The land-blending strategy
Contribution of metapopulation theory to the land sparing-sharing debate
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 11468212 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Aymeric Oliveira-Xavier (0009-0008-6610-4407, Université de Sherbrooke, corresponding author), Sophie Calmé (0000-0003-0818-3932, Université de Sherbrooke), Dominique Gravel (0000-0002-4498-7076, Université de Sherbrooke) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 155 |
| Pages | 107577 |
| Publication date | 2025-08-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Land Use Policy (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0264-8377 • E-ISSN: 1873-5754 |
| Publisher | Elsevier BV (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1016/j.landusepol.2025.107577 |
| OpenAlex | W4410028596 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 70 |
Two land management strategies have been proposed to preserve biodiversity while maintaining sufficient agricultural production: land sparing and land sharing. Debate on their efficiency continues, although a third hybrid strategy has emerged. The balance between these strategies is context-dependent, limiting generalizations. We addressed this challenge using a metapopulation-based model to simulate species persistence in agricultural landscapes under different management strategies. Our model captures the influence of contextual factors, such as landscape composition, connectivity, and pest incidence, allowing us to evaluate how landscape management strategies influence biodiversity and ecosystem services such as pest regulation. Our results highlight key factors for designing effective landscape management strategies. First, maintaining intermediate quality habitats (e.g., agroforests) within the landscape is essential to support pest controllers and thus, the provision of ecosystem services. Second, although agroforestry expansion can reduce economic returns compared to conventional agriculture, biodiversity offsets these costs when pest pressure is high and biological control is effective. These findings emphasize the importance of an integrated approach to implement effective landscape management strategies, optimizing both productivity and biodiversity conservation. This study reveals the potential of a hybrid ‘land blending’ strategy, able to outperform traditional land sparing-sharing approaches, while offering greater flexibility for change and uncertainty. To our knowledge, this study represents the first theoretical modelling approach to assess the effectiveness of conservation strategies without considering specific contextual influences. Our findings enhance our understanding of the impact of context on optimal strategies, enriching the debate and suggesting new perspectives beyond its false dichotomy. • Even small amounts of semi-natural systems in the landscape maintain pest control services. • Biodiversity in landscapes provides indirect pest control benefits to intensive agriculture. • Biodiversity offsets semi-natural system costs through provision of pest-control services. • Mixing land sparing and sharing can outperform basic strategies, depending on landscape context. • Agricultural output and biodiversity can be optimized dispelling the debate dichotomy
Civil engineering · Economic geography · Economics · Environmental planning · Environmental resource management · Geography · Land use · Metapopulation · Sociology · Agricultural Economics and Policy · Demography · Engineering · Land Rights and Reforms · Rural development and sustainability
Land Sparing Versus Land Sharing
Agricultural diversification promotes multiple ecosystem services without compromising yield
Reframing the land‐sparing/land‐sharing debate for biodiversity conservation
Indigenous knowledge and the shackles of wilderness
Anatomy and resilience of the global production ecosystem
Green Revolution
Farming and the Fate of Wild Nature
Reconciling Food Production and Biodiversity Conservation
Agroecological practices for sustainable agriculture. A review
A meta-analysis of projected global food demand and population at risk of hunger for the period 2010–2050
Solutions for a cultivated planet
Global Consequences of Land Use
Insights from land sparing and land sharing frameworks for land productivity degradation governance in the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration, China
Land-sharing logging is more profitable than land sparing in the Brazilian Amazon
Cocoa agroforestry systems versus monocultures
Environmental Kuznets curve for deforestation in Eastern Europe
Optimizing the allocation of agri-environment measures to navigate the trade-offs between ecosystem services, biodiversity and agricultural production
Bringing the sharing-sparing debate down to the ground—Lessons learnt for participatory scenario development
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |