REVIEW article
Front. Sustain. Food Syst.
Sec. Agroecology and Ecosystem Services
Volume 9 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fsufs.2025.1664633
This article is part of the Research TopicInnovative Approaches in Agroecology and Ecosystem Services for Transformative Sustainable Food SystemsView all articles
The progress of research on the nexus between food security and biodiversity conservation: A systematic review
Provisionally accepted
- Graduate School of Advanced Integrated Studies in Human Survivability, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan
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The current global food system places a high burden on biodiversity, while food production depends on ecosystem services. This study demonstrated the recent progress in research on the link between food security and biodiversity conservation through a systematic review based on the Web of Science database. A search for the keywords "food security, biodiversity, conservation" yields a mere 1,968 results, accounting for a negligible 0.76% of the results for "biodiversity." This suggests that academic interest in the relationship between food security and biodiversity conservation remains minimal. The review centered on 115 papers published between 2015 and 2024. The application of cluster analysis revealed a five-group structure within the reviewed papers. The findings of this study provide insights into the sustainable transformation of food systems. The recent progress in research on the link between food security and biodiversity conservation demonstrates that the advancing integration of biophysical-technical and socio-political approaches. It suggests that we may be getting closer to finding win-win solutions and overcoming the trade-off between biodiversity and food production. On the other hand, despite the growing body of literature directly addressing the nexus between biodiversity and food security, the overall volume of such publications remains limited. Key challenges persist, including the underdevelopment of research on political and economic dimensions, as well as a dearth of studies encompassing the entire food supply chain. The disparities in the number of studies and topics identified in this research serve as indicators of areas where further research is needed. In particular, the promotion of research in the political and economic domains is imperative for the development of a sustainable food system that integrates biodiversity conservation and food security.
Keywords: Food security, Biodiversity, conservation, sustainable agriculture, Food sovereignity, human-wildlife conflict (HWC), Cluster analysis
Received: 12 Jul 2025; Accepted: 25 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 NIshigabiraki and Sekiyama. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Mai NIshigabiraki, nishigabiraki.mai.73a@st.kyoto-u.ac.jp
Takashi Sekiyama, sekiyama.takashi.2e@kyoto-u.ac.jp
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