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YOUR PRIVACY, YOUR CHOICE We use essential cookies to make sure the site can function. We also use optional cookies for advertising, personalisation of content, usage analysis, and social media. By accepting optional cookies, you consent to the processing of your personal data - including transfers to third parties. Some third parties are outside of the European Economic Area, with varying standards of data protection. See our privacy policy for more information on the use of your personal data. Manage preferences for further information and to change your choices. Accept all cookies Skip to main content Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript. Advertisement * View all journals * Search SEARCH Search articles by subject, keyword or author Show results from All journals This journal Search Advanced search QUICK LINKS * Explore articles by subject * Find a job * Guide to authors * Editorial policies * Log in * Explore content EXPLORE CONTENT * Research articles * Reviews & Analysis * News & Comment * Current issue * Collections * Follow us on Facebook * Follow us on Twitter * Subscribe * Sign up for alerts * RSS feed * About the journal ABOUT THE JOURNAL * Aims & Scope * Journal Information * Journal Metrics * About the Editors * Research Cross-Journal Editorial Team * Reviews Cross-Journal Editorial Team * Our publishing models * Editorial Values Statement * Editorial Policies * Content Types * Community * Expert panels * Advisory Panel * Contact * Publish with us PUBLISH WITH US * Submission Guidelines * For Reviewers * Language editing services * Submit manuscript * Subscribe * Sign up for alerts * RSS feed 1. nature 2. nature sustainability 3. perspectives 4. article * Perspective * Published: 19 December 2024 TAILORED POLICIES FOR PERENNIAL WOODY CROPS ARE CRUCIAL TO ADVANCE SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT * Carlos Martinez-Nuñez ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-7814-49851, * Elena Velado-Alonso ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-4805-29291,2, * Jacques Avelino ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-1983-94313,4, * Pedro J. Rey ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-5550-03935, * G. Martijn ten Hoopen ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-2133-31303, * Guy Pe’er6,7, * Yi Zou ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-7082-92588, * Yunhui Liu ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-7282-834X9, * Philip Antwi-Agyei10, * Adrien Rusch ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-3921-975011, * Charles Staver ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-4532-607712, * Tharaka S. Priyadarshana ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-3962-546513, * Denis J. Sonwa14,15, * Damayanti Buchori16, * Lucas A. Garibaldi ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-0725-404917,18, * Elena D. Concepción ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-6715-690219, * Owen T. Lewis ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-7935-611120, * Ivette Perfecto ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-1749-719121 & * … * Ignasi Bartomeus ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-7893-43891 Show authors Nature Sustainability (2024)Cite this article * 62 Accesses * 3 Altmetric * Metrics details ABSTRACT Perennial woody crops, which are crucial to our diets and global economies, have the potential to play a major role in achieving multiple UN Sustainable Development Goals pertaining to biodiversity conservation, socio-economic development and climate change mitigation. However, this potential is hindered by insufficient scientific and policy attention on perennial woody crops, and by the intensification of perennial crop cultivation in the form of monocropping with high external inputs. In this Perspective, we highlight the potential of properly managed and incentivized perennial woody crops to support holistic sustainable development and urge scientists and policymakers to develop an effective agenda to better harness their benefits. Access through your institution Buy or subscribe This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution ACCESS OPTIONS Access through your institution Access through your institution Change institution Buy or subscribe Access Nature and 54 other Nature Portfolio journals Get Nature+, our best-value online-access subscription $29.99 / 30 days cancel any time Learn more Subscribe to this journal Receive 12 digital issues and online access to articles $119.00 per year only $9.92 per issue Learn more Buy this article * Purchase on SpringerLink * Instant access to full article PDF Buy now Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout ADDITIONAL ACCESS OPTIONS: * Log in * Learn about institutional subscriptions * Read our FAQs * Contact customer support Fig. 1: Overlap between the main perennial crops and hotspots of biodiversity. Fig. 2: The importance of perennial crops worldwide. Fig. 3: Scientific attention received by perennial crops and annual crops. Fig. 4: Effects of agricultural practices in perennial crops along the sustainability gradient. Fig. 5: Main threats to the sustainability of key perennial crops worldwide. Fig. 6: Agricultural practices and farming models that could be incentivized by new agricultural policies. SIMILAR CONTENT BEING VIEWED BY OTHERS FOSTERING A CLIMATE-SMART INTENSIFICATION FOR OIL PALM Article 25 March 2021 SEVERE DECLINE IN LARGE FARMLAND TREES IN INDIA OVER THE PAST DECADE Article Open access 15 May 2024 THE GLOBAL CROPLAND-SPARING POTENTIAL OF HIGH-YIELD FARMING Article 16 April 2020 REFERENCES 1. Clough, Y. et al. Land-use choices follow profitability at the expense of ecological functions in Indonesian smallholder landscapes. Nat. Commun. 7, 13137 (2016). Article CAS Google Scholar 2. Newbold, T. et al. Global effects of land use on local terrestrial biodiversity. Nature 520, 45–50 (2015). Article CAS Google Scholar 3. 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Article Google Scholar Download references ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS We acknowledge funding from the project SHOWCASE (SHOWCASing synergies between agriculture, biodiversity and Ecosystem services to help farmers capitalizing on native biodiversity) within the EU’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement number 862480). C.M.-N. was supported by the ‘Juan de la Cierva’ programme (reference number FJC2021-046829-I). T.S.P. was supported by a research scholarship awarded by the Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (application number R2004096). P.J.R. acknowledges the projects RECOVECOS (PID2019-108332GB-I00, funded by MICIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033) and OLIVARES VIVOS+ (LIFE20 AT/ES/001487, European Commission). The contribution of D.J.S. was made possible by financial support from NORAD (grant number QZA-21/0124) for the CIFOR GCS-REDD+ (Global Comparative Study on REDD+) project. A.R. acknowledges support from the French National Research Agency (ANR) under grant number 20-PCPA-0010 and from the National Program PEPR ‘Solutions fondées sur la Nature’ (SOLU-BIOD) through the Living Lab ‘Bacchus’. G.P. acknowledges funding from the strategic project iCAP-BES through the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig (grant number DFG FZT 118), as well as from the EU Horizon Europe project Agroecology-TRANSECT (grant agreement number 101060816). This publication reflects only the authors’ opinions. AUTHOR INFORMATION AUTHORS AND AFFILIATIONS 1. Department of Ecology and Evolution, Estación Biológica de Doñana EBD (CSIC), Seville, Spain Carlos Martinez-Nuñez, Elena Velado-Alonso & Ignasi Bartomeus 2. Functional Agrobiodiversity, George August University of Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany Elena Velado-Alonso 3. French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development (CIRAD), UMR PHIM, Montpellier, France Jacques Avelino & G. Martijn ten Hoopen 4. PHIM (Plant Health Institute Montpellier), CIRAD, INRAE, Institut Agro, Université de Montpellier, Montpellier, France Jacques Avelino 5. Departamento de Biología Animal, Biología Vegetal y Ecología, Universidad de Jaén & Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research Leipzig (UFZ), Jaén, Spain Pedro J. Rey 6. Department of Biodiversity and People, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research Leipzig (UFZ), Leipzig, Germany Guy Pe’er 7. Department of Biodiversity and People, German Centre for integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv), Leipzig, Germany Guy Pe’er 8. Department of Health and Environmental Sciences, Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, Suzhou, China Yi Zou 9. College of Resources and Environment, China Agricultural University, Beijing, China Yunhui Liu 10. Department of Environmental Science, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana Philip Antwi-Agyei 11. INRAE, Bordeaux Sciences Agro, ISVV, SAVE, Villenave d’Ornon, France Adrien Rusch 12. Universidad Veracruzana, Xalapa, Mexico Charles Staver 13. Asian School of the Environment, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore City, Singapore Tharaka S. Priyadarshana 14. Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), Yaoundé, Cameroon Denis J. Sonwa 15. World Resources Institute (WRI), Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo Denis J. Sonwa 16. Center for Transdiciplinary and Sustainability Sciences (CCTS), IPB University (Bogor Agricultural University), Bogor, Indonesia Damayanti Buchori 17. Agroecología y Desarrollo Rural, Instituto de Investigaciones en Recursos Naturales, Universidad Nacional de Río Negro, Río Negro, Argentina Lucas A. Garibaldi 18. Agroecología y Desarrollo Rural, Instituto de Investigaciones en Recursos Naturales, Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), Río Negro, Argentina Lucas A. Garibaldi 19. Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales (CSIC), Madrid, Spain Elena D. Concepción 20. Department of Biology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK Owen T. Lewis 21. School for Environment and Sustainability, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA Ivette Perfecto Authors 1. Carlos Martinez-Nuñez View author publications You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar 2. Elena Velado-Alonso View author publications You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar 3. Jacques Avelino View author publications You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar 4. Pedro J. Rey View author publications You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar 5. G. Martijn ten Hoopen View author publications You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar 6. Guy Pe’er View author publications You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar 7. Yi Zou View author publications You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar 8. Yunhui Liu View author publications You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar 9. Philip Antwi-Agyei View author publications You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar 10. Adrien Rusch View author publications You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar 11. Charles Staver View author publications You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar 12. Tharaka S. Priyadarshana View author publications You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar 13. Denis J. Sonwa View author publications You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar 14. Damayanti Buchori View author publications You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar 15. Lucas A. Garibaldi View author publications You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar 16. Elena D. Concepción View author publications You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar 17. Owen T. Lewis View author publications You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar 18. Ivette Perfecto View author publications You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar 19. Ignasi Bartomeus View author publications You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar CONTRIBUTIONS C.M.-N. conceptualized the study, coordinated the team and wrote the first draft of the paper. E.V.-A. created Fig. 1 and Supplementary Table 2, and helped to structure the study. J.A., P.J.R., G.M.t.H., G.P., Y.Z., Y.L., P.A.-A., A.R., C.S., T.S.P., D.J.S., D.B., L.A.G., E.D.C., O.T.L. and I.P. contributed to writing and improving different sections of the paper. I.B. contributed to structuring and writing the article. All authors contributed importantly to the final version of the paper. CORRESPONDING AUTHOR Correspondence to Carlos Martinez-Nuñez. ETHICS DECLARATIONS COMPETING INTERESTS The authors declare no competing interests PEER REVIEW PEER REVIEW INFORMATION Nature Sustainability thanks Timothy Crews and Kirsten Hannam for their contribution to the peer review of this work. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION Supplementary Tables 1–4, Fig. 1 and Notes 1–8. RIGHTS AND PERMISSIONS Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law. Reprints and permissions ABOUT THIS ARTICLE CITE THIS ARTICLE Martinez-Nuñez, C., Velado-Alonso, E., Avelino, J. et al. Tailored policies for perennial woody crops are crucial to advance sustainable development. Nat Sustain (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-024-01483-8 Download citation * Received: 26 February 2024 * Accepted: 01 November 2024 * Published: 19 December 2024 * DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-024-01483-8 SHARE THIS ARTICLE Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content: Get shareable link Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article. Copy to clipboard Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative SUBJECTS * Agroecology * Environmental impact Access through your institution Buy or subscribe Access through your institution Change institution Buy or subscribe * Sections * Figures * References * Abstract * References * Acknowledgements * Author information * Ethics declarations * Peer review * Additional information * Supplementary information * Rights and permissions * About this article Advertisement * Fig. 1: Overlap between the main perennial crops and hotspots of biodiversity. * Fig. 2: The importance of perennial crops worldwide. * Fig. 3: Scientific attention received by perennial crops and annual crops. * Fig. 4: Effects of agricultural practices in perennial crops along the sustainability gradient. * Fig. 5: Main threats to the sustainability of key perennial crops worldwide. * Fig. 6: Agricultural practices and farming models that could be incentivized by new agricultural policies. 1. 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