Achieving production and conservation simultaneously in tropicalagricultural landscapes

Renwick, A.R., Vickery, J.A., Potts, S. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2045-980X, Bolwig, S., Nalwanga, D., Pomeroy, D.E., Mushabe, D. and Atkinson, P.W. (2014) Achieving production and conservation simultaneously in tropicalagricultural landscapes. Agriculture Ecosystems & Environment, 192. pp. 130-134. ISSN 0167-8809 doi: 10.1016/j.agee.2014.04.011

Abstract/Summary

Increasing population size and demand for food in the developing world is driving the intensification ofagriculture, often threatening the biodiversity within the farmland itself and in the surrounding land-scape. This paper quantifies bird and tree species richness, tree carbon and farmer’s gross income, andinteractions between these four variables, across an agricultural gradient in central Uganda. We showedthat higher cultivation intensities in farmed landscapes resulted in increased income but also a declinein species richness of birds and trees, and reductions in tree carbon storage. These declines were particu-larly marked with a shift from high intensity smallholder mixed cropping to plantation style agriculture.This was especially evident for birds where significant declines only occurred in plantations. Small scalefarming will likely continue to be a key source of cash income for the rural populations, and ensuring‘sustained agricultural growth’ within such systems while minimising negative impacts on biodiversityand other key ecosystem services will be a major future challenge.