Conserving the Birds of Uganda’s Banana-Coffee Arc: Land Sparing and Land Sharing Compared
Conserving the Birds of Uganda’s Banana-Coffee Arc: Land Sparing and Land Sharing Compared
The authors explore potential solutions by assessing whether land sparing (farming for high yield, potentially enabling the protection of non-farmland habitat), land sharing (lower yielding farming with more biodiversity within farmland) or a mixed strategy would result in better bird conservation outcomes for a specified level of agricultural production. They surveyed forest and farmland study areas in southern Uganda, measuring the population density of 256 bird species and agricultural yield: food energy and gross income. The authors conclude by suggesting that conservationists explore how conservation and agricultural policies can be better integrated to deliver land sparing by, for example, combining land-use planning and agronomic support for small farmers.
Suggested citation:
Hulme, M.F. et al. (2013) Conserving the Birds of Uganda’s Banana-Coffee Arc: Land Sparing and Land Sharing Compared. PLoS ONE 8(2): e54597. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0054597
Collaboration / Project(s)
Farming for wild nature: integrating biodiversity and sustainable development in tropical agricultural landscapes in Africa
Agricultural land occupies around 38% of the planet’s land surface and the spread and intensification of agriculture are recognised as two of the most important global threats to wildlife. In developing countries, rapidly increasing human populations and per capita diet expectations are requiring ever increasing food production and there is a growing need to manage…