The answer is out there, Neo, and it's looking for you

One of the more interesting books I came across in 2009 was Nature's Matrix by Ivette Perfecto, John Vandermeer and Angus Wright. The book makes a strong case for working with small farmers and social movements to strengthen the quality of the agricultural matrix that surround the increasing fragments of natural habitat, an argument that eloquently counters the traditional conservationist agenda which often views agriculture as harmful and farmers and local communities to be excluded at all cost. In the words of the Earthscan website blurp,

Landscapes are frequently seen as fragments of natural habitat surrounded
by a 'sea' of agriculture. But recent ecological theory shows that the nature of
these fragments is not nearly as important for conservation as is the nature of
the matrix of agriculture that surrounds them. Local extinctions from
conservation fragments are inevitable and must be balanced by migrations if
massive extinction is to be avoided. High migration rates only occur in what the
authors refer to as 'high quality' matrices, which are created by alternative
agroecological techniques, as opposed to the industrial monocultural model of
agriculture. The authors outline new knowledge about the science of ecology, current
debates about agriculture (and biodiversity especially in the tropics) and the
role of new and powerful rural social movements such as Via Campesina and these
general tendencies can come together to give us a new paradigm for
biodiversity conservation.

This might be a new paradigm for conservationists but I think there are many in the agriculture and agrobiodiversity community who have been saying for sometime now that the 'quality' of the agricultural matrix, and those who look after it, are a sustainable solution to biodiversity conservation and the bridging or linking of managed and natural landscapes. Let's hope the traditional conservation sector sits up and takes notice. Don't hold your breath! Having said that the book certainly adds weight to the case for biodiverse agro-ecosystems and there are many opportunities here for the agrobiodiversity community to add susbstantial case studies to complement the somewhat limited examples that appear in this book.