open access publication

Article, Early Access, 2024

The role of nature's contributions to people in sustaining international trade of agricultural products

PEOPLE AND NATURE, 10.1002/pan3.10607

Contributors

Marques, Alexandra 0000-0002-3222-0310 (Corresponding author) [1] Bonn, Aletta 0000-0002-8345-4600 [2] [3] [4] [5] Castro, Antonio J. [6] Chaudhary, Abhishek [7] [8] Felipe-Lucia, Maria R. [3] [4] [5] [9] Kastner, Thomas 0000-0002-8155-136X [10] [11] Koellner, Thomas 0000-0001-5022-027X [12] Lancker, Kira 0000-0001-8787-1148 [13] Lopez Hoffman, Laura [14] Meyer, Carsten [5] [15] [16] Pfister, Stephan 0000-0001-8984-2041 [17] [18] Rabeschini, Gabriela 0000-0003-4161-8109 [10] [11] Willemen, Louise 0000-0003-1026-5865 [19] Schulp, Catharina J. E. [20]

Affiliations

  1. [1] PBL Netherlands Environm Assessment Agcy, The Hague, Netherlands
  2. [NORA names: Netherlands; Europe, EU; OECD];
  3. [2] Friedrich Schiller Univ Jena, Inst Biodivers, Jena, Germany
  4. [NORA names: Germany; Europe, EU; OECD];
  5. [3] UFZ Helmholtz Ctr Environm Res, Dept Ecosyst Serv, Leipzig, Germany
  6. [NORA names: Germany; Europe, EU; OECD];
  7. [4] UFZ Helmholtz Ctr Environm Res, Dept Ecosyst Serv, Leipzig, Germany
  8. [NORA names: Germany; Europe, EU; OECD];
  9. [5] German Ctr Integrat Biodivers Res IDiv, D-04103 Leipzig, Germany
  10. [NORA names: Germany; Europe, EU; OECD];

Abstract

Nature's contributions to people (NCP) are essential for the production and trade of agricultural, forestry and fishery commodities. Often, there is a spatial disconnect between consumers and the natural systems where the commodities are produced. Traded agricultural products are therefore dependent on nature and NCP in their region of origin. The dependencies of agricultural products on NCP are, however, insufficiently recognised by consumers and are rarely considered in global environmental governance and trade policies along value chains. Here, we synthesise studies highlighting dependencies of agricultural products on NCP in their origin locations to identify opportunities and challenges in quantifying their contribution in sustaining trade flows. We suggest three methodological steps for quantifying NCP dependencies in international agricultural trade: spatial mapping of NCP supply and demand, linking NCP to agricultural trade flows, and tracing trade flows. Each methodological step requires further development and harmonisation to enable a complete accounting of how international agricultural trade depends on NCP. Given the lack of knowledge and data on how NCP support agricultural trade, social and environmental trade-offs of natural resource management are currently hard to quantify. Quantifying the role of NCP dependencies of traded agricultural products can support their sustainable management, contribute to supply chain accountability and serve as input to sustainable natural resource governance and foster responsibility and equity in supply chains.Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.

Keywords

Nature's contributions to people (NCP), dependencies, ecosystem services, international agricultural trade, supply chains, telecoupling

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