Stewart Lockie and David Carpenter: agriculture, biodiversity and markets: livelihoods and agroecology in comparative perspective

Abstract

This book represents collaborative teamwork on agriculture, biodiversity and markets by a number of concerned researchers and contributors. It gives an extensive and unique overview of livelihoods and agroecology from a comparative perspective and envisions a related future. In striving to stimulate attention to this topic, the authors do an excellent job of bringing together a rich diversity of empirical material from around the world to analyze the complex interdependencies between biodiversity protection and agricultural livelihoods. The book provides new and better insights into whether, why and how biodiversity values should be given pride of place in agroecosystems. Biodiversity plays a pivotal role in determining agricultural production and shaping the livelihoods of agricultural communities. This volume examines the relationships among agricultural biodiversity, livelihoods and markets effectively. These authors argue that no single disciplinary position does justice to the range of strategies that farmers use to manage agrobiodiversity and other livelihood assets as they adapt to changing social, economic and environmental circumstances. Chapters explore relationships among the exploitation and conservation of agricultural biodiversity and the livelihoods of agricultural communities; and evaluate the capacity of national and multilateral institutions and policy settings to support the protection and capture by communities of agrobiodiversity values. The place of ecosystem services in valuing biodiversity in the marketplace is emphasized. A number of authors in this book assess the potential for market-based instruments and initiatives to encourage the protection of biodiversity. Others compare agrobiodiversity/community relationships, and the effectiveness of instruments designed to enhance these across international boundaries. In four parts, the editors and chapter authors emphasize the need for new approaches to biological diversity and the sustainability of the global ecosystem in general and of agriculture in particular. In the opening section, the editors and contributors attempt to introduce two seemingly contradictory things. On the one hand, they problematize the notion of biodiversity as it is applied to agricultural systems and their sustainability; on the other, they seek to restore some clarity by highlighting the conceptual issues, research questions and policy dilemmas of significant importance for biodiversity and agricultural communities’ sustainability. Part 2 effectively addresses agro-biodiversity and modernization, while emphasizing their contribution to intensive farming systems. This section argues that when farmers and farming businesses are well informed about the benefits of conservation, they are able to integrate conservation goals into decision making through agricultural production practices. Part 3 examines how certification systems affect farm and forest level biodiversity, and clarifies the specific impacts of the international standardization of environmental certification procedures and related markets. Part 4 brings out the conservation values resulting from eco-agriculture systems and discusses the rationale behind payments for ecosystem services schemes as they apply to different stakeholder groups. The book chapters draw on empirical case studies from across the developed and developing worlds. In so doing, the book not only points to similarities and differences in the experience of rural communities. It also shows how F. Mirzaei (&) Department of Livestock Production and Management, Animal Science Research Institute, 31585 Karaj, Iran e-mail: farmir2003203@yahoo.com