Managing Agricultural Landscapes for Production and Biodiversity Outcomes

Pressure is increasing globally to increase agricultural production (including bioenergy) per unit area, provide ecosystem services such as carbon sequestration, flood control etc., and maintain cultural and biodiverse landscapes. These functions should not be totally separated rather, we need to develop agricultural systems and landscapes that also provide these services, though the balance between them will vary from place to place. Such systems must be productive, resilient and profitable, raising the issue of how the public benefits of ecosystem services are valued and captured. While many agricultural landscapes will change, there is real scope to develop systems that are both productive and biodiverse – but these need to be well thought through, they will not happen by chance.