The interaction of human population, food production, and biodiversity protection

2017/04/20 by Eileen Crist, Camilo Mora, Robert Engelman · 10 citations
Environmental Science · Agricultural and Biological Sciences · Economics, Econometrics and Finance · #Agriculture Sustainability and Environmental Impact #Agriculture, Land Use, Rural Development #Economic and Environmental Valuation

paper · doi:10.1126/science.aal2011

openalex publication_date 2017/04/20 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/23

Abstract

Research suggests that the scale of human population and the current pace of its growth contribute substantially to the loss of biological diversity. Although technological change and unequal consumption inextricably mingle with demographic impacts on the environment, the needs of all human beings-especially for food-imply that projected population growth will undermine protection of the natural world. Numerous solutions have been proposed to boost food production while protecting biodiversity, but alone these proposals are unlikely to staunch biodiversity loss. An important approach to sustaining biodiversity and human well-being is through actions that can slow and eventually reverse population growth: investing in universal access to reproductive health services and contraceptive technologies, advancing women's education, and achieving gender equality.

Citations

• Proximate Causes and Underlying Driving Forces of Tropical Deforestation
• Population, Sustainability, and Earth's Carrying Capacity
• Livestock production: recent trends, future prospects
• The biodiversity of species and their rates of extinction, distribution, and protection
• Harvesting the Biosphere: The Human Impact
• Mapping tree density at a global scale
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• Global Consequences of Land Use
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• Impending extinction crisis of the world’s primates: Why primates matter
• An Ecoregion-Based Approach to Protecting Half the Terrestrial Realm

Cited by

• The minimum land area requiring conservation attention to safeguard biodiversity
• Scientists' warning on population
• Overpopulation is a major cause of biodiversity loss and smaller human populations are necessary to preserve what is left
• Towards the implementation of sustainable biofuel production systems
• Protecting Half the Planet and Transforming Human Systems Are Complementary Goals
• Reset Sustainable Development Goals for a pandemic world
• Carrying capacity [wikipedia]
• Ecological footprint [wikipedia]
• Holocene extinction [wikipedia]
• Human impact on the environment [wikipedia]