Landscape efficiency frontiers for biodiversity, climate mitigation, and net economic value

Science 2026

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Authors: Stephen Polasky, Peter L. Hawthorne, Rebecca Chaplin‐Kramer, Jeffrey Smith, James Gerber, Saleh Mamun, Mary H. Ruckelshaus, Jason Russ, Rafael Schmitt, Adrian L. Vogl, Adam Castonguay, James Douglass
+18 more Virginia Kowal, Ian Madden, Richard Sharp, Brent Sohngen, Jinfeng Chang, Gretchen Daily, Martin Heger, Matthew Holden, J J Johnson, Lisa Mandle, Eve McDonald-Madden, Urvashi Narain, Deepak Ray, Giovanni Ruta, Paul C. West, Stacie Wolny, Esha Zaveri, Richard Damania
DOI: 10.1126/science.aea9058
Cited by: 1
References: 93

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 CO 2 equivalents (>20% increase) or net economic value by more than US$350 billion (>80% increase), without loss in other objectives.

Fields of Study & Subjects

Bioeconomy and Sustainability Development Land Use and Ecosystem Services Forest Management and Policy

Publication details

Journal / source
Science
Publisher
American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
Volume
392
Issue
6802
Pages
1069–1074
Publication date
4 June 2026
Language
EN