• The role of the farmers
• In climate change mitigation
• In watershed protection services
• In biodiversity conservation
• Preserving biodiversity
• Reducing agricultural expansion
• Enhancing on-farm wild biodiversity
• Conserving agricultural biodiversity
• Preserving agriculture landscape

In biodiversity conservation

Reducing agricultural expansion into wild biodiversity-rich lands

In many areas crop and livestock producers could supply significant biodiversity conservation services by avoiding conversion of lands to agricultural use or by facilitating conservation in agricultural areas.

Agriculture can contribute to wild biodiversity by maintaining areas with relatively undisturbed ecosystems, minimizing the use of land and water resources that are rich in species, and reducing agricultural practices in areas that have been identified as important for wild biodiversity conservation (these areas can then be incorporated into national parks and reserves). 

Many areas at risk of deforestation and conversion to pasture and croplands are part of the most biologically diverse and representative habitats on the earth: farmers could supply here significant biodiversity services by avoiding conversion of these lands to agricultural use or by facilitating conservation in agricultural areas (e.g. providing wildlife “corridors” linking habitat areas (15) ). An important instrument to achieve this is to enhance the sustainability of agricultural land use and to avoid degradation of productive lands which, especially in the tropics, often forces to migrate further into natural habitats.

Payments for Environmental Services from Agricultural Landscapes - PESAL
is a project funded by the FAO Netherlands Partnership Programme © FAO 2010