Photo credit: Bernard Dupont

Sustainable agriculture is one way to conserve biodiversity in the face of widespread habitat destruction. Now, a new study published in the Journal Sociobiology has determined the extent to which organic guarana plantations in the Brazilian Amazon can benefit beneficial wasps.  Researchers collected almost 1,000 wasps representing 59 different species. Almost 70 percent of the wasps were collected in the organic plantations while the remainder were collected in conventional orchards. The authors attribute this difference in biodiversity to the lack of pesticides used in organic guarana orchards.