Enhancing the ecological value of tropical agriculture through set-asides

Abstract Agricultural expansion across the tropics is the primary driver of biodiversity declines and ecosystem service degradation. However, efforts to mitigate these negative impacts may reduce commodity production. We quantify trade-offs between oil palm cultivation and ecological outcomes (biodiversity, above-ground carbon storage and dung nutrient cycling) across different potential set-aside (uncultivated areas in agricultural landscapes) strategies. We show that all set-aside configurations yield substantial gains in ecological outcomes. The best strategy involves spatially targeted riparian reserves, such as those used in oil palm certification schemes, where species occurrence can be doubled without reducing overall cultivation area. Adopting this strategy throughout the 8 million hectares of plantations in Borneo would lead to extensive improvements in ecological outcomes without losses to production area, and consequently, enhancing agricultural sustainability.