Current conservation
Current conservation policies risk accelerating biodiversity loss
Three approaches that aim to cut the harms of agriculture — land sharing, rewilding and organic farming — risk driving up food imports and causing environmental damage overseas. An alternative approach is both effective and cheaper.
With agriculture the main driver of the habitat loss and degradation that underpin the global biodiversity crisis, governments worldwide have implemented policies to lessen farming’s impact on the environment.
Meanwhile, landowners, organizations interested in the financing of biodiversity conservation and certain non-governmental groups, including conservation bodies, have been pushing for land-use changes that benefit nature.
However, numerous studies show that some of today’s most popular conservation policies are doing little to help those species most affected by farming. What’s more, by reducing how much food is produced per unit area (yield), they are driving up food imports and thereby having an impact on wildlife overseas.
One of us (I.B.) has advised seven UK secretaries of state for the environment over the past decade; the other (A.B.) has, for two decades, led empirical work investigating how to reconcile food production with biodiversity conservation.
There are many reasons for the disconnect between the science and policy.
Part of the problem is that, especially in Europe, the owners of the biggest, and often richest, farms stand to gain the most from current policies. Thousands of influential individuals are lobbying to maintain the status quo in agricultural policy.
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