The world can produce enough food and protect biodiversity, even if farm production continues to increase at the same rate. This can be done if three key measures are implemented.
The measures are: producing more from each square metre of land, combating food wastage and protecting the most important natural areas. LEI, part of Wageningen UR, has demonstrated this by means of model simulations in the report Competing claims on land for food and biodiversity.
Feasible
The measures are not that easy to carry out. Case studies in Brazil, Indonesia and central Africa show that not all countries are able to increase farm production per hectare or reduce food wastage. The ability to protect vulnerable ecosystems is also heavily dependent on global and local political and economic forces.
Measures to increase productivity or combat deforestation require coordination at government level. At the same time, the international community must create the conditions for preventing undesirable developments, for example by establishing and enforcing sustainability criteria.