Landscape efficiency frontiers for biodiversity, climate mitigation, and net economic value.
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| Title: | Landscape efficiency frontiers for biodiversity, climate mitigation, and net economic value. |
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| Authors: | Polasky, Stephen (AUTHOR), Hawthorne, Peter L. (AUTHOR), Chaplin-Kramer, Rebecca (AUTHOR), Smith, Jeffrey (AUTHOR), Gerber, James S. (AUTHOR), Mamun, Saleh (AUTHOR), Ruckelshaus, Mary (AUTHOR), Russ, Jason (AUTHOR), Schmitt, Rafael (AUTHOR), Vogl, Adrian L. (AUTHOR), Castonguay, Adam C. (AUTHOR), Douglass, James (AUTHOR), Kowal, Virginia (AUTHOR), Madden, Ian (AUTHOR), Sharp, Richard (AUTHOR), Sohngen, Brent (AUTHOR), Chang, Jinfeng (AUTHOR), Daily, Gretchen (AUTHOR), Heger, Martin Philipp (AUTHOR), Holden, Matthew (AUTHOR) |
| Source: | Science. 6/4/2026, Vol. 392 Issue 6802, p1069-1074. 6p. |
| Subjects: | Biodiversity conservation, Climate change mitigation, Landscape protection, Land use planning, Economic development, Environmental economics, Sustainability, Woodlots |
| Abstract: | National governments and multilateral institutions face difficult challenges reconciling biodiversity, climate, and economic development goals. We integrated spatial biophysical and economic data with optimization methods to develop sustainable landscape efficiency frontiers that show maximally feasible combinations of biodiversity conservation, land-based climate mitigation, and net economic value from agricultural crops, livestock, and forestry production. We applied this approach in 146 countries and found large potential gains in biodiversity, climate, and economic development from improved land use and land management. Summing national-level results shows the potential to increase climate mitigation by more than 200 billion metric tons of CO2 equivalents (>20% increase) or net economic value by more than US$350 billion (>80% increase), without loss in other objectives. Editor's summary: For all the good that has come from global economic development, there has also been a cost to global biodiversity and an increase in global climate change. An assumed trade-off between economic and environmental goals is one of many reasons for limited political will to meaningfully address the climate and biodiversity crises. However, economic and environmental goals are not necessarily mutually exclusive. Polasky et al. modeled potential outcomes of land-use decisions across 146 countries to show the potential for optimizing biodiversity conservation, climate mitigation, and net economic value. Possibilities varied across countries depending on their current levels of development and sustainability, but almost every country showed the potential for simultaneous gains in all three measures. —Bianca Lopez [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
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| Database: | Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection |
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