Draft Research Priorities for Conservation-Based Agriculture
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In 1988, a group of experts affiliated with conservation biology met to discuss research priorities within their field. A publication designed to inform and direct future directions for research resulted from that meeting. A similar effort could benefit the growing field of conservation-based agriculture. Through a combination of literature reviews and responses from authorities in fields related to biodiversity conservation and sustainable agriculture, Wild Farm Alliance (WFA) has created a draft of research priorities for conservation-based agriculture.

WFA appreciates feedback from additional researchers regarding the current analysis and new information that could be added to the priorities. Please contact WFA by phone or email with your suggestions.

Organizational Structure of the Document:
Diversitas, an international program of biodiversity science aimed at linking biology, ecology and social sciences, has developed a framework for organizing multidisciplinary scientific inquiry. Following discussions with one of their contributors, WFA chose to follow their structure in order to synchronize our efforts with their ongoing work. Consequently, suggestions for research priorities have been placed under the following three categories:

bioDISCOVERY:
Assessing current levels of biodiversity; developing the scientific basis for monitoring and observing; understanding and predicting changes.

ecoSERVICES:
Expanding biodiversity and ecosystem functioning science to larger scales and over a greater breadth of the biological hierarchy; linking changes in ecosystem structure and functioning to changes in ecosystem services; assessing human response to change in ecosystem services.

bioSUSTAINABILITY:
Developing new knowledge to guide policy and decision making that support sustainable use of biodiversity; evaluating the effectiveness of current conservation measures; studying the social, political and economic drivers of biodiversity loss, as well as social choice and decision making.
*Further information about Diversitas is available at: http://www.diversitas-international.org/

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