Farmland change could alleviate Amazon deforestation

Planting trees and forage plants in livestock pasture may support biodiversity and offer solutions to high deforestation rates, according to a new study.

Researchers from the University of Reading were part of the BioSmart project – an international, interdisciplinary team that investigated this method, known as silvopastoral farming, across farms in Colombia to see if it could benefit livelihoods, biodiversity and prevent further deforestation..

A transition to silvopastoral farming, when implemented in a participatory way where farmers can decide how the system is adopted in their farms and make commitments to conserve remnant forests, could help Colombia meet its greenhouse gas emissions targets for 2030 and protect the country’s Amazonian forests.

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Biodiversity benefits

The University of Reading’s Dr Mike Garratt, Principal Research Fellow on the BioSmart project, and Dr Lois Kinneen, a Postdoctoral Research Fellow, led on the entomological research for the project. Working closely with local partners at the Universidad de la Amazonia, the team collected almost 31,000 insects on Colombian farmland in order to assess the biodiversity value of different habitat types.

"This type of farming can host higher stocking densities, increasing farm productivity without expanding the area, which should hopefully in turn prevent the need to convert further forest." - Dr Lois Kinneen, University of Reading

Dr Kinneen said: “We found that even the small remnant forest patches present on the farms were home to unique communities of invertebrates, so these areas should therefore be a conservation priority and preserved.

“Silvopasture may help with this, as this type of farming can host higher stocking densities, increasing farm productivity without expanding the area, which should hopefully in turn prevent the need to convert further forest.

“We also found silvopasture biodiversity was far more similar to that in forests, compared to traditional pasture, suggesting it is less damaging particularly in terms of insects and spiders. Silvopasture had nearly half the number of plant-eating insects as traditional farmland, which could indicate further benefits for farmers if fewer agricultural pests are found in silvopasture.”

Deforestation issue

Over the last 20 years, Colombia — the second most biodiverse country in the world, has lost more than 4.6million hectares of forest, partly due to the expansion of cattle farming.

Reading’s fieldwork for BioSmart was carried out in Caquetá, which is home to 10% of the Amazon rainforest and has experienced the highest levels of deforestation in Colombia over the past 20 years.

While a range of national and international agri-environmental projects aimed at reducing deforestation levels have been implemented in Colombia, until now their uptake and efficacy was not known.

The BioSmart project, comprising entomologists, economists, geographers, climate modellers and botanists, sought to assess biodiversity value in silvopasture compared with more conventional pasture sites. The team recorded the number of insects and plant species across 16 silvopasture farm sites in Caquetá.

Farming transition

Dr Maria Paula Escobar, a human geographer who works as a Lecturer in Environmental Geography at the Bristol Veterinary School, and BioSmart project lead, said: “Deforested areas have a high potential to transition from intensive farming to more sustainable practices, including silvopasture. Since many of these areas are next to forest remnants in Caquetá, adopting more sustainable agriculture, coupled with farmers’ agreements to protect remaining forests would prevent further conversion of primary forest and slow overall deforestation rates.

“While sustainable agriculture alone is insufficient to reduce deforestation, silvopasture could play a significant role in helping to achieve Colombia’s greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets for 2030, but projects that aim to implement them must build trust and avoid perpetuating inequalities.”

BioSmart is funded by the BBSRC, Newton Fund, NERC and ESRC in the UK and Alianza de Bioversity Internacional y el CIAT in Colombia. It is led by the University of Bristol and also includes researchers from the International Center for Tropical Agriculture), Scotland’s Rural College SRUC, the Centre for Hydrology and Ecology CEH and the Universidad de la Amazonia.

The project’s report and recommendations Agri-environmental policy, silvopastoral systems, biodiversity and climate change is published in both English and Spanish.