IUCN flagship report calls on countries to rethink agricultural and conservation policies to help protect biodiversity and deliver food for humanity

The assessment of these policies is included in the new report, which comprehensively explores the complex relationship between agriculture and conservation and offers a holistic and nuanced look at how the world can best feed its people while at the same time protecting critical natural habitats and species.

“We know that we cannot achieve conservation goals without considering agriculture, and this report shows us that we can find ways to conserve nature while ensuring that people are fed, and local economies are strong. The way that most agriculture is practiced has a major impact on the extinction crisis that our planet is facing,” said IUCN Director General Dr Grethel Aguilar. “Over a third, or 37%, of the world’s lands are devoted to agriculture. This poses both significant threats and opportunities to the protection of our natural biodiversity. Healthy nature means better agriculture, and sustainable agricultural practices means a more resilient planet. One cannot thrive without the other.”

According to the report, titled Agriculture and Conservation, 34% of species comprehensively assessed on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species™ have agriculture documented as a direct threat. That’s due to the conversion of natural habitats to croplands, pasturelands, and plantations. Additional species are threatened by indirect agricultural impacts such as the overconsumption of freshwater and introduction of invasive alien species; pollution from soil erosion, nutrients, and agrochemicals; and climate change. On the other hand, 17% of species have agroecosystems documented as a habitat.

Additionally, the report finds that the amount of agricultural support by countries is positively correlated with the number of species threatened by agriculture.

But the flagship report also finds that realigning agriculture and conservation does not have to come at the expense of food production or economic returns. Though trade-offs exist, better land use and management can ensure improvements in biodiversity, climate, and economic objectives. Realising these changes, however, requires rearranging landowner and other stakeholder incentives by using programmes like payments for ecosystem services, changes in laws and regulations, or other institutional mechanisms. Though there are challenges to accomplishing such changes, results show they can produce large-scale benefits. For example, research has shown that implementing policies aimed at protecting biodiversity and promoting the services that healthy ecosystems provide could increase global GDP by USD 150 billion annually, while continuing with business-as-usual approaches could cost the economy upwards of USD 100 billion per year.

“The debate over how to balance agriculture and conservation is complicated, nuanced, and often country specific. In some cases, protecting land from agriculture is the best policy, while in others it is to make agricultural lands more friendly to wildlife. But what we do know is that governments often support agricultural production systems that can be harmful to species and habitats. This support should be repurposed towards incentivising conservation and sustainable management of nature, which can benefit biodiversity, food production, climate, and economic objectives,” said IUCN Deputy Director General Stewart Maginnis.

The IUCN flagship report on agriculture – edited by IUCN Chief Economist Juha Siikamäki and Chief Scientist Thomas Brooks, with contributions from 32 other experts, including from the University of Minnesota, The Natural Capital Project, and Wildlife Conservation Society – recognises that the sustainability of agriculture requires synergies with living nature to strengthen its natural capital and reduce its negative footprint, as well as strategically protecting and restoring agricultural land without undermining food security, local economies, or climate goals. It also highlights that the transition to sustainable agriculture will require managing trade-offs, and that broader reforms to food policy – such as minimising food waste and incentivising positive changes in diets – can significantly advance conservation goals.

The report includes 15 case studies from countries like Vietnam, Guatemala, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Saudi Arabia, and the Republic of Korea. The case studies are a key methodological angle in the report series and draw from IUCN’s decentralised network of approximately 200 Member governments and 1,200 non-governmental and Indigenous Peoples’ Organisations, roughly 16,000 conservation specialists mobilised through seven independent expert Commissions, and 50 regional and national offices.

The report comes alongside IUCN’s move to establish a dedicated Food and Agricultural Systems team at its headquarters in Gland, Switzerland. It also follows from agriculture and food systems-related IUCN resolutions and a series of reports on the topic, including Common Ground and Approaches to Sustainable Agriculture, as well as a comprehensive report released in May 2024 on the environmental, economic, and social impacts of the production, trade, and consumption of vegetable oils.

The flagship report is the second in the “Living Nature in a Globalised World” series, which addresses pressing global challenges and explores the significance of nature in that context. The first report, released in 2021, examined conflict and conservation. The series combines novel analysis and modelling of data based on IUCN Standards with synthesis of the literature and illustrative case studies from around the globe.  

Supporting Quotes

Agence française de développement (AFD)

“This IUCN flagship report provides a comprehensive overview on the interlinkages between biodiversity and agriculture as well as recommendations to engage towards a more sustainable pathway that combine food security and biodiversity conservation at a global scale.”

IKEA Foundation

"‘Agriculture and Conservation’, the second report in the IUCN flagship series ‘Living Nature in a Globalised World’, is an ambitious and a milestone report by IUCN. The report synthesises a wide range of knowledge across different elements of agriculture and ecosystems management. Achieving the fine balance between protecting the planet and feeding the world is only possible with improved knowledge of ecosystems and species, and increased adoption of sustainable practices such as regenerative and climate-smart agriculture.”

• Jessica Anderen, Chief Executive Officer, IKEA Foundation

IUCN experts

“The IUCN flagship report breaks new ground in drawing from data based on IUCN Standards – including the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, Red List of Ecosystems, Protected Planet, and World Database of Key Biodiversity Areas – to provide novel insights into agricultural sustainability. For example, it produces, for the first time, a Red List Index for the impacts of agriculture, which reveals that changing agricultural practices over the last three decades have driven a 1% deterioration in extinction risk – crucial information for supporting countries in tracking progress towards Sustainable Development Goal 2.4 on sustainable food production. Further, it finds that overall, more than 45% of the global need and opportunity to reduce species extinction risk rests with how agriculture is implemented, as calculated from the STAR metric derived from the IUCN Red List.””

• Thomas Brooks, IUCN Chief Scientist, co-editor of the report

“The IUCN flagship report ‘Agriculture and Conservation’ examines how the world can feed humanity while also protecting and restoring living nature. Our ability to address these dual challenges is critical, as agriculture very fundamentally depends on nature but is also a leading threat to biodiversity. The report shows that achieving both food production and conservation objectives is possible, but few one-size-fits-all answers are available. Rather, successful solutions will vary by location, scale, and production system. One important line of action involves reforming agricultural policies to support conservation and the restoration of living nature. Trade-offs are unavoidable, ranging from ecological to economic and social, and addressing them effectively will be key to ensuring successful transition towards sustainable agriculture.”      

• Juha Siikamäki, IUCN Chief Economist, co-editor of the report

“IUCN included Food Systems and Sustainable Agriculture as one the eight transformations to be addressed through its draft 20-year vision and 2026-2029 programme currently under consultation ahead of approval at the World Conservation Congress in 2025, in recognition of its major importance for conservation outcomes and the Sustainable Development Goals as a whole. This report is a major tool for IUCN members, commissions, and my team in the secretariat to engage with key food and agricultural systems stakeholders and advocate for the necessary changes in public and private policy and financial flows that will lead to changes in production and consumption practices and the desired outcomes at landscape level.”

• Pascale Bonzom, Global Head, IUCN Food and Agricultural Systems Team