Journal ArticleDOI
Farming and the Fate of Wild Nature
Rhys E. Green,Rhys E. Green,Stephen J. Cornell,Stephen J. Cornell,Jörn P. W. Scharlemann,Jörn P. W. Scharlemann,Andrew Balmford,Andrew Balmford +7 more
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TLDR
It is shown that the best type of farming for species persistence depends on the demand for agricultural products and on how the population densities of different species on farmland change with agricultural yield, and that high-yield farming may allow more species to persist.Abstract:
World food demand is expected to more than double by 2050. Decisions about how to meet this challenge will have profound effects on wild species and habitats. We show that farming is already the greatest extinction threat to birds (the best known taxon), and its adverse impacts look set to increase, especially in developing countries. Two competing solutions have been proposed: wildlife-friendly farming (which boosts densities of wild populations on farmland but may decrease agricultural yields) and land sparing (which minimizes demand for farmland by increasing yield). We present a model that identifies how to resolve the trade-off between these approaches. This shows that the best type of farming for species persistence depends on the demand for agricultural products and on how the population densities of different species on farmland change with agricultural yield. Empirical data on such density-yield functions are sparse, but evidence from a range of taxa in developing countries suggests that high-yield farming may allow more species to persist.read more
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Journal ArticleDOI
Yield Trends Are Insufficient to Double Global Crop Production by 2050.
TL;DR: Detailed maps are presented to identify where rates must be increased to boost crop production and meet rising demands, which are far below what is needed to meet projected demands in 2050.
Journal ArticleDOI
Global land use change, economic globalization, and the looming land scarcity
Eric F. Lambin,Patrick Meyfroidt +1 more
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that the displacement, rebound, cascade, and remittance effects that are amplified by economic globalization accelerate land conversion, and that sound policies and innovations can reconcile forest preservation with food production.
Journal ArticleDOI
Farming the planet: 1. Geographic distribution of global agricultural lands in the year 2000
TL;DR: In the year 2000, the United Nations reported that 28.6 million km 2 of cropland (12% of the Earth's ice-free land surface) and 28.0 (90% confidence range of 23.6-30.0) million km2 of pasture (22%) were converted to pasture as mentioned in this paper.
Journal ArticleDOI
Tropical forests were the primary sources of new agricultural land in the 1980s and 1990s
Holly K. Gibbs,A. S. Ruesch,Frédéric Achard,M. K. Clayton,Peter Holmgren,Navin Ramankutty,Jonathan A. Foley +6 more
TL;DR: This study analyzes the rich, pan-tropical database of classified Landsat scenes created by the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations to examine pathways of agricultural expansion across the major tropical forest regions in the 1980s and 1990s and highlights the future land conversions that probably will be needed to meet mounting demand for agricultural products.
Journal ArticleDOI
Global food security, biodiversity conservation and the future of agricultural intensification
Teja Tscharntke,Yann Clough,Thomas C. Wanger,Thomas C. Wanger,Louise E. Jackson,Iris Motzke,Iris Motzke,Ivette Perfecto,John Vandermeer,Anthony M. Whitbread +9 more
TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue that 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.
References
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Journal ArticleDOI
Extinction risk from climate change
Chris D. Thomas,Alison Cameron,Rhys E. Green,Rhys E. Green,Michel Bakkenes,Linda J. Beaumont,Yvonne C. Collingham,Barend F.N. Erasmus,Marinez Ferreira de Siqueira,Alan Grainger,Lee Hannah,Lesley Hughes,Brian Huntley,Albert S. van Jaarsveld,Guy F. Midgley,Lera Miles,Lera Miles,Miguel A. Ortega-Huerta,A. Townsend Peterson,Oliver L. Phillips,Stephen E. Williams +20 more
TL;DR: Estimates of extinction risks for sample regions that cover some 20% of the Earth's terrestrial surface show the importance of rapid implementation of technologies to decrease greenhouse gas emissions and strategies for carbon sequestration.
Journal ArticleDOI
Agricultural sustainability and intensive production practices
David Tilman,Kenneth G. Cassman,Pamela A. Matson,Pamela A. Matson,Rosamond L. Naylor,Stephen Polasky +5 more
TL;DR: A doubling in global food demand projected for the next 50 years poses huge challenges for the sustainability both of food production and of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems and the services they provide to society.
Journal ArticleDOI
Forecasting agriculturally driven global environmental change
David Tilman,Joseph Fargione,Brian G. Wolff,Carla M. D'Antonio,Andrew P. Dobson,Robert W. Howarth,David W. Schindler,William H. Schlesinger,Daniel Simberloff,Deborah L. Swackhamer +9 more
TL;DR: Should past dependences of the global environmental impacts of agriculture on human population and consumption continue, 109 hectares of natural ecosystems would be converted to agriculture by 2050, accompanied by 2.4- to 2.7-fold increases in nitrogen- and phosphorus-driven eutrophication of terrestrial, freshwater, and near-shore marine ecosystems.
Journal ArticleDOI
Agricultural intensification and the collapse of Europe's farmland bird populations
TL;DR: The results suggest that recent trends in agriculture have had deleterious and measurable effects on bird populations on a continental scale and predict that the introduction of EU agricultural policies into former communist countries hoping to accede to the EU in the near future will result in significant declines in the important bird populations there.
Journal ArticleDOI
How effective are European agri‐environment schemes in conserving and promoting biodiversity?
TL;DR: In this article, the authors carried out a comprehensive search for studies that test the effectiveness of agri-environment schemes in published papers or reports and found that only 62 evaluation studies were found originating from just five EU countries and Switzerland (5).
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