Agriculture | IUCN Library System

Biodiversity and agriculture in the Mediterranean region

This report, Biodiversity and agriculture in the Mediterranean region: A species conservation perspective, is designed to inform policymakers, conservation practitioners, and stakeholders across the Mediterranean region. Its purpose is to highlight the current challenges posed to biodiversity by intensive agricultural pressures, while identifying solutions and opportunities to reconcile biodiversity conservation and sustainable agriculture.

Agricultural support, biodiversity, and trade

2025 Vergez, A. | Siikamäki, Juha | Mittempergher, Damien | Piaggio, Matias |

At World Trade Organization (WTO), the key characteristic according to which support to agricultural producers is classified is their ability to distort international trade rather than their incidence and impacts on social or environmental dimensions. There is a lack of studies and analytical framework to guide policy decisions, such as understanding how specific support, in general, and in different agricultural sub-sectors, are linked to biodiversity, economic, social, and trade outcomes.

Guidelines for classifying agricultural and plantation forestry ecosystems in the IUCN Global Ecosystem Typology

2025

These guidelines aim to facilitate improved knowledge of agricultural and plantation forestry ecosystems, and their relationship with other ecosystems in complex landscapes, by providing clarity on how the IUCN Global Ecosystem Typology is applied in the context of agricultural and plantation forestry production. This provides a foundation for a range of applications that can enable and support sustainable agriculture.

Agriculture and conservation (Arabic version)

2024

In 2021, IUCN launched the IUCN Flagship Report Series, to help demonstrate the importance of conserving nature for human well-being and all life on Earth. This report, the second in the series, focuses on agriculture and nature. The interactions, synergies, and tradeoffs between the two sit at the heart of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which calls for ending hunger and ensuring food security while also mandating the protection and restoration of nature.

Sustainable agriculture and Nature-based Solutions

Unsustainable agricultural practices are among the main causes of biodiversity loss, climate change, and pollution globally. It is thus essential to integrate environmental conservation practices in the agriculture sector when looking at pathways for a sustainable future. In this context, Nature-based Solutions (NbS) could be a critical tool for improving the status of productive landscapes.

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Assessing the biodiversity-agriculture nexus

Food is one of the basic needs for human life. At the same time, agriculture is a leading cause of biodiversity loss, driving 80% of deforestation and consuming 70% of freshwater resources globally. Conventional farming practices have further contributed to habitat degradation, soil depletion, and species loss. This report aims to provide a general overview of how the relationship between biodiversity and agriculture is assessed.

Agriculture and conservation

2024

Land health monitoring framework

2023 Dussán López, P. |

Biodiversity is context-specific, and there are no one-size-fits-all indicators or monitoring methodologies.

Soilless agriculture guidelines

2023

Soilless agriculture is a modern technology created to enable growing crops in an environment where traditional technologies are median. Several techniques stem from soilless agriculture e.g. hydroponics and aquaponics. Limited water resources, variations of precipitation and frequent droughts are typical challenges for arid areas. Hydroponics offer solutions to rationalize water consumption in arid to semi-arid areas particularly when agriculture is a main activity in those areas.

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