ABSTRACT
In this chapter, we consider how wild biodiversity (WBD), such as birds and insects, has been valued over time through both utilitarian and intrinsic lenses, and the implications this has had on conservation policy and practice. In doing so, we reflect on the evolution in biological conservation theory with respect to the valuation of WBD and highlight how the recent shift to a more utilitarian perspective has underpinned Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES). Meanwhile, the conservation of agricultural biodiversity (ABD), such as domesticated crop species and varieties and crop wild relatives, has taken a notably different evolutionary course, being firmly rooted in intrinsic values. Yet, although PES has provided mechanisms to formalise the market for WBD and ecosystem services for some time, it is only relatively recently that Payments for Agrobiodiversity Conservation Services (PACS) have started to explore the potential to incentivise the conservation of ABD.
Contemporary WBD and ABD conservation attempts are largely pursued separately in terms of research, policy, implementation and incentivised payment schemes. As such, these separate conservation approaches fail to adequately acknowledge the intricate and intrinsic connections between the two domains. WBD and ABD are often spatially and temporally juxtaposed at field, farm, landscape and biome scales, resulting in multiple interactions and flows of services between wild and agricultural biodiversity. Both provide multiple ecosystem services that support food production, underpin food security and human well-being and often suffer the impact of similar threatening processes, such as agricultural intensification. We argue the value of an integrated perspective on biodiversity conservation in agriculture that acknowledges and acts upon the synergies between WBD and ABD. This provides opportunities for the early development of incentive mechanisms and market-based instruments for conserving ABD to draw on lessons from the analogous, more established PES. We end by offering cautionary words around an over-reliance on an ecosystem service rationale for conserving all biodiversity.
