Abstract
Protecting biodiversity while meeting food demands is a critical challenge due to rising competition over land. The predominant focus on spatial efficiency in land-use modeling frameworks can dichotomize these objectives and ignore local realities by disregarding biodiversity outside priority areas and the land-use needs of communities who depend on local land systems for their nutrition. We develop a spatially explicit exploratory scenario for 2050 that promotes whole-region biodiversity intactness using a land-system-specific intactness index and incorporates differentiated food futures by protecting important land systems for land-dependent communities from conversion for larger-scale objectives. These are pursued alongside SSP2 “business-as-usual” agricultural demands, uncovering potential tradeoffs. Our results highlight the importance of forest mosaics in agricultural landscapes alongside targeted intensification for meeting food and biodiversity goals and that protecting land-dependent communities does not compromise larger-scale objectives. This demonstrates that land-use models can integrate diverse values, including certain conceptualizations of justice, into sustainability scenarios.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 896-907 |
Number of pages | 12 |
Journal | One Earth |
Volume | 7 |
Issue number | 5 |
Early online date | 12 Apr 2024 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 17 May 2024 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2024 Elsevier Inc.
Funding
This research was partly funded through the 2017\u20132018 Belmont Forum and BiodivERsA joint call for research proposals, under the BiodivScen ERA-Net COFUND programme , and with the funding organization The Dutch Research Council NWO (grant E10005 ).
Funders | Funder number |
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Dutch Research Council NWO | E10005 |
Keywords
- biodiversity intactness
- environmental justice
- food sovereignty
- land-use modeling
- sustainability scenarios