Agricultural Practices, Farm Policy, and the Conservation of Biological Diversity PDF Download

Author: Philip W. Gerard
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Agriculture
Languages : en
Pages : 34

View

Book Description

Author: Philip W. Gerard
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Agriculture
Languages : en
Pages : 36

View

Book Description
Long-term wildlife population declines are associated with changing agricultural practices. Cropland expansion, agricultural intensification, and national farm policies are all implicated in these declines. Social, economic, technological, and political factors determine where, what, and how a farmer produces crops and therefore his or her effect on wildlife habitat. Farmers are also influenced by Department of Agriculture programs, which therefore are indirectly implicated in wildlife population declines. Changes in the prairie and Great Plains agricultural landscape since the 1950's provide a clear example of the relation between federal agriculture policy, farmers' land-use practices, and the decline of grassland bird species. Early research indicates that the Conservation Reserve Program may help to slow or reverse wildlife losses, including those of several species listed as endangered. However, Conservation Reserve Program benefits to wildlife populations may vary considerably across the United States. Wildlife conservation in the agricultural landscape is limited by conflicting conservation objectives, the voluntary nature of federal agriculture programs, and the habitat requirements of many endangered vertebrate species. Biological conservation should be an explicit objective of agricultural conservation policy. The full potential of wildlife conservation within the context of farm conservation policy will require extensive collaboration between U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and U.S. Department of Agriculture personnel and will only be realized if conservation policies are uncoupled from policies attempting to control agricultural commodities.

Author: Jules N. Pretty
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136529276
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 292

View

Book Description
Continued population growth, rapidly changing consumption patterns and the impacts of climate change and environmental degradation are driving limited resources of food, energy, water and materials towards critical thresholds worldwide. These pressures are likely to be substantial across Africa, where countries will have to find innovative ways to boost crop and livestock production to avoid becoming more reliant on imports and food aid. Sustainable agricultural intensification - producing more output from the same area of land while reducing the negative environmental impacts - represents a solution for millions of African farmers. This volume presents the lessons learned from 40 sustainable agricultural intensification programmes in 20 countries across Africa, commissioned as part of the UK Government's Foresight project. Through detailed case studies, the authors of each chapter examine how to develop productive and sustainable agricultural systems and how to scale up these systems to reach many more millions of people in the future. Themes covered include crop improvements, agroforestry and soil conservation, conservation agriculture, integrated pest management, horticulture, livestock and fodder crops, aquaculture, and novel policies and partnerships.

Author: Dana L. Jackson
Publisher: Island Press
ISBN: 9781597262699
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 316

View

Book Description
The Farm as Natural Habitat is a vital new contribution to the debate about agriculture and its impacts on the land. Arising from the conviction that the agricultural landscape as a whole could be restored to a healthy diversity, the book challenges the notion that the dominant agricultural landscape -- bereft of its original vegetation and wildlife and despoiled by chemical runoff -- is inevitable if we are to feed ourselves. Contributors bring together insights and practices from the fields of conservation biology, sustainable agriculture, and environmental restoration to link agriculture and biodiversity, farming and nature, in celebrating a unique alternative to conventional agriculture.Rejecting the idea that "ecological sacrifice zones" are a necessary part of feeding a hungry world, the book offers compelling examples of an alternative agriculture that can produce not only healthful food, but fully functioning ecosystems and abundant populations of native species. Contributors include Collin Bode, George Boody, Brian DeVore, Arthur (Tex) Hawkins, Buddy Huffaker, Rhonda Janke, Richard Jefferson, Nick Jordan, Cheryl Miller, Heather Robertson, Carol Shennan, Judith Soule, Beth Waterhouse, and others.The Farm as Natural Habitat is both hopeful and visionary, grounded in real examples, and guided by a commitment to healthy land and thriving communities. It is the first book to offer a viable approach to addressing the challenges of protecting and restoring biodiversity on private agricultural land and is essential reading for anyone concerned with issues of land or biodiversity conservation, farming and agriculture, ecological restoration, or the health of rural communities and landscapes.

Author:
Publisher: Food & Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO)
ISBN: 9789251084717
Category : Food supply
Languages : en
Pages : 0

View

Book Description
"Sustainability is at the heart of FAO's new Strategic Framework and is the specific focus of Strategic Objective 2, which aims at sustainably increasing the provision of goods and services from agriculture, forestry and fisheries. This report is the outcome of intensive consultations and discussions aimed at developing a common approach to FAO's work on sustainability. That process was conducted in a climate of cross-sectoral collaboration that drew on the contributions of leading FAO and external specialists in crops, livestock, forestry, capture fisheries, aquaculture and natural resources. The report provides the vision, the key principles and indications on the way forward to transition towards sustainable food and agriculture. It builds on the Organization's long experience in developing sustainability concepts, approaches and tools, and offers a common platform for a vision of the agriculture sector and of the inter-sectoral synergies that will eventually make agriculture more productive and sustainable."--Publisher's information.

Author: Miralles-Wilhelm, F.
Publisher: Food & Agriculture Org.
ISBN: 9251339074
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 68

View

Book Description
In recent years, considerable progress has been made in the area of Nature-based Solutions (NbS) that improve ecosystem functions of environments and landscapes affected by agricultural practices and land degradation, while enhancing livelihoods and other social and cultural functions. This has opened up a portfolio of NbS options that offer a pragmatic way forward for simultaneously addressing conservation, climate and socioeconomic objectives while maintaining healthy and productive agricultural systems. NbS can mimic natural processes and build on land restoration and operational water-land management concepts that aim to simultaneously improve vegetation and water availability and quality, and raise agricultural productivity. NbS can involve conserving or rehabilitating natural ecosystems and/or the enhancement or the creation of natural processes in modified or artificial ecosystems. In agricultural landscapes, NbS can be applied for soil health, soil moisture, carbon mitigation (through soil and forestry), downstream water quality protections, biodiversity benefits as well as agricultural production and supply chains to achieve net-zero environmental impacts while achieving food and water security, and meet climate goals.

Author: Vinod Kumar
Publisher: Agro Environ Media, Publication Cell of AESA, Agriculture and Environmental Science Academy,
ISBN: 8195499643
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 400

View

Book Description
The present book has been designed to bind prime knowledge of climate change-induced impacts on various aspects of our environment and its biological diversity. The book also contains updated information, methods and tools for the monitoring and conservation of impacted biological diversity.

Author: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Publisher: Food & Agriculture Org.
ISBN: 9251305293
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 196

View

Book Description
Farmers play a crucial role in the preservation and sustainable use of agrobiodiversity. In fact, the diversity of species that support our current agricultural production systems has been carefully managed and shaped by farming communities, over the course of the history of humankind. Farmers act as custodian of the Earth’s agrobiodiversity resources, and play a big part in preserving traditional plant and animal varieties, and the knowledge associated with these. FAO has long been working on promoting approaches to agriculture that enable both the sustainable use of biodiversity resources for food and agriculture, and their conservation, and on supporting farmers to make informed decisions on their farm management and production practices. This training manual fits in this broader commitment, to support a shift towards a paradigm of agricultural production that can sustain food and nutrition security while at the same time cause the least harm to natural ecosystems. The manual is intended as an introduction to agricultural biodiversity, and to its relevance to different aspects of agricultural production and management for smallholder farmers in Kenya. It includes eight different training modules, each covering a specific aspect related to agrobiodiversity. The modules are standalone and can be used independently one from the other, depending on the user’s or project’s aim. The materials were originally prepared within the FAO- Netherlands Partnership Programme (FNPP) and have been updated, revised and published under the second phase of the European Union-funded project “Capacity-building related to multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs) in Africa, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries”.

Author: Rainer Oppermann
Publisher:
ISBN: 9783897356573
Category : Biodiversity
Languages : en
Pages : 544

View

Book Description
"High Nature Value (HNV) farming is inherently valuable for biodiversity and forms a living cultural and natural heritage. HNV farmland comprises semi-natural pastures, meadows and orchards, as well as species-rich arable land, and often retains a wealth of landscape features. HNV farming is present in all European countries, with a diversity of types and extent. Apart from being the cornerstone of European farmland biodiversity, these types of farming provide a multitude of other services for society, including sustainable rural economies, and the rich social fabric and character of Europe's landscapes. The environmental, socio-cultural and territorial significance of HNV farming is increasingly recognised, but greater awareness is needed amongst policy makers and the wider public. This book presents an overview of HNV farming across 35 European countries, describing the main characteristics and presenting examples of farming systems, farms and farmers."--Publisher.

Author: Wanda W. Collins
Publisher: CRC Press
ISBN: 9781420049244
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 352

View

Book Description
between the diversity of plant and animal species and host/dependent agricultural systems. Biodiversity in Agroecosystems shows how biodiversity can be thought of not only as the rich make-up of a great number of related and competing species within an ecologically defined community, but also as the robust behavior and resilience of those species over time and as the endurance of their eco-community. This book brings to the fore new research on biodiversity in agricultural ecosystems at both micro and macro levels, heretofore available only in journals and proceedings papers.