This document summarizes a presentation about assessing land-use strategies for food production and biodiversity conservation in India and Ghana. It discusses the land-use cascade as agricultural development accelerates the conversion of natural habitats to more intensive uses. Biodiversity conservation aims to slow this process down. The presentation examines measuring food yields versus the number of species supported to understand trade-offs between land sparing and land sharing approaches. It concludes that no single land use can achieve all goals and better understanding is needed of how approaches could be combined, as well as risks and how land sparing may work in practice.

1. Assessing land-use strategies for
food production and biodiversity in
India and Ghana
Ben Phalan
Rhys Green, Andrew Balmford, Malvika Onial
Conservation Science Group, Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, UK
Presentation at CIFOR Learning Event: The “land sharing or land sparing” conundrum
Agriculture and Rural Development Day, Rio de Janeiro
18 June 2012

2. A range of options
Natural Extensive Shifting Permanent Intensive Degraded
habitats use cultivation croplands croplands lands
Biodiversity value
“Yield”, or direct use value
Agricultural development tends to accelerate the land-use cascade
Biodiversity conservation generally tries to slow it down
Phalan et al. (2011) Food Policy 36: 62-71

3. What we measure, and how, is critical
80
Number of species
60
win-win?
40
20
0
0 20 40 60 80
Food energy yield (GJ/ha)

4. What we measure, and how, is critical
801
Number of species
60
Density
40
20
00
0 20 40 60 80
Food energy yield (GJ/ha)

5. Large global range Small global range
40 60
30
40
20
Key
# bird species
20
10
0 0 500 ALL LOSER SPECIES
60 30 400
300
40 20
200
20 10
100
0 0 0
30 200
150
20
100
# tree species
10 * at 2007 production target
50
0 0
25 15
20
15 10
10 5
5
0 0
Phalan et al. (2011) Science 333: 1289-1291

6. Better understanding  effective action
No one land use can deliver everything
What can be combined and what can’t?
Land sparing needs to be tested
Risks: practical, political
Borlaug effect
Land sparing ≠ Forest transition
Land sparing Sustainable intensification
How might it work?
Need for joined-up thinking
Across scales
Beyond agriculture
Recognising trade-offs

7. Thank you
To the many people who assisted with this research, in particular the farmers, foresters, extension
workers and conservation practitioners in India and Ghana, who made it possible.
btp22@cam.ac.uk