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Deforestation and burning pastures in the Amazon to maintain them is a large contributor to carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
photo: Wim P. Groeneveld |
Agriculture is the world's largest industry, employing over one billion people and generating over one trillion dollars' worth of food annually. Pasture and cropland occupy 50 percent of the Earth's habitable land and provide habitat and food for the majority of the world's plant and animal life. With its deep connections to the world economy, human societies, and biodiversity, agriculture is one of the most important frontiers for conservation in ecoregions around the globe.
When agricultural operations are sustainably managed, they can preserve and restore critical habitats, help protect watersheds, and improve soil health and water quality. WWF's Agriculture and Biodiversity Initiative Unit works in collaboration with a wide range of players to:
- Identify and implement better management practices that protect the environment and producers' bottom line,
- Create financial incentives to encourage biodiversity conservation,
- Improve agricultural policies and
- Identify new income opportunities for producers to ensure their economic viability.
Agricultural Threats
While agricultural operations provide unique opportunities to conserve biodiversity, they also can threaten wild species and spaces, including many of WWF's key ecoregions, when not managed for conservation. From habitat loss to pollution, agriculture contributes to many of the environmental challenges that WWF is actively addressing.
Toxics: Pesticides, fertilizers, and other toxic farm chemicals can poison fresh water, marine ecosystems, air, and soil, and can remain in the environment for generations. Agriculture is the leading source of pollution in many countries; in the U.S. alone, 428,200 metric tons of pesticides are introduced to the environment every year. Many of these pesticides are suspected of disrupting the hormone messaging systems of people and wildlife.
Land conversion: Expanding agricultural contributes to the rapid loss of forests and other habitats and their biodiversity. Lowland forests in Indonesia have been lost to oil palm production while soy production has contributed significantly to the loss of the Cerrado and Atlantic Forests of Brazil and Paraguay. During the past 150 years, half of all agricultural topsoil has been lost as a result of unsustainable farming practices.
Climate change: A variety of crops farmed as well as farming practices--from burning fields to using gasoline powered machinery--are significant contributors to the buildup of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Rice production is one of the largest single producers of methane. According to some estimates, agriculture is responsible for about one fourth of the greenhouse gases altering the Earth's climate.
Water consumption: Globally, the agricultural sector consumes about 69 percent of the planet's fresh water-more than twice that of industry (23 percent) and dwarfing municipal uses (8 percent). Without creative conservation measures, farms can quickly consume a dry region's water supplies. Freshwater systems in ecoregions throughout the world--whether the Chihuahuan desert of north and central America, the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, the Mesoamerican Reef in Central America or the Miombo in Africa--are adversely impacted by excessive water consumption and water quality degradation resulting from agricultural production.
Poverty: Three quarters of the world's extremely poor people live in rural areas where farming is the only option for fighting poverty and malnutrition. Declining harvests from cleared lands push producers into surrounding wild lands rich in biodiversity. The result is a cycle of increasing poverty and biodiversity loss. Subsidies provided by U.S. and European governments to their agricultural producers distort prices and production patterns throughout the world. By encouraging overproduction, these subsidies drive down world prices, forcing many developing country producers to cut corners environmentally or to leave world markets altogether. Poor people are forced into more marginal areas where their impact is greater and production is lower.
For every challenge that agriculture provides to conserving biodiversity, it also offers an opportunity. While agricultural operations can threaten habitats, pollute waters, and consume resources, they can also-when operations are sustainably managed-provide new habitats, help protect watersheds, and improve soil health.
For more information, please contact us at Agricultureinfo@wwfus.org.
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