Defining Ecoagriculture

“Ecoagriculture” is a term coined in 2000 to convey a vision of rural communities managing their resources to jointly achieve three broad goals at a landscape scale — what we refer to as the “three pillars” of ecoagriculture:

• Enhance rural livelihoods;
• Protect or enhancing biodiversity and ecosystem services; and
• Develop more sustainable and productive agricultural systems.

Ecoagriculture is both a conservation strategy and a rural development strategy. Ecoagriculture recognizes agricultural producers and communities as key stewards of ecosystems and biodiversity and enables them to play those roles effectively. Ecoagriculture applies an integrated ecosystem approach to agricultural landscapes to address all three pillars, drawing on diverse elements of production and conservation management systems. Meeting the goals of ecoagriculture usually requires collaboration or coordination between diverse stakeholders who are collectively responsible for managing key components of a landscape.

For more details, please read The Nairobi Declaration (available in multiple languages), a joint statement by the participants of the October 2004 International Ecoagriculture Conference and Practitioners’ Fair in Nairobi, Kenya, that defines their agreed principles of ecoagriculture.

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