Research Highlights Tradeoffs – and Opportunities – for Climate, Food and Nature in Land Planning
April 21, 2026
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From: Balancing land use for conservation, agriculture, and renewable energy
A new study, published Nature Communications, shows that strategic land-use planning would enable progress toward global biodiversity, climate and sustainable development goals simultaneously. It finds that, if an integrated method for land-use planning is employed, future land development would impact 15% fewer species and cut carbon loss by 19%.
The study provides a framework for multi-sector land-use planning that considers the often overlapping needs of nature conservation, agriculture and renewable energy. The paper maps these needs around the world, finding that the places needed to meet targets for protected land and productive land frequently intersect.