Mapping potential conflicts between global agriculture and terrestrial conservation.

Area of Science:

• Ecology
• Conservation Biology
• Agricultural Science

Background:

• Agricultural land use competes with biodiversity, particularly due to international trade.
• Understanding the spatial distribution and drivers of these conflicts is crucial for effective conservation.
• Current knowledge on consumer responsibility for agricultural-driven conservation risks is limited.

Purpose of the Study:

• To map global conservation risk hotspots resulting from agricultural production.
• To identify specific agricultural commodities and consumer patterns contributing to these risks.
• To provide data for prioritizing conservation efforts and safeguarding biodiversity.

Main Methods:

• Integrated conservation priority (CP) maps with agricultural trade data for 197 countries and 48 products.
• Utilized spatial analysis at 0.5° resolution to identify areas of overlap between agriculture and high-biodiversity priority habitat.
• Developed a web-based GIS tool to visualize the identified conservation risks.

Main Results:

• One-third of global agricultural production occurs in high conservation priority sites (CP > 0.75).
• Cattle, maize, rice, and soybean production represent the most significant threats to very high CP sites.
• Commodity-specific threats vary by region, and national conservation risks depend on trade and sourcing patterns.

Conclusions:

• Spatial analysis reveals significant competition between agriculture and high-conservation value sites globally.
• The findings highlight the need for targeted conservation strategies considering specific commodities, regions, and trade dynamics.
• The developed GIS tool offers a valuable resource for informing conservation planning and policy at national and global scales.