Social-ecological scales and sites of action: Keys to conserving biodiversity while intensifying New Zealand's agriculture?

• Published in: New Zealand journal of agricultural research Vol. 51; no. 4; pp. 461 - 465
• Main Authors: Moller, Henrik, Blackwell, Grant, Weller, Florian, MacLeod, Catriona J., Rosin, Chris, Gradwohl, Markus, Meadows, Sarah, Perley, Chris
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Taylor & Francis Group 01-12-2008
• Subjects: New Zealand
• ISSN: 0028-8233; 1175-8775
• DOI: 10.1080/00288230809510476

Our review of the putative effects of agricultural intensification on biodiversity in New Zealand (Moller et al. 2008) has been firmly and constructively criticised by Lee et al. (2008, this issue) in this forum on biodiversity and sustainability of New Zealand agriculture. Here we respond to their interventions in order to clarify and extend our original comments because we think that much of apparent disagreement stems from focus on different social-ecological scales, because Lee et al. (2008) have confused intensification with extensification, and because we think that further and vigorous debate will help identify ways of supporting both biodiversity and sustainable farming. Equally, we cannot accept a blanket assertion by Rowarth (2008, this issue) in this forum that agricultural intensification always protects global biodiversity. Instead, we argue for case-by-case and scale-dependent tests of the putative impacts of agricultural intensification on biodiversity in particular and sustainability of New Zealand farming in general.