Trade-offs between multifunctionality and profit in tropical smallholder landscapes

Land-use transitions can enhance the livelihoods of smallholder farmers but potential economic-ecological trade-offs remain poorly understood. This interdisciplinary study of land-use transitions in a tropical smallholder landscape on Sumatra, Indonesia, finds widespread biodiversity-profit trade-offs resulting from transitions from forest and agroforestry systems to rubber and oil palm monocultures. Profit gains come at the expense of ecosystem multifunctionality, indicating far-reaching ecosystem deterioration. While optimal land-use allocation can mitigate trade-offs, intensive monocultures always lead to higher profits. Changes in economic incentive structures are urgently needed to reduce losses in biodiversity and ecosystem functioning.

Ingo Grass, Christoph Kubitza, Vijesh V. Krishna, Marife D. Corre, Oliver Mußhoff, Peter Pütz, Jochen Drescher, Katja Rembold, Eka Sulpin Ariyanti, Andrew D. Barnes, Nicole Brinkmann, Ulrich Brose, Bernhard Brümmer, Damayanti Buchori, Rolf Daniel, Kevin F.A. Darras, Heiko Faust, Lutz Fehrmann, Jonas Hein, Nina Hennings, Purnama Hidayat, Dirk Hölscher, Malte Jochum, Alexander Knohl, Martyna M. Kotowska, Valentyna Krashevska, Holger Kreft, Christoph Leuschner, Neil Jun S. Lobite, Rawati Panjaitan, Andrea Polle, Anton M. Potapov, Edwine Purnama, Matin Qaim, Alexander Röll, Stefan Scheu, Dominik Schneider, Aiyen Tjoa, Teja Tscharntke, Edzo Veldkamp, Meike Wollni