Can managing ecosystem services give a win-win for biodiversity and food production?

Human population growth and rising living standards drive an increasing demand for agricultural products. At the same time there is an increasing need to reduce the negative environmental impacts of farming. Ecological intensification has been proposed as a promising way to deliver both. Ecological intensification entails the maintenance or enhancement of crop productivity through environmentally friendly replacement of anthropogenic inputs with management of regulating and supporting ecosystem services. Evidence that agricultural production benefits from services provided by wild species and ecosystems is rapidly accumulating. Nevertheless farmers are reluctant to adopt practices that rely more on natural processes. Here I highlight the potential benefits as well as the limitations of ecological intensification. Delivery of ecosystem services can provide a direct economic incentive for biodiversity conservation on farms but such obvious win-win situations are mostly limited to high-revenue (fruit) crops. In low-revenue (field) crops, ecological intensification requires a change in attitude amongst farmers and initially only low-impact no-regret changes in farming practices are likely to be adopted. Such changes can best target soil quality as surveys show farmers valuing soil quality much higher than pollination or pest control. However, ongoing research shows that soil quality is linked to both pollination and pest control. The successful adoption of these low-impact management practices could make farmers more receptive to more substantial changes in farming practices that enhance ecosystem services and reduce dependence on external inputs.