Over thousands of years, human activities such as farming and herding have transformed up to half of Earth’s landscape1. To fully understand the environmental impacts of this transformation, we must consider the changes in :
- Total land area occupied
- How the land is used
- Soil quality
- The biodiversity present
- Ecosystem services
These factors are all linked. For example, some areas are converted to agricultural land through deforestation or the drainage of wetlands, reducing biodiversity and limiting the provision of ecosystem services. Unsustainable farming practices can make this land less productive over time, a syndrome estimated to affect 20 percent of global cropland2.
Unsustainable farming practices can degrade ecosystem services, either by reducing crop quality and yield or requiring more synthetic inputs, such as pesticides and fertilizers. Declining yields mean more land is converted to agricultural use, often leading to further deforestation and damage to natural habitats.
Farming's impacts on land use and ecosystem services are fairly well understood, but current methods for measuring biodiversity are based on small data sets and are not always representative. Investment in better measures is needed.
This lack of firm data will not prevent us from taking action where we know it is urgently needed. While we have not yet fully quantified our impacts on land use or biodiversity, we do have strategies and targets for the responsible sourcing of certain raw materials that have a high impact on land use and biodiversity, such as cocoa, fish and palm oil.
1 Vitousek, P.M.; Mooney, H.A.; Lubchenco, J.; Melillo, J.M. 1997. "Human Domination of Earth's Ecosystems.” Science 277:494-499
2 Bai, Z.G., Dent, D.L., Olsson, L. and Schaepman, M.E. 2008. “Global assessment of land degradation and improvement. 1. Identification by remote sensing.” Report 2008/01, ISRIC – World Soil Information, Wageningen (http://www.fao.org/newsroom/en/news/2008/1000874/index.html)
