Biodiversity and pollination benefits trade off against profit in an intensive farming system
(2023) In Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 120(28).- Abstract
Agricultural expansion and intensification have boosted global food production but have come at the cost of environmental degradation and biodiversity loss. Biodiversity-friendly farming that boosts ecosystem services, such as pollination and natural pest control, is widely being advocated to maintain and improve agricultural productivity while safeguarding biodiversity. A vast body of evidence showing the agronomic benefits of enhanced ecosystem service delivery represent important incentives to adopt practices enhancing biodiversity. However, the costs of biodiversity-friendly management are rarely taken into account and may represent a major barrier impeding uptake by farmers. Whether and how biodiversity conservation, ecosystem... (More)
Agricultural expansion and intensification have boosted global food production but have come at the cost of environmental degradation and biodiversity loss. Biodiversity-friendly farming that boosts ecosystem services, such as pollination and natural pest control, is widely being advocated to maintain and improve agricultural productivity while safeguarding biodiversity. A vast body of evidence showing the agronomic benefits of enhanced ecosystem service delivery represent important incentives to adopt practices enhancing biodiversity. However, the costs of biodiversity-friendly management are rarely taken into account and may represent a major barrier impeding uptake by farmers. Whether and how biodiversity conservation, ecosystem service delivery, and farm profit can go hand in hand is unknown. Here, we quantify the ecological, agronomic, and net economic benefits of biodiversity-friendly farming in an intensive grassland–sunflower system in Southwest France. We found that reducing land-use intensity on agricultural grasslands drastically enhances flower availability and wild bee diversity, including rare species. Biodiversity-friendly management on grasslands furthermore resulted in an up to 17% higher revenue on neighboring sunflower fields through positive effects on pollination service delivery. However, the opportunity costs of reduced grassland forage yields consistently exceeded the economic benefits of enhanced sunflower pollination. Our results highlight that profitability is often a key constraint hampering adoption of biodiversity-based farming and uptake critically depends on society’s willingness to pay for associated delivery of public goods such as biodiversity.
(Less)
- author
- organization
- publishing date
- 2023
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- agroecology, biodiversity-friendly farming, ecosystem services, land-use intensity, wild bees
- in
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
- volume
- 120
- issue
- 28
- article number
- e2212124120
- publisher
- National Academy of Sciences
- external identifiers
-
- pmid:37399410
- scopus:85163944514
- ISSN
- 0027-8424
- DOI
- 10.1073/pnas.2212124120
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 80060b8f-a94b-43d2-bd29-fc3030730aed
- date added to LUP
- 2023-09-05 14:56:05
- date last changed
- 2024-04-20 02:48:05
@article{80060b8f-a94b-43d2-bd29-fc3030730aed,
abstract = {{<p>Agricultural expansion and intensification have boosted global food production but have come at the cost of environmental degradation and biodiversity loss. Biodiversity-friendly farming that boosts ecosystem services, such as pollination and natural pest control, is widely being advocated to maintain and improve agricultural productivity while safeguarding biodiversity. A vast body of evidence showing the agronomic benefits of enhanced ecosystem service delivery represent important incentives to adopt practices enhancing biodiversity. However, the costs of biodiversity-friendly management are rarely taken into account and may represent a major barrier impeding uptake by farmers. Whether and how biodiversity conservation, ecosystem service delivery, and farm profit can go hand in hand is unknown. Here, we quantify the ecological, agronomic, and net economic benefits of biodiversity-friendly farming in an intensive grassland–sunflower system in Southwest France. We found that reducing land-use intensity on agricultural grasslands drastically enhances flower availability and wild bee diversity, including rare species. Biodiversity-friendly management on grasslands furthermore resulted in an up to 17% higher revenue on neighboring sunflower fields through positive effects on pollination service delivery. However, the opportunity costs of reduced grassland forage yields consistently exceeded the economic benefits of enhanced sunflower pollination. Our results highlight that profitability is often a key constraint hampering adoption of biodiversity-based farming and uptake critically depends on society’s willingness to pay for associated delivery of public goods such as biodiversity.</p>}},
author = {{Scheper, Jeroen and Badenhausser, Isabelle and Kantelhardt, Jochen and Kirchweger, Stefan and Bartomeus, Ignasi and Bretagnolle, Vincent and Clough, Yann and Gross, Nicolas and Raemakers, Ivo and Vilà, Montserrat and Zaragoza-Trello, Carlos and Kleijn, David}},
issn = {{0027-8424}},
keywords = {{agroecology; biodiversity-friendly farming; ecosystem services; land-use intensity; wild bees}},
language = {{eng}},
number = {{28}},
publisher = {{National Academy of Sciences}},
series = {{Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America}},
title = {{Biodiversity and pollination benefits trade off against profit in an intensive farming system}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2212124120}},
doi = {{10.1073/pnas.2212124120}},
volume = {{120}},
year = {{2023}},
}