Land sharing y land sparing : ¿alternativas para la integración de la biodiversidad nativa y sus servicios ecosistémicos en sistemas frutícolas de producción intensiva de Chile central?

Abstract

Natural biodiversity has provided an entire range of domestic crops to agriculture and provides ecosystem services that benefit agricultural production. However, transformation of natural areas into croplands and intensification of agriculture have resulted in loss of biodiversity and negative impacts on the environment.This negative impact becomes relevant when agricultural development takes place in highly endemic and biodiverse ecosystems such as the Chilean Mediterranean ecosystems. Two strategies have emerged from sustainable agriculture to reconcile food production and biodiversity conservation: Land Sharing and Land Sparing. The objective of this study was to make a critical analysis of these strategies, recognising their potential for the recovery of ecosystem services and the biodiversity conservation. Based on the available scientific literature, Land Sparing has the largest number of studies that favourits implementation. Land Sharing is the most applied alternative in Europe under the system of agro-environmental schemes. In available literature there is a lack of studies about both strategies in Chile. It overlaps with the results of a pilot survey designed and applied in the framework’s study which revealed the low dissemination and visibility of the topic among Chilean academics. With these findings, this study proposes a scheme for selection of a strategy considering the ecosystem services approach and the spatial scale. A combination of Land Sharing and Land Sparing in intensive fruit productive systems in central Chile could reduce the negative effects of agriculture on biodiversity and ecosystem services.