Balancing land use for biodiversity and climate

How can we balance land-use to address the interconnected crises of biodiversity loss, climate change, and food insecurity?

Interdisciplinary researchers and practitioners from across the globe convened in Oaxaca, Mexico, to explore pathways to sustainable and just land systems at the 2024 Global Land Programme Open Science Meeting.

NbSI researchers Aline Soterroni and John Lynch presented new research offering solutions for uniting biodiversity and climate objectives, from broadening the definition of ‘forest’ in the new European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), to recognising the value of peatland restoration for climate change mitigation.

Potential impacts of the EUDR for Brazil’s Cerrado

Aline’s work demonstrates the importance of broadening the ‘forest’ definition in the European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), particularly for Brazil’s Cerrado, a non-forest ecosystem and a biodiversity-rich hotspot that is frequently regarded as a sacrifice zone. The EUDR mandates that companies remove deforestation from their supply chains and ensure that agricultural commodities they source such as soy and beef, as well as derived products, are not associated with deforestation.

New scenario modelling by Aline and colleagues reveals that broadening the scope of the regulation to include ‘other wooded land’ could almost sixfold increase the potential of the EUDR for avoiding direct deforestation for soy in Brazil’s Cerrado, associated with the EU consumption.

Aline also pointed out that further protection could be achieved by making some of the major agricultural companies commit across their entire operations – beyond just exports to Europe.

Value of peatland restoration for climate change mitigation

John’s research highlights the importance of peatland restoration for climate change mitigation. When peatlands are drained and degraded, they emit carbon dioxide, but when rewetted, they remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and store it as soil carbon. However, rewetting can increase emissions of another greenhouse gas, methane, resulting in concerns that peatland restoration may increase warming in the short-term.

John and NbSI’s Xiao Zhang explored how peatland restoration undertaken by The Wildlife Trusts contributes to climate change mitigation, finding that rewetting UK peatlands is expected to benefit the climate no matter the timeframe considered.

John also illustrated new approaches for conceptualising the effect of peatland emissions.

Towards more holistic scenario assessment

Aline and John co-chaired a thought-provoking session on ‘The role of land-use in achieving climate and biodiversity objectives: towards more holistic scenario assessment.’ The session revealed insights from different approaches to integrating diverse aspects of land-use, and how this contributes to our biodiversity and climate objectives.

Key takeaways:

• Embedding local knowledge in projects: Case-studies of agroforestry cocoa production in Brazil and the Castro Verde region in Portugal emphasised the need to understand on-the-ground decision-making and co-develop projects in a way that recognises and builds on the knowledge of local communities.
• Integrated modelling approaches: Examples from Wales and Argentina highlighted the need for an integrated modelling approach tracking food system properties, land-use, greenhouse gas emissions and biodiversity impacts in tandem. They also emphasised the importance of stakeholder involvement in developing pathways, including input from national and local representatives.
• Conceptual tools and mechanisms driving land use decisions: ‘Carbon opportunity cost’ approaches were suggested as being useful in appraising the indirect impacts of agricultural practices that affect yield on overall land-use, and hence climate impacts. A critique of biodiversity credits suggested critical interventions to improve the practice, including robust comparative baselines and enhanced, independent monitoring and verification.

Read more about John’s project here: Overlooked potential of peatland restoration

Look out for upcoming publications from Aline’s work on The potential impacts of the EUDR for Brazil’s Cerrado.