Meta-analysis Explores How Agriculture Can Best Protect Biodiversity

An international meta-analysis of 57 empirical peer-reviewed studies contrasted the effectiveness of land-sharing and protected areas for preserving biodiversity on agricultural lands. The results, published in the journal PNAS Nexus, showed that neither land sparing nor land sharing strategies alone can effectively balance agricultural production with biodiversity conservation. More than half of the 27 studies that included comparisons of both methods showed that context-specific combinations of both approaches performed best. According to the authors, their findings challenge the polarized debate between the two conservation strategies and highlight the need for integrated, location-specific solutions rather than one-size-fits-all approaches.
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