How much will it cost to save grassland diversity?

• Published in: Biological conservation Vol. 122; no. 2; pp. 263 - 273
• Main Authors: Hodgson, J.G., Montserrat-Martı́, G., Tallowin, J., Thompson, K., Díaz, S., Cabido, M., Grime, J.P., Wilson, P.J., Band, S.R., Bogard, A., Cabido, R., Cáceres, D., Castro-Dı́ez, P., Ferrer, C., Maestro-Martı́nez, M., Pérez-Rontomé, M.C., Charles, M., Cornelissen, J.H.C., Dabbert, S., Pérez-Harguindeguy, N., Krimly, T., Sijtsma, F.J., Strijker, D., Vendramini, F., Guerrero-Campo, J., Hynd, A., Jones, G., Romo-Dı́ez, A., de Torres Espuny, L., Villar-Salvador, P., Zak, M.R.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Elsevier Ltd 01-03-2005; Elsevier
• Subjects: Animal, plant and microbial ecology; Applied ecology; Biodiversity; Biological and medical sciences; Conservation, protection and management of environment and wildlife; Economic factors; Effectiveness of conservation initiatives; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Parks, reserves, wildlife conservation. Endangered species: population survey and restocking; Site productivity; Site productivity; Economic factors; Biodiversity; Effectiveness of conservation initiatives; Grassland; Productivity; Costs; Environmental protection
• ISSN: 0006-3207; 1873-2917
• DOI: 10.1016/j.biocon.2004.07.016

Conservation initiatives are failing to arrest the global loss of biodiversity. From our mechanistic studies of ecology and economics, we suggest that for grazing lands the root cause of this failure is a powerful economic deterrent to measures designed to protect diversity. We identify an exponential relationship between monetary returns and intensification of farming methods over an extremely wide range of grassland productivities and farm systems. At intermediate to high levels of fertility, however, this exponential increase in financial benefit from intensification is associated with a decline in biodiversity and an acceleration of the ecological processes driving species losses from grassland ecosystems.