From biophysical to social-ecological trade-offs: integrating biodiversity conservation and agricultural production in the Argentine Dry Chaco

This research paper examines the trade-offs between avian habitat conservation and agricultural productivity in the Argentine Dry Chaco, analyzing how different land-use intensities and landholder preferences influence ecosystem services.

• The study identified a nonlinear, concave efficiency frontier for avian habitat and agricultural productivity, suggesting that transitioning from low- to intermediate-intensity systems allows for significant production gains with minimal conservation losses.
• Among five policy options, the 'land sharing with conservation' scenario—consisting of 30% undisturbed forests and 70% intermediate-intensity systems—produced the highest combined outcome for agricultural productivity and avian habitat.
• Landholder groups exhibit different preferences: 'multifunctional' landholders balance conservation and conversion; 'preproductivist' landholders may endogenously transition to multifunctional regimes to increase productivity by 35-65% without harming avian habitat; and 'productivist' landholders prefer forest conversion despite the potential to increase conservation outcomes by 30-50% without significant productivity loss via a multifunctional transition, which would require exogenous incentives.

APA

Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research (2025). From biophysical to social-ecological trade-offs: integrating biodiversity conservation and agricultural production in the Argentine Dry Chaco. https://iai.int/es/pub_acad/from-biophysical-to-social-ecological-trade-offs-integrating-biodiversity-conservation-and-agricultural-production-in-the-argentine-dry-chaco/

Chicago

Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research. From biophysical to social-ecological trade-offs: integrating biodiversity conservation and agricultural production in the Argentine Dry Chaco. 2025. https://iai.int/es/pub_acad/from-biophysical-to-social-ecological-trade-offs-integrating-biodiversity-conservation-and-agricultural-production-in-the-argentine-dry-chaco/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research |title=From biophysical to social-ecological trade-offs: integrating biodiversity conservation and agricultural production in the Argentine Dry Chaco |date=15 January 2025 |url=https://iai.int/es/pub_acad/from-biophysical-to-social-ecological-trade-offs-integrating-biodiversity-conservation-and-agricultural-production-in-the-argentine-dry-chaco/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{interamericaninstituteforglobalchangeresearch2025from, author = {{Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research}}, title = {{From biophysical to social-ecological trade-offs: integrating biodiversity conservation and agricultural production in the Argentine Dry Chaco}}, institution = {Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research}, year = {2025}, month = jan, url = {https://iai.int/es/pub_acad/from-biophysical-to-social-ecological-trade-offs-integrating-biodiversity-conservation-and-agricultural-production-in-the-argentine-dry-chaco/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }