206 Poverty and Hunger
fundamental changes also take place in the adjacent agricultural landscape. Moreo-
ver, some types of wild biodiversity, such as some species of birds and butterflies,
actually thrive best in farmed and populated landscapes. Farming is a practice that
extends at least 10,000 years back into human history, and many species of plants
and animals have evolved in concert with the development of agriculture. Some
species of large mammals (especially wild cattle in Asia) may even depend on shift-
ing cultivation (Wharton, 1968).
Aggressive efforts to conserve wild biodiversity have sometimes reduced the
livelihood security of rural people, especially the poor in developing countries
(Pimbert and Toledo, 1994). But this need not be the case (McNeely, 1999). Rural
populations historically have established conservation practices to protect environ-
mental services important to their own food production, water supply and spiritual
values (see, for example, Western and Wright, 1994; Singh et al, 2000). Examples
show that managing biodiversity through a combination of conservation measures
and improved and diversified agricultural systems can increase incomes and house-
hold nutrition, reduce livelihood risks and provide collateral benefits such as
increased freshwater reserves and fewer mud slides after heavy rains.
Thus new models for biodiversity conservation need to be developed, involv-
ing effective links among the fields of farmers, the pastures of ranchers, the man-
aged forests of foresters and the protected areas managed especially for wild
biodiversity. Conservation options are available besides just ‘locking away’ resources
on which the poor depend for their survival and assets that low-income countries
could use to promote development and national food security. Agricultural land-
scapes can be designed more creatively to take the needs of local people into
account while pursuing biodiversity objectives.
Ecoagriculture
A central challenge of the 21st century, then, is to achieve biodiversity conserva-
tion and agricultural production goals at the same time – and, in many cases, in
the same space. In this book [Ecoagriculture] the management of landscapes for
both the production of food and the conservation of ecosystem services, in par-
ticular wild biodiversity, is referred to as ecoagriculture. For a start, improved natu-
ral resource management and technological breakthroughs in agriculture and
resource use is essential to enhance our ability to manage biodiversity well. Genetic
improvements in the major agricultural crops that feed the world will continue to
be essential for maintaining and increasing productivity. But a much wider range of
genetic, technological, environmental management and policy innovations must be
developed to support wild biodiversity in the world’s bread baskets and rice bowls as
well as in the extensive areas where food production is more difficult.
Diverse approaches to make agriculture more sustainable, while also more pro-
ductive, are flowering around the world; many of these reduce the negative effects