Modelling environmental and socio-economic trade-offs associated with land-sparing and land-sharing approaches to oil palm expansion

In agroecosystem management, conflicts between various services such as food provision and nutrient regulation are common. This study examined the trade-offs between selected ecosystem services such as food provision, water quantity and quality, erosion and climate regulations in an agricultural catchment in Western Switzerland. The aim was to explore the existing land use conflicts by a shift in land use and management strategy following two stakeholder-defined scenarios based on either land sparing or land sharing concepts. The Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) was used to build an agro-hydrologic model of the region, which was calibrated and validated based on daily river discharge, monthly nitrate and annual crop yield, considering uncertainties associated with land management set up and model parameterization. The results show that land sparing scenario has the highest agricultural benefit, while also the highest nitrate concentration and GHG emissions. The land sharing scenario improves water quality and climate regulation services and reduces food provision. The management changes considered in the two land use scenarios did not seem to reduce the conflict but only led to a shift in trade-offs. Water quantity and erosion regulation remain unaffected by the two scenarios.

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Taking a landscape approach to conservation goals: designing multi-objective landscapes

10.1101/2020.01.21.914721 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Anna R. Renwick ◽

Alienor L.M. Chauvenet ◽

Hugh P. Possingham ◽

Vanessa M. Adams ◽

Jennifer McGowan ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Land Management ◽

Spatial Scales ◽

General System ◽

Management Policy ◽

Land Sharing ◽

Structured Decision Making ◽

Land Sparing ◽

Management Actions ◽

Trade Offs ◽

The Cost

AbstractDesigning landscapes to accommodate both humans and nature poses huge challenges, but is increasingly recognised as an essential component of conservation and land management. The land-sparing land-sharing framework has been proposed as a tool to address this challenge. However, it has been largely criticised for its simplicity. We provide a new conceptual framework amenable to the application of structured decision-making that moves beyond the dichotomy of land-sparing or land-sharing. Using this new framework, we present a general system model that can be used to make land management decisions for the conservation of species, ecosystem services and production land at different spatial scales. The model can be parameterised for specific systems using information about: the current state of the landscape, the rates of change between landscape states, and the cost and effectiveness of taking actions. To demonstrate the utility of the model we apply it to three different landscape types. Across our three case studies, we show that investment into one of three management actions (varying degrees of management and restoration) can move the system towards more biodiversity or more managed land depending on the objectives of the land manager. We show that the dynamic and flexible nature of the landscape is important to take into account rather than a static snapshot in time. Rather than focusing on establishing the perfect landscape with a set proportion dedicated to production and to biodiversity conservation, we argue that a more useful approach is to establish incremental movements towards a landscape that meets the goals of multiple objectives. Our framework can be used to illustrate to decision makers the costs and trade-offs of different actions and help them determine land management policy.

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Evaluating environmental and ecological landscape characteristics relevant to urban resilience across gradients of land-sharing-sparing and urbanity

10.1101/605105 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Matthew Dennis ◽

Katherine L. Scaletta ◽

Philip James

Keyword(s):

Green Infrastructure ◽

Urban Landscape ◽

Landscape Planning ◽

Landscape Connectivity ◽

Urban Resilience ◽

Land Sharing ◽

Land Sparing ◽

Landscape Characteristics ◽

Trade Offs ◽

Ecological Landscape

AbstractWithin urban landscape planning, debate continues around the relative merits of land-sparing (compaction) and land-sharing (sprawl) scenarios. Using part of Greater Manchester (UK) as a case-study, we present a landscape approach to mapping green infrastructure and variation in social-ecological-environmental conditions as a function of land sparing and sharing. We do so for the landscape as a whole as well as for areas of high and low urbanity. Results imply potential trade-offs between land-sparing-sharing scenarios relevant to characteristics critical to urban resilience such as landscape connectivity and diversity, air quality, surface temperature, and access to green space. These trade-offs may be particularly complex due to the parallel influence of patch attributes such as land-cover and size and imply that both ecological restoration and spatial planning have a role to play in reconciling tensions between land-sparing and sharing strategies.

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Planning for the future

10.1093/oso/9780198739135.003.0009 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Karen J. Esler ◽

Anna L. Jacobsen ◽

R. Brandon Pratt

Keyword(s):

Best Practice ◽

Integrated Management ◽

Biodiversity Loss ◽

Future Climate Change ◽

Land Sharing ◽

Land Protection ◽

Land Sparing ◽

Habitat Conversion ◽

Sustainable Conservation ◽

Terrestrial Biomes

Mediterranean-type climate (MTC) regions are highlighted in several global analyses of conservation risk and priorities. These regions have undergone high levels of habitat conversion and yet of all terrestrial biomes they have the second lowest level of land protection. With transformation pressures set to continue (Chapter 8), planning for a sustainable conservation future in MTC regions is therefore essential. Conservation activities are represented by a variety of philosophies and motives, partially driven by the underlying differences in transformation drivers and sociopolitical contexts across MTC regions. These activities include investment in, and best-practice management of, protected areas (land sparing), an interdisciplinary focus on integrated management of production landscapes (land sharing; stewardship), as well as ecological restoration to increase habitat, improve connectivity, and provide a hedge against the impacts of future climate change. These responses need to be applied in a strategic, synergistic manner to minimize future biodiversity loss.

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Ecosystem service and dis-service impacts of increasing tree cover on agricultural land by land-sparing and land-sharing in the Welsh uplands

Ecosystem Services ◽

10.1016/j.ecoser.2021.101253 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 48 ◽

pp. 101253

Author(s):

Ashley Hardaker ◽

Tim Pagella ◽

Mark Rayment

Keyword(s):

Ecosystem Service ◽

Agricultural Land ◽

Tree Cover ◽

Land Sharing ◽

Land Sparing

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Using optimization methods to align food production and biodiversity conservation beyond land sharing and land sparing

Ecological Applications ◽

10.1890/14-1927.1 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 25 (3) ◽

pp. 589-595 ◽

Cited By ~ 33

Author(s):

Van Butsic ◽

Tobias Kuemmerle

Keyword(s):

Biodiversity Conservation ◽

Food Production ◽

Optimization Methods ◽

Land Sharing ◽

Land Sparing

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Farming with Alternative Pollinators benefits pollinators, natural enemies, and yields, and offers transformative change to agriculture

Scientific Reports ◽

10.1038/s41598-021-97695-5 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Stefanie Christmann ◽

Youssef Bencharki ◽

Soukaina Anougmar ◽

Pierre Rasmont ◽

Moulay Chrif Smaili ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Large Scale ◽

Transformative Change ◽

Net Income ◽

Land Sharing ◽

Pollinator Decline ◽

Middle Income ◽

Land Sparing ◽

Middle Income Countries ◽

Small Grant ◽

Wildflower Strips

AbstractLow- and middle-income countries cannot afford reward-based land sparing for wildflower strips to combat pollinator decline. Two small-grant projects assessed, if an opportunity-cost saving land-sharing approach, Farming with Alternative Pollinators, can provide a method-inherent incentive to motivate farmers to protect pollinators without external rewards. The first large-scale Farming-with-Alternative-Pollinators project used seven main field crops in 233 farmer fields of four agro-ecosystems (adequate rainfall, semi-arid, mountainous and oasis) in Morocco. Here we show results: higher diversity and abundance of wild pollinators and lower pest abundance in enhanced fields than in monocultural control fields; the average net-income increase per surface is 121%. The higher income is a performance-related incentive to enhance habitats. The income increase for farmers is significant and the increase in food production is substantial. Higher productivity per surface can reduce pressure on (semi)-natural landscapes which are increasingly used for agriculture. Land-use change additionally endangers biodiversity and pollinators, whereas this new pollinator-protection approach has potential for transformative change in agriculture.

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Producir y conservar: nuevos horizontes en torno a los modelos de integración y separación territorial

Sociedad y Ambiente ◽

10.31840/sya.v0i18.1874 ◽

2018 ◽

pp. 11-44 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Rubén Ortega-Álvarez ◽

Alejandro Casas ◽

Fernanda Figueroa ◽

Luis Antonio Sánchez-González

Keyword(s):

Land Sharing ◽

Land Sparing

La alimentación y provisión de materias primas a la creciente población mundial imponen retos enormes para el bienestar humano y la conservación de la biodiversidad. Frente a estos retos, ha surgido un debate multidisciplinario en el que se confrontan dos modelos de configuración territorial para la producción de alimentos y la conservación. El modelo de separación territorial (land-sparing) propone intensificar la producción agrícola industrializada y ubicar en sitios distintos las zonas para la conservación. Contrariamente, el modelo de integración territorial (land-sharing) considera indeseables los modelos industrializados de producción y sostiene que las actividades productivas primarias y la conservación son compatibles. Este trabajo revisa las propuestas y críticas asociadas con ambos modelos y aborda temas analizados de forma insuficiente en el debate. Asimismo, propone un esquema participativo para construir lineamientos de manejo de sistemas productivos. Ningún modelo por sí mismo es suficiente para resolver los retos productivos y de conservación dada la complejidad de los sistemas socioecológicos; en su lugar, es deseable construir lineamientos de manejo desde el interior de las comunidades, tomando como base las necesidades, conocimientos y capacidades de los productores locales, y apoyando su definición mediante información científica sólida. Ello facilitará desarrollar actividades productivas a través de un enfoque de sustentabilidad.

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