Natalia Estrada-Carmona

Bioversity International · Multifunctional Landscapes

Population pressure is speeding the rate of deforestation in Sub-Saharan Africa, increasing the cost of biomass cooking fuel, which over 80 percent of the population relies upon. Higher energy input costs for meal preparation command a larger portion of household spending which in turn induces families to focus their diet on quick cooking staples....

Aim Agriculture depends heavily on biodiversity, yet unsustainable management practices continue to affect a wide range of organisms and ecosystems at unprecedented levels worldwide. Addressing the global challenge of biodiversity loss requires access to consolidated knowledge across management practices, spatial levels, and taxonomic groups. Loca...

Trade-off analysis (TOA) is central to policy and decision-making aimed at promoting sustainable agricultural landscapes. Yet, a generic methodological framework to assess trade-offs in agriculture is absent, largely due to the wide range of research disciplines and objectives for which TOA is used. In this study, we systematically reviewed 119 stu...

Globally, land and seascapes across the bioculturally diverse tropics are in transition. Impacted by the demands of distant consumers, the processes of global environmental change and numerous interventions seeking climate, conservation and development goals, these transitions have the potential to impact the relationships and plurality of values h...

Integrated landscape approaches (ILA) aim to reconcile multiple, often competing, interests across agriculture, nature conservation, and other land uses. Recognized ILA design principles provide guidance for implementation, yet application remains challenging, and a strong performance evidence-base is yet to be formed. Through a critical literature...

The convergence of the biodiversity and climate crises, widening of wealth inequality, and most recently the COVID-19 pandemic underscore the urgent need to mobilize change to secure sustainable futures. Centres of tropical biodiversity are a major focus of conservation efforts, delivered in predominantly site-level interventions often incorporatin...

In late 2021, a range of experts from around the world were approached to provide expert input to the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF)–the new strategic framework under the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) that will guide interventions to conserve biodiversity and ecosystem services for the next three decades. In this opinion...

To leverage agriculture's potential to better benefit both people and nature, policymakers need clear messages about which farming practices positively impact biodiversity and yields, and when trade-offs arise. Existing reviews analyse effects of different agricultural practices on either biodiversity or yield, without considering interactions. Her...

Restoration of degraded land is key to enhancing land productivity and farmers' wellbeing in sub-Saharan Africa. Evidence shows that the benefits of land restoration are tremendous, ranging from biophysical benefits in soil health, agricultural productivity, ecosystem services, to socio-economic dimensions such as improving farmers’ income and live...

Agriculture is the largest single source of environmental degradation, responsible for over 30% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, 70% of freshwater use and 80% of land conversion: it is the single largest driver of biodiversity loss (Foley JA, Science 309:570–574, 2005, Nature 478:337–342, 2011; IPBES. Global assessment report on biodiversi...

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4423197&download=yes

Sediment export and retention are important ecosystem processes in any landscape causing soil erosion and sediment loading in waterways consequently affecting the health of aquatic habitats downstream. The present study quantifies sediment export and retention in four watersheds, viz., Hivra, Satrapur, Konta, and Jagdalpur in the Godavari River Bas...

Managing agricultural landscapes to support biodiversity conservation requires profound structural changes worldwide. Often, discussions are centered on management at the field level. However, a wide and growing body of evidence calls for zooming out and targeting agricultural policies, research, and interventions at the landscape level to halt and...

Achieving multiple sustainable development goals simultaneously demands managing agricultural resources for different objectives and actively considering how these objectives compete (trade-offs) or complement (synergies). Trade-off analyses (TOA) are therefore central for policy and decision-making to achieve sustainable agricultural landscapes. Y...

Integrated landscape approaches (ILA) aim to reconcile multiple, often competing, interests across agriculture, nature conservation, and other land uses. Recognized ILA design principles provide guidance for their implementation, yet application remains challenging, and a strong performance evidence-base is yet to be formed. A comprehensive literat...

Environment‐facing interventions impact the distribution, use of and access of natural resources and have important implications for all dimensions (material, relational, quality of life) of human well‐being (HWB). Yet conventional impact metrics routinely surpass the non‐material impacts which may be particularly salient in rural contexts where sm...

To reorient food systems to ensure they deliver healthy diets that protect against multiple forms of malnutrition and diet-related disease and safeguard the environment, ecosystems, and natural resources, there is a need for better governance and accountability. However, decision-makers are often in the dark on how to navigate their food systems to...

p>In the original publication of the article, under the case study “Case study 3: Participatory guarantee system to stimulate agroecological transition in Cuba”, the reference “Fernández León 2016” should read “Fernández and León 2016”. Further, the correct reference should read as below, Díaz Fernández I, León DE (2016) Gestión Empresarial y Géner...

The debate concerning the need for significant transformations towards more nutrition oriented, environmentally sustainable and inclusive food systems has generated increased attention towards agroecology in recent years. Literature on this subject has already demonstrated that transitions to agroecology will be context specific, as countries and r...

Homogenisation and intensification of agricultural ecosystems are among the most important threats to biodiversity, linked to declines in pollinators, soil biota and ecosystem functioning. Diversification has been proposed as a way to restore ecosystem functioning in agricultural landscapes. To manage agricultural land for multiple ecosystem functi...

Defining a safe and just space for the biosphere requires global-scale synthetic measures of functional integrity in relation to Nature’s Contributions to People (NCP). We estimated, based on a systematic review of the literature, the minimum level of functional integrity needed to secure multiple critical ecosystem services, including pollination,...

Governments are updating national strategies to meet global goals on biodiversity, climate change and food systems proposed in the Convention on Biological Diversity post-2020 framework and agreed at the United Nation’s Climate Change Conference (COP26) and Food Systems Summit (UNFSS). This represents a unique and crucial opportunity to integrate a...

The Agrobiodiversity Index report 2021: Assessing Mediterranean Food Systems analyses the state of agrobiodiversity in a set of Mediterranean countries, looking at agrobiodiversity in food consumption, production, and genetic resource conservation. It sheds light on the actions and policies countries are already taking to use and preserve their agr...

Our knowledge about the status of agrobiodiversity on farms is still very limited. While several studies to assess the crop genetic diversity on farms have been undertaken, there are no systematic documentation and monitoring practices for varietal diversity in space and time. Achievement of the agrobiodiversity Aichi Target 13, established under t...

Agroecology is the application of ecological principles to agricultural systems and practices and the application of social justice principles to whole food systems. Agroecological farming, an unfamiliar concept to those who treat agriculture and ecology as separate subjects, refers to farming for producing food, employment and economic benefits in...

The diversity of plants, animals and microorganisms that directly or indirectly support food and agriculture is critical to achieving healthy diets and agroecosystems. Here we present the Agrobiodiversity Index (based on 22 indicators), which provides a monitoring framework and informs food systems policy. Agrobiodiversity Index calculations for 80...

The crucial roles of biodiversity in agriculture - a necessary understanding if agirculture is to become more sustainable.

The linkages between agriculture and biodiversity - an imperative for understanding sustainable food production

With the Convention on Biological Diversity conference (COP15), United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26), and United Nations Food Systems Summit, 2021 is a pivotal year for transitioning towards sustainable food systems. Diversified farming systems are key to more sustainable food production. Here we present a global dataset documenting out...

This study has been commissioned by FAO to help strengthen the rationale on the nexus of biodiversity-climate change-food and nutrition security in the Small Island Developing States (SIDS) of Samoa and Tonga. The literature review examines food and nutrition security levels in Samoa and Tonga, in the light of biodiversity for food and agriculture...

The expansion and intensification of agriculture have led to global declines in biodiversity. This paper presents a systematic review protocol to clarify under what management and landscape contexts diversified farming practices are effective at improving outcomes for terrestrial biodiversity, and potential trade-offs or synergies with agricultural...

Multiple lines of evidence call for the use of locally-relevant strategies to guide and support sustainable agricultural intensification while improving development and conservation outcomes. The goal of this study was to identify the ecosystem services from natural and agricultural systems to achieve this aim in the Barotse Floodplain of Zambia. O...

Smallholder agriculture is an important source of livelihoods in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. In these regions the highest concentrations of nutritionally vulnerable populations are found. Agricultural development needs to be nutrition-sensitive, and contribute simultaneously to improving household nutrition, farm productivity and environment...

Sustainable land management is at the heart of some of the most intractable challenges facing humanity in the 21st century. It is critical for tackling biodiversity loss, land degradation, climate change and the decline of ecosystem services. It underpins food production, livelihoods, dietary health, social equity, climate change adaptation, and ma...

Sustainability agendas increasingly recognize that attaining conservation and development outcomes demands greater integration across sectors. Integrated landscape initiatives (ILIs) are a leading approach to reconciling multiple objectives. However, a characterization of the diversity of approaches under the ILI umbrella and the comparative perfor...

Capturing countries' commitments for measuring and monitoring progress towards certain goals, including the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), remains underexplored. The Agrobiodiversity Index bridges this gap by using text mining techniques to quantify countries' commitments towards safeguarding and using agrobiodiversity for healthy diets, sus...

Assessing progress towards healthier people, farms and landscapes through nutrition-sensitive agriculture (NSA) requires transdisciplinary methods with robust models and metrics. Farm-household models could facilitate disentangling the complex agriculture-nutrition nexus, by jointly assessing performance indicators on different farm system componen...

Land clearing for agricultural use is a primary driver of biodiversity loss and fragmentation of natural ecosystems. Restoring natural habitat connectivity by retaining quality habitats and increasing on-farm tree cover contributes to species' mobility and persistence in agricultural landscapes. Nonetheless, remarkably few studies have quantified t...

Today, global food production is the largest driver of environmental degradation and biodiversity loss (Willett et al. 2019). Rising global food demand and limited arable land are pushing us to expand agricultural frontiers and production. This often happens without regard to the environment, causing biodiversity loss, land and water degradation (B...

Land clearing for agricultural use is a primary driver of biodiversity loss and fragmentation of natural ecosystems. Restoring natural habitat connectivity by retaining quality habitats and increasing on-farm tree cover contributes to species' mobility and persistence in agricultural landscapes. Nonetheless, remarkably few studies have quantified t...

Smallholder famers in West Africa use multiple ecosystem services (ES) in their day-today lives. The contribution that these services make to human well-being (HWB), and therefore to development outcomes, is not well understood. We analyse smallholder farmer perceptions of ES, ecosystem disservices (ED), and their HWB importance around community-ma...

p>Farm models have the potential to describe farming systems and livelihoods, identify trade-offs and synergies, and provide ex-ante assessments of agricultural technologies and policies. We developed three new modules related to budget, labor, and human nutrition for the bio-economic whole-farm model ‘FarmDESIGN’. The expanded model positions the...

The Agrobiodiversity Compendium provides guidelines for the collection and analysis of information about the diversity of crops, livestock, pollinators and harvested wild plants. The methods described have all been used and documented with communities around the world in landscapes with diverse environmental and cultural features. These methods can...

p>This eco-type map presents land units with distinct vegetation and exposure to floods (or droughts) in three villages in the Barotseland, Zambia. The knowledge and eco-types descriptions were collected from participatory mapping and focus group discussions with 77 participants from Mapungu, Lealui, and Nalitoya. We used two Landsat 8 Enhanced The...

3 KEY MESSAGES: > Managing farming systems sustainably means that agriculture needs to be about much more than yields of commodity crops in highly simplified and specialized landscapes. > Agricultural biodiversity provides variety and variability within and among species, fields, farms and landscapes. This diversity helps drive critical ecological...

CHAPTER 3-Using biodiversity to provide multiple services in sustainable farming systems 3 KEY MESSAGES: > 1. Managing farming systems sustainably means that agriculture needs to be about much more than yields of commodity crops in highly simplified and specialized landscapes. 2. Agricultural biodiversity provides variety and variability within...

Biodiversity is in decline globally and climate change looks set to further accelerate the process through its impact on habitat loss and fragmentation. Landscape connectivity, or the ability of species to move between areas of habitat via corridors and linkage zones, could help halt the decline by promoting improved foraging, breeding and migratio...

http://ab.pensoft.net/articles.php?id=12837&display_type=list&element_type=9

Ecosystem service-support tools are commonly used to guide natural resource management. Often, empirically based models are preferred due to low data requirements, simplicity and clarity. Yet, uncertainty produced by local context or parameter estimation remains poorly quantified and documented. We assessed model uncertainty of the Revised Universa...

The forest transition framework describes the temporal changes of forest areas with economic development. A first phase of forest contraction is followed by a second phase of expansion once a turning point is reached. This framework does not differentiate forest types or ecosystem services, and describes forests regardless of their contribution to...

Transformation of ES variables. (PDF)

Details on land-cover changes. (PDF)

Parameters used in ES modeling. (PDF)

Results of the sub-watershed cluster analysis. (PDF)

Linear models of land-cover changes. (PDF)

Agriculture faces the dual challenge of feeding a 9-12 billion global population by 2050 and reducing its footprint on the environment. While the impact of agriculture on the environment is well recognized, and there are growing calls for efforts to reduce or mitigate this impact, the ecosystem services approach presents an alternative where ecosys...

* Landscape approaches are increasingly being undertaken as a way to achieve positive outcomes related to agricultural production, ecosystem conservation, rural livelihoods, and multi-stakeholder coordination * We used a systematic survey and assessment process to characterize the context, motivations, investments, outcomes and participants of 191...

An age-old conflict around a seemingly simple question has resurfaced: why do we conserve nature? Contention around this issue has come and gone many times, but in the past several years we believe that it has reappeared as an increasingly acrimonious debate between, in essence, those who argue that nature should be protected for its own sake (intr...

Approaches to integrated landscape management are currently garnering new interest as scientists, policymakers, and local stakeholders recognize the need to increase the multi-functionality of agricultural landscapes for food production, livelihood improvement, and ecosystem conservation. Such approaches have been attempted in many parts of Latin A...