Agriculture in peri-urban areas and biodiversity. An ecological approach

Following a brief overview of key concepts relating to biodiversity, this article examines issues concerning urban ecology. Although nature has never truly been absent from cities, the change currently taking place – partly in response to the phenomenon of urban sprawl – is its increasingly prominent role in the perceptions and thinking of city dwellers, managers, decision-makers and scientists. This leads to a broader consideration of the full range of ecosystem services provided in cities, including those relating to recreational uses. However, agricultural activities are rarely explicitly included in research on urban biodiversity. These approaches should be linked to the extensive scientific literature on the relationship between biodiversity and agriculture in order to identify the ecological challenges relating to agriculture in peri-urban areas.