Abstract

Agriculture is identified as a major contributor to global biodiversity decline. This paper examines the role of agricultural trade in governing bird biodiversity losses, through changes at both the extensive and intensive margins of land use. To do so, I combine a multi-country general equilibrium model of trade, which accounts for the use and trade of agrochemicals, with a species-area model from the ecology literature. I run a set of counterfactual scenarios to estimate the impact of historical and hypothetical trade policies on regional bird species richness. As birds provide essential ecosystem services, I can then use these estimates to predict changes in ecosystems health and, subsequently, feedback effects on agricultural productivity.

Practical information