An integrated multi-scale framework for economically feasible landscape connectivity in working agricultural systems

Abstract

Agricultural landscapes must simultaneously sustain food production, support rural economies, and maintain ecological resilience. However, decades of landscape simplification have reduced semi-natural habitats, fragmented ecological networks, and weakened the ecosystem services that underpin agricultural productivity. Existing approaches to ecological intensification improve some farm-level services but do not generate the spatial coordination required for landscape-scale ecological function. Here, we present an integrated modeling framework that links farm-level ecological intensification, spatial habitat connectivity optimization, and a Bayesian search over realistic agri-environmental policies. Applied to a real agricultural landscape, the framework identifies feasible pathways for enhancing ecological function while maintaining economic viability. By explicitly connecting the scales at which farmers make decisions, ecosystems operate, and policies are implemented, this approach reveals how coordinated restoration can transform fragmented agricultural mosaics into more resilient, multifunctional landscapes. Our results demonstrate the potential for policy design to enable ecologically strategic and economically feasible habitat restoration, offering a pathway toward more sustainable agricultural systems.

The authors' abstract, as published at the source. npj Sustainable Agriculture, 2026 · DOI ↗