Assessing trade-off risk between crop production and vertebrate biodiversity in three African countries

Journal

People and Nature

Authors

Abbie S. A. Chapman, Selase Kofi Adanu, Carole Dalin, Adam Devenish, Geoffrey H. Griffiths, Elizabeth J. Z. Robinson et al.

The authors of this paper identify areas where there is a trade-off risk between vertebrate biodiversity and crop production important for food and livelihoods across Ethiopia, Ghana, and Zambia. The authors evaluate trade-off risk via three metrics: (i) the footprint, mapping the overlap between crop production and ecological priority areas; (ii) two measures of trade-off risk based on the number of species potentially impacted: one measuring average local species richness affected per unit area used to grow a crop or crop group—domestic or traded (trade-off risk intensity), and a second measuring this average local species richness impacted but summed across the total area used to grow the crop/crop group (trade-off risk potential); and (iii) the hotspots where crops are grown in regions especially rich in vertebrates.

DOI: 10.1002/pan3.70372