Sustainable Agriculture and Conservation Payments Are Key Factors in Mitigating Tropical Forest Loss

Driven by an ever-increasing demand for agricultural provisioning services, large areas of tropical forest have been lost worldwide during recent decades. The conversion of forests into agricultural land results in rarely quantified losses of social and ecological services and triggers soil erosion, sedimentation, and climate change. Conceptual considerations identify a strong need for improved and sustainable agriculture to solve this problem. A combination of intensified agriculture, conservation payments to avoid forest loss, and land-use diversification may provide a solution to land-use conflicts. Improved concepts must lead to the production of enough food to keep food prices at a reasonable level. Future research must thus focus on concepts to intensify agricultural production while ensuring sustainability by avoiding the detrimental consequences of the intensification such as the loss of biodiversity, erosion, subsequent land degradation, and the pollution of water reservoirs.