Conjunctive Implementation of Land Sparing and Land Sharing for Environmental Preservation

In this paper, we investigate the concept of land sharing and land sparing management options for environmental preservation. We propose a general framework for the analysis of the conjunctive implementation of both land management options. This general framework provides an empirical rule of selection that can easily be implemented by a land-planner without specific knowledge of optimization procedures. Our main finding is that both the environmental benefit to cost ratio and the benefit difference (between a sharing and a sparing management option) to cost difference ratio matter for selection of parcels. We then develop an empirical application of this framework for the Seine-Ource river catchment in Burgundy, France. We look for the best land management option to implement for water quality preservation. We show that it is more cost-effective to implement land sharing and land sparing management options conjunctively than separately.