Agriculture currently contributes about 30 percent of the global emission of greenhouse gases resulting from human activity. This has major implications for global climate change.
The unplanned expansion of intensive production systems, which are typically monoculture and often developed at the expense of primary forests and savanna woodlands, can contribute to a significant loss in biodiversity.
Deforestation rates have reached almost one percent per year in some regions.
The major findings of the recently concluded Millennium Ecosystem Assessment warned that approximately 60 percent of the ecosystem services (box 5.1) supporting life on Earth was being degraded or used unsustainably and that the consequences of degradation could grow significantly worse in the next half-century.
Box 5.1. Ecosystem services An ecosystem is a dynamic complex of plant, animal, and microorganism communities and the nonliving environment interacting as a functional unit. Examples of ecosystems include natural forests, landscapes with mixed patterns of human use, and ecosystems that are intensively managed and modified by humans, such as agricultural land and urban areas. Ecosystem services are the benefits people obtain from ecosystems. These include: - Provisioning services such as food, water, timber, and fiber.
- Regulating services that affect climate, floods, disease, wastes, and water quality.
- Cultural services that provide recreational, aesthetic, and spiritual benefits.
- Supporting services, such as soil formation, photosynthesis, and nutrient cycling.
The human species, while buffered against environmental changes by culture and technology, is fundamentally dependent on the flow of ecosystem services. Source: Millennium Assessments 2005, www.millenniumassessment.org) |
Sustainable NRM is critical to reducing poverty. If productive capacity continues to erode, the potential to satisfy future food needs will be seriously compromised. The poorest will suffer the most, through increased food costs and greater vulnerability to their livelihood. Further, increased agricultural production and productivity and increased incomes provide more resources in the long run for addressing environmental problems. Improvements in natural resources facilitate farmers’ transition to production systems that are better matched to the available natural and human resources, can respond to market signals, and are more profitable, stable, and sustainable. Good NRM also expands income and employment opportunities throughout the wider community—for instance, through eco/agrotourism or through agroforestry production that attracts downstream processing industries.     
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