A club model of nature‐smart agriculture for biodiversity, climate, and productivity enhancements.

This article focuses on a theoretical model applying the economic theory of clubs to integrate environmental conservation and agricultural production through a top–down, nature-smart collaborative farming (NSCF) approach. It proposes that private agricultural producers within a defined landscape can jointly produce both private economic outputs and public ecological goods—such as biodiversity and climate-related attributes—by collaborating within a club structure that balances sustainable intensification and conservation efforts. The model establishes social optimality conditions for resource allocation and incentives, including dual environmental payments to encourage individual compliance and collective participation while preventing overuse or crowding out of voluntary conservation. The study highlights the need for empirical research and pilot schemes to tailor this framework to local ecosystems and policy contexts, suggesting phased implementation steps involving ecosystem mapping, local action plans, management blueprints, and digital monitoring tools. Overall, the NSCF model offers a theoretical benchmark for aligning agricultural productivity with ecosystem resilience and sustainability at the landscape scale.