Earth’s transformation through land use: sharing the terrestrial biosphere fairly and sustainably to shape a better Anthropocene

Abstract:

Human societies have reshaped and used landscapes across the terrestrial biosphere to sustain themselves for millennia, transforming the functioning of our entire planet in the process. Now, the fate of all life, including ours, depends on how well our societies are able to share and sustain the terrestrial nature that we’ve shaped. Beyond food, fiber, habitation, and recreation, land is now being called on to meet demands for carbon sequestration, water purification, biodiversity conservation, and many others. Meeting these multiple demands requires negotiating trade-offs among the choices and differing values placed on them by diverse stakeholders and institutions, from farmers to conservationists to global supply chains. On this planet that will soon sustain 10 billion people, meeting societal demands for resources, services and other contributions from land, while expanding and enhancing efforts to conserve biodiversity, will require major reductions in the environmental impacts and extent of land used for agriculture, without threatening the livelihoods and wellbeing of rural and urban people. There are no panaceas for sharing land fairly between people and nature. Agricultural intensification can spare land, increasing opportunities for conservation and restoration, yet intensification can also harm wildlife and environments, and can accelerate land clearing when it increases profitability and regulations don’t prevent it. Conserving biodiversity within working agricultural landscapes is needed to sustain native species in many regions, yet the practices enabling this can reduce agricultural production, causing land clearing elsewhere to meet demand. Ultimately, these and other strategies will need to be used together, and will be effective globally only if they enable the many diverse stakeholders with a share in Earth’s land to negotiate together towards fair, equitable, sustainable and adaptable land allocation and management decisions over the long-term.