Abstract
Working landscapes represent >60% of terrestrial
landscapes and thus represent opportunities for biodiversity
conservation outside of traditional protected areas. For long,
biodiversity conservation and crop productivity have been seen as
mutually exclusive options. Here, we use a unique dataset that includes
annual monitoring of 12,300 permanent 25 ha-plots over two decades
across Spain to assess how working landscapes are changing over time and
how these changes affect their ability to ensure high yields. We find
that win-win strategies that are good for biodiversity conservation can
also lead to increasing crop yields. Specifically, we find that
management practices that favor increasing biodiversity values such as
maintaining small field sizes and high crop richness values at the
landscape scale actually lead to the greatest yield values across 54
crops considered. Win-win scenarios for biodiversity conservation and
crop productivity are thus possible, yet not as widespread as they could
be.