Biological diversity of agriculture consists of several analytic levels and spatial management scales that are subject to complex interactions with global change. The complexity of interactions is related to the bidirectional impacts and influences of global land use and climate change in combination with social-environmental shifts (globalization of agricultural development; market integration; technological change; and regulation through global treaties, policies, and institutions). This article develops a conceptual framework of the complexity of interactions using four thematic nodes—biological diversity in agriculture; global change; management and scale; and social-environmental adaptation, vulnerability, and resilience. It argues for the increased relevance of this framework. Linking expanded scientific research and policy to this group of conceptual nodes yields insight into the impacts of global change on biological diversity in agriculture and into the design of conservation strategies, monitoring approaches, and sustainability policies. Future policy must anticipate interactions of biological diversity, agroecosystem complexity, and global change stemming from the acceleration and integration of region-scale land-use intensification and disintensification.

Integrating the conservation of biodiversity by smallholder farmers with agricultural intensification is increasingly recognized as a leading priority of sustainability and food security amid global environmental and socioeconomic change. An international research project investigated the smallholder agrobiodiversity of maize (corn) in a global hotspot (Bolivia) undergoing significant intensification. Peach-based intensification was pronounced (300–400%) and prolonged (2000–2010) in study areas. Intensification and maize agrobiodiversity were found to co-occur within smallholder landscapes. Interactions of these field systems did not trigger land-change tipping points leading to landrace extirpation. By 2010 maize landraces in the study areas still demonstrated high levels of taxonomic and ecological biodiversity and contributed significantly to this crop’s agrobiodiversity at national (31%) and hemispheric (3%) scales. Social and ecological resilience and in situ conservation of the maize agrobiodiversity by Bolivian smallholders was enabled through robust linkages to off-farm migration; resource access and asset capabilities among both traditional and nontraditional growers; landrace agroecology and food uses; and innovative knowledge and skills. The smallholders’ resilience resulting from these linkages was integral to the conditional success of the in situ conservation of maize agrobiodiversity. Environment–development interactions both enabled smallholders’ agrobiodiversity resilience and influenced the limits and vulnerability of agrobiodiversity. Scientific policy recommendations regarding land-use planning and sustainability analysis are targeted to specific Río+20 priorities for agrobiodiversity.

Zimmerer, K. S. 2014. Conserving agrobiodiversity amid global change, migration, and nontraditional livelihood networks: the dynamic uses of cultural landscape knowledge. Ecology and Society 19(2): 1.http://dx.doi.org/10.5751/ES-06316-190201

Zimmerer, K. S., E. F. B. Lambin, and S. J. Vanek. 2018. Smallholder telecoupling and potential sustainability. Ecology and Society 23(1):30. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-09935-230130