversity conservation.…”

Pipe Dreams: Urban Wastewater Treatment for Biodiversity Protection

“…According to researchers in the Department of Biology of Lund University in Sweden, land sparing could be executed simultaneously at multiple spatial scales to the greatest effect for local biodiversity. With appropriate planning, conserving smaller scale areas for habitat may better facilitate the movement of species between habitat fragments and provide greater resources to nomadic species [29].…”