A Narrative Review on Nature-Positive Agriculture: Integrating Biodiversity Conservation with Climate-Resilient Farming

Abstract

The accelerating deterioration of global biodiversity, driven in large part by the expansion and intensification of agricultural production, now constitutes one of the most urgent challenges facing humanity. Simultaneously, agriculture itself is increasingly vulnerable to the ecosystem service losses that biodiversity decline engenders. Nature-positive agriculture—a framework that seeks to halt and reverse biodiversity loss while sustaining productive, resilient, and economically viable food systems—has emerged as a compelling paradigm for reconciling food security with environmental stewardship. This narrative review synthesises peer-reviewed evidence on the ecological, agronomic, and policy dimensions of nature-positive agriculture, drawing on literature published between 2001 and 2026 and sourced from Web of Science, Scopus, Google Scholar, PubMed, and several field-specific databases. The review examines the bidirectional relationship between agricultural practice and biodiversity, explores the empirical basis for practice-based interventions including agroforestry, cover cropping, crop diversification, organic farming, and integrated pest management, and evaluates landscape-scale and policy mechanisms for enabling systemic transition. Evidence consistently demonstrates that biodiversity-enhancing farming practices generate measurable co-benefits for soil health, carbon sequestration, crop pollination, and natural pest regulation—all of which underpin climate resilience. However, realising these benefits at scale demands coordinated action across farm, landscape, and governance levels, supported by reformed subsidy structures and international biodiversity frameworks. The article concludes by identifying critical research gaps, including the need for place-based integration of indigenous knowledge, more robust socioeconomic assessments of nature-positive transitions, and stronger monitoring indicators aligned with the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.