Topic 13.3: Land Sparing and Land Sharing as Ends of a Continuum

An extreme approach to land use planning that may represent overall maximization of the decided upon set of values is to concentrate the commercial production in a portion of the landscape and spare the rest so that it can continue to deliver the other values. For example, given the high potential rates of wood production from intensively managed timber plantations, an oft-repeated recommendation is to invest in such plantations and abandon any effort at natural forest management.