Seventeenth International Conference on Environmental, Cultural, Economic & Social Sustainability

Abstract

Land sparing and sharing are two strategies for the large-scale reconciliation of food production and nature conservation. Land sharing promotes the adoption of wildlife-friendly farming practices, reducing management intensity and generally compromising on yields, increasing the total space allocated to food production. Land sparing advocates the opposite in order to maximize space for nature. In reality, the optimal strategy is context dependent because the impacts of intensification, extensification, and abandonment on biodiversity and ecosystem services vary significantly across Europe. Hence, the efficiency of agriculture and nature conservation policies can be considerably improved by reflecting this spatial variation in desirability. The aim of this research is to quantify and assess spatial variation in the potential impacts of the transitions of agricultural land towards intensive agriculture, wildlife-friendly agriculture or nature on 10 different ecosystem service and biodiversity indicators. Analyzing the cost and benefits of each transition, we then highlight areas of low and high desirability of each transition.