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How to make land use policy decisions: Integrating science and economics to deliver connected climate, biodiversity and food objectives

Bateman, IJ; Binner, A; Addicott, E; Balmford, B; Cho, FHT; Daily, GC; De-Gol, A; ... Day, BH; + view all (2025) How to make land use policy decisions: Integrating science and economics to deliver connected climate, biodiversity and food objectives. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America , 121 (49) , Article e2407961121. Green open access

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Abstract

Animal-mediated pollination is a key ecosystem service required to some extent by almost three-quarters of the leading human food crops in global food production. Anthropogenic pressures such as habitat loss and land-use intensification are causing shifts in ecological community composition, potentially resulting in declines in pollination services and impacting crop production. Previous research has often overlooked interspecific differences in pollination contribution, yet such differences mean that biodiversity declines will not necessarily negatively impact pollination. Here, we use a novel species-level ecosystem service contribution matrix along with mixed-effects models to explore how groups of terrestrial species who contribute differently to crop pollination respond globally to land-use type, land-use intensity, and availability of natural habitats in the surrounding landscape. We find that the species whose contribution to crop pollination is higher generally respond less negatively (and in some cases positively) to human disturbance of land, compared to species that contribute less or not at all to pollination. This result may be due to these high-contribution species being less sensitive to anthropogenic land conversions, which has led humans to being more reliant on them for crop pollination. However, it also suggests that there is potential for crop pollination to be resilient in the face of anthropogenic land conversions. With such a high proportion of food crops requiring animal-mediated pollination to some extent, understanding how anthropogenic landscapes impact ecological communities and the consequences for pollination is critical for ensuring food security.

Type: Article
Title: How to make land use policy decisions: Integrating science and economics to deliver connected climate, biodiversity and food objectives
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
Publisher version: https://www.pnas.org/
Language: English
Additional information: This open access article is distributed under Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 (CC BY).
Keywords: decision-making │ land use │ natural capital │ climate change │ biodiversity
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences > Div of Biosciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences > Div of Biosciences > Genetics, Evolution and Environment
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10198757
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