A report years in the making was released this week at the UN climate talks in Brazil. It is long, exhaustively edited, and according to at least one expert, “boring.” And yet it could — just maybe — help settle one of the oldest disputes in conservation: that forests and farms are somehow irrevocably at odds. “ Climate and ecosystem service benefits of forests and trees for agriculture ,” published by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in partnership with other organizations including Conservation International, reviews years of research. Its conclusion: Protecting forests officially does not hamper agricultural productivity. Instead, the report finds, forests are critically beneficial to farming — and that this age-old dispute over land use is as faulty as many have been saying for years. According to Michael Wolosin, senior climate adviser at Conservation International, the politics behind the report matter almost as much as what’s in it.…