Enhancing Biodiversity in Cotton Farming: A Scalable Methodology

By Emma Dennis

A month on from COP29, where calls grew for increased finance and resources for nature, the importance of conserving and restoring biodiversity has never been more critical.

Biodiversity is an essential ecosystem service for agriculture, as well as climate adaptation and improved resilience, but terrifyingly, WWF’s recent Living Planet report found that wildlife populations have dropped by an average of 73% in 50 years.

The growing demand for agricultural land has become one of the major threats to biodiversity globally. We need a solution to integrate biodiversity conservation and enhancement into agricultural practices to ensure sustainable production and the protection of nature. Cotton production – as a crucial cash crop and the most widespread non-food crop grown around the world – is central to this.

At Better Cotton, we have prioritised biodiversity within our Principles and Criteria (P&C), our global standard followed by over 2.2 million growers across the world. Our Natural Resources principle encourages farmers to adopt key regenerative practices that improve their soil health, conserving and enhancing biodiversity and natural ecosystems, and optimising the quality and availability of water.

But how can we effectively adopt these biodiversity practices into agricultural systems on a global scale? A recent case study in Punjab, Pakistan, offers valuable insights.