ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the highly dynamic interrelationship between agriculture and the environment. It investigates reasons for considering the competing land uses jointly. Rural farmers have to bear the costs of conservation measures, such as exclusion from land and resources as well as the costs from commercial agricultural expansion, when they are unable to take advantage of market opportunities. Forest conservation was imposed through legal and physical violence, effectively divorcing the local population from their means of production and curtailing indigenous use of forest res. In contrast, under land sharing, conservation and food production are integrated on farms, adapting them to mimic natural habitats more closely by reducing synthetic inputs and maintaining wild areas as reservoirs for biodiversity. Land sparing is more consistent with a traditional protectionist approach to conservation, effectively separating conservation and farming and advocating that large undisturbed areas of habitat are more effective at protecting biodiversity.
