Using a Long-Term Large-Scale integrated modelling framework, Rothamsted scientists, working with AgZero+, have shown that combining land-sharing and land-sparing strategies at regional scales can deliver measurable improvements in food production and freshwater quality compared with uniform national approaches.
The long-standing land-sharing versus land-sparing debate focuses on whether conservation and agriculture are best kept separate (land sparing) or integrated in the same landscape (land sharing). However, applying either approach uniformly across a whole country may be suboptimal for both biodiversity and production outcomes.