Nature-Positive Agriculture and Landscape Transformation

Why Farm-Level Action Is Not Enough

Efforts to make agriculture more sustainable have traditionally focused on individual farms and practices. While farm-level improvements are essential, they are no longer sufficient. Climate change, biodiversity loss, water scarcity, and deforestation operate at landscape scale, crossing farm boundaries and administrative lines.

Nature-positive agriculture recognizes this reality. It seeks not only to reduce harm, but to actively restore and regenerate ecosystems — across entire landscapes. This shift is critical if agriculture is to support thriving ecosystems, resilient livelihoods, and long-term food security.

Understanding Nature-Positive Agriculture

Nature-positive agriculture goes beyond “doing less damage.” It aims to halt and reverse nature loss by restoring biodiversity, ecosystem functions, and natural capital while maintaining productive land use.

In practice, this means protecting remaining natural habitats, restoring degraded ecosystems, and managing agricultural lands in ways that support soil life, pollinators, water cycles, and wildlife. It also means recognizing that farms are embedded in broader ecological systems, not isolated units of production.

Nature-positive outcomes are measured not only by yields, but by improvements in ecosystem health and resilience.

Landscapes as the Unit of Change

Ecosystems do not conform to farm boundaries. Rivers flow across fields, forests regulate rainfall far beyond their edges, and pollinators move across entire regions. When agriculture fragments landscapes, the cumulative impact can overwhelm even well-managed farms.

Landscape transformation aligns land use across farms, forests, wetlands, and settlements to achieve shared outcomes. This approach balances production with conservation, connecting habitats, managing water collectively, and reducing pressure on remaining natural ecosystems.

Working at landscape scale enables trade-offs to be managed transparently and benefits to be shared more equitably.

The Link Between Nature-Positive Agriculture and Climate Action

Nature-positive landscapes are powerful climate allies. Healthy forests, wetlands, and soils store carbon, regulate microclimates, and reduce vulnerability to extreme weather. Agricultural systems that integrate trees, diverse crops, and restored habitats are more resilient to droughts, floods, and heat.

Conversely, landscapes stripped of biodiversity amplify climate risk. Erosion increases, water regulation fails, and yields become more volatile. Nature-positive agriculture therefore strengthens both mitigation and adaptation, reinforcing the climate–nature nexus.

Biodiversity as Infrastructure, Not Ornament

Biodiversity is often treated as an externality — something to protect once production goals are met. In reality, biodiversity functions as infrastructure. Pollinators enable crop production. Soil organisms drive nutrient cycling. Vegetation regulates water and temperature.

When biodiversity declines, these services weaken, and agriculture becomes more dependent on costly external inputs. Nature-positive systems invest in living infrastructure, reducing long-term risk and increasing stability.

Seeing biodiversity as infrastructure reframes conservation from a cost to an investment.

People at the Center of Landscape Transformation

Landscape approaches succeed only when they work for people. Farmers, Indigenous Peoples, local communities, and land users must be active participants, not passive beneficiaries. Their knowledge, rights, and livelihoods are integral to sustaining nature-positive outcomes.

Ignoring social realities undermines ecological goals. Conservation efforts that restrict access or reduce incomes often fail. Nature-positive agriculture must therefore align ecological restoration with livelihood security, equity, and local governance.

Inclusive landscape governance builds trust and enables long-term stewardship.

Why Fragmented Action Falls Short

Isolated projects — a restored wetland here, a regenerative farm there — are valuable but limited. Without coordination, benefits are diluted and risks persist elsewhere in the landscape. Leakage, displacement, and conflicting land uses can undermine progress.

Landscape transformation addresses these limitations by aligning actors around shared goals, metrics, and governance structures. It creates a platform for scaling impact across regions rather than repeating small interventions indefinitely.

The Role of Markets and Policy

Nature-positive landscapes require enabling conditions. Markets must reward practices that restore ecosystems rather than degrade them. Policies must align incentives across agriculture, forestry, water, and land use.

Corporate commitments to deforestation-free and nature-positive sourcing increasingly depend on landscape-level solutions. Governments and financiers play a critical role in supporting coordination, data systems, and long-term investment.

Without alignment across sectors, nature-positive agriculture cannot scale.

Why the Window for Action Is Narrow

Nature loss is accelerating, and ecological tipping points are approaching. Once ecosystems cross certain thresholds, recovery becomes uncertain or impossible. Delaying action increases both environmental and economic costs.

Landscape transformation takes time. Relationships must be built, governance structures established, and ecosystems restored. Acting early is therefore essential to secure durable outcomes.

Conclusion: From Isolated Farms to Living Landscapes

Nature-positive agriculture represents a shift in ambition — from minimizing harm to restoring life. But this ambition can only be realized at landscape scale, where ecological processes operate and trade-offs can be managed collectively.

Transforming landscapes is complex, but the alternative is continued fragmentation, escalating risk, and declining resilience. By embracing nature-positive agriculture and landscape transformation, food systems can become a force for ecological recovery rather than depletion.

About the Sustainable Agriculture Network

The Sustainable Agriculture Network (SAN) is a global impact network transforming agriculture into a force for good — healing and nourishing our extraordinary planet. Together with 37 member organizations across more than 120 countries, SAN advances sustainable, equitable, and climate-resilient farming systems that empower communities and restore nature.

Through radical collaboration, SAN connects farmers, businesses, researchers, and civil society to co-create solutions that tackle the world’s most pressing challenges — from climate change and biodiversity loss to social inequity. Our network’s collective efforts have already helped transform over 40 million hectares of farmland, driving measurable progress toward regenerative and inclusive food systems.

Rooted in integrity, inclusivity, curiosity, empathy, adaptability, and evidence-based action, SAN leads with both urgency and hope. We envision a future where agriculture heals, communities thrive, and nature flourishes.

Learn more at www.sustainableagriculture.eco