Traversing the food-biodiversity nexus towards coexistence by manipulating social–ecological system parameters

Abstract

Agroecological landscapes have the potential to simultaneously meet food security and biodiversity conservation goals but are hindered by emerging biodiversity conflicts. Here, we opt to view the social–ecological factors that decrease biodiversity impacts or increase tolerance of biodiversity in agroecological landscapes as system parameters for their potential capacity to move a social–ecological system from states of conflict to alternative desired system states devoid of major losses for both food security and biodiversity, that is landscapes of coexistence. We discuss how reframing landscapes as social–ecological systems allows focusing on manageable components, or coexistence parameters, that explain biodiversity impacts and are hence capable of dampening conflicts. Approaches from the social, economic, or ecological sciences allow for the formulation of management strategies tailor-made for each system, with a higher chance of success than one-size-fits-all strategies. Conceptually recognizing coexistence parameters may enable easier assessment of a landscape's current state and identification of the required actions needed to transition towards a state of coexistence.