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Agroecological restoration

Agroecological restoration is the practice of re-integrating natural systems into agriculture in order to maximize sustainability, ecosystem services, and biodiversity. This is one example of a way to apply the principles of agroecology to an agricultural system.'...biodiversity is just as important on farms and in fields as it is in deep river valleys or mountain cloud forests.' FAO, 15 October 2004'1. Prohibition/reduced use of chemical pesticides and inorganic fertilizers is likely to have a positive impact through the removal of both direct and indirect negative effects on arable plants, invertebrates and vertebrates.2. Sympathetic management of non-crop habitats and field margins can enhance diversity and abundance of arable plants, invertebrates, birds and mammals.3. Preservation of mixed farming is likely to positively impact farmland biodiversity through the provision of greater habitat heterogeneity at a variety of temporal and spatial scales within the landscape.' Agroecological restoration is the practice of re-integrating natural systems into agriculture in order to maximize sustainability, ecosystem services, and biodiversity. This is one example of a way to apply the principles of agroecology to an agricultural system. Farms cannot be restored to a purely natural state because of the negative economic impact on farmers, but returning processes, such as pest control to nature with the method of intercropping, allows a farm to be more ecologically sustainable and, at the same time, economically viable. Agroecological restoration works toward this balance of sustainability and economic viability because conventional farming is not sustainable over the long run without the integration of natural systems and because the use of land for agriculture has been a driving force in creating the present world biodiversity crisis. Its efforts are complementary to, rather than a substitute for, biological conservation. Agriculture creates a conflict over the use of land between wildlife and humans. Though the domestication of crop plants occurred 10,000 years ago, a 500% increase in the amount of pasture and crop land over the last three hundred years has led to the rapid loss of natural habitats. In recent years, the world community acknowledged the value of biodiversity in treaties, such as the 1992 landmark Convention on Biological Diversity.

[ "Ecosystem services", "Agroecology" ]
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