A biodiversity perspective on agricultural sustainablility: Toward a new paradigm of "Ecoagriculture" landscapes

The dominant 20^th–century model of land use, which assumed and promoted the strict segregation of agricultural production from areas managed for biodiversity conservation, is no longer relevant in much of the world. The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment confirmed that the extensification and intensification of agriculture have dramatically increased the ecological footprint of crop, livestock, fishery and forest production. Much of the world’s biodiversity will have to be conserved in or around agricultural regions, or it will not be conserved at all. Moreover, rural communities themselves depend for sustainable production and livelihoods on key elements of biodiversity and ecosystem services that are widely threatened. Fortunately, a growing body of research suggests that agricultural landscapes can be designed and managed to host wild biodiversity of many types (though not all), with neutral or even positive effects on agricultural production and livelihoods, through innovations in farming systems and in the spatial layout and management of natural areas within agricultural landscapes. Innovative practitioners and scientists around the world have begun to adapt, design and manage diverse types of “ecoagriculture” landscapes for positive co-benefits for production, biodiversity and local people. This paper synthesizes the results of recent research and case experience to assess the state of knowledge of ecoagriculture. Assessments include the potentials and limitations for successful conservation of biodiversity in productive agricultural landscapes, through innovations in both production systems and management of conservation areas. Discussion also addresses the feasibility of making such approaches financial viable, and the organizational, governance and policy frameworks needed to enable ecoagriculture planning and implementation at globally significant scale. Effectively conserving wild biodiversity in agricultural landscapes will require significantly scaled up action, through targeted research, policies coordinated across sectors, and strategic support to agricultural communities and local conservationists actively seeking to reconcile livelihood and biodiversity conservation.