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Long-term strategies for conserving biodiversity have to find alternative solutions for the social forces that currently determine the current high rates of loss of biodiversity. Central to this is an understanding of the threat posed to biodiversity by changing patterns of land-use that result from the expansion and intensification of agriculture. While human population growth is a major component of the demand for new agricultural land, it has to be recognized that inequalities in resource use and allocation also make a major contribution to this problem. Thus, the eutrophication caused by agricultural fertilizers in developed countries are equally damaging as the slash and burn tactics practiced by expanding pastoral populations in developing countries.
Here the focus is not on apportioning blame, but on determining viable new scientific solutions that appease the need to set some areas aside for biodiversity with society's demands for increased land use. Central to this agenda is the development of educational and media outreach programs that overcome political inertia by illustrating the dependence of human health and well-being on services supplied by nature.
Andrew Dobson (Group Chair)
Pam Matson
Jon Paul Rodriguez
David Wilcove
Lisa Curran
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