Abstract:
The world seeks to balance biodiversity protection and food
production. Transfrontier conservation areas (TFCAs) provide
unique opportunities for strategies that combine agriculture with
biodiversity conservation at a landscape level, known as ecoagriculture.
We identified and consulted ecoagriculture stakeholders
in a smallholder farming community within a TFCA. Data were
obtained through key informant interviews and questionnaire surveys.
Eighty-eight percent of key informants indicated that planned
ecoagriculture was feasible in the area and 95% of interviewed
farmers positively considered to plan the integration of biodiversity
conservation and farming. Potential conflicts of interest were
revealed among stakeholders but to a large extent, stakeholder
roles and interests were complementary, creating an environment
conducive to effective coordinated ecoagriculture planning.
