Balancing land use for conservation, agriculture, and renewable energy

Balancing land use for conservation, agriculture, and renewable energy | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article Balancing land use for conservation, agriculture, and renewable energy Cameryn Brock, Patrick Roehrdanz, Tim Beringer, Rebecca Chaplin-Kramer, and 16 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-3798412/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Published Journal Publication published 07 Mar, 2026 Read the published version in Nature Communications → Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Demand for land is increasing due to mounting energy and development needs. Growing demand for food coupled with climate policy commitments calling for reduced greenhouse gas emissions will result in more land being used for agricultural and renewable energy development. At the same time, conserving land for biodiversity and nature’s contributions to people (NCP) is imperative for achieving international climate, sustainable development, and biodiversity goals. Meeting these interconnected objectives requires the efficient and equitable allocation of land to different sectors. We present a flexible, multiple-objective framework for using integer linear programming to strategically allocate land under climate change to mitigate threats to biodiversity and NCP while supporting development. The application of the framework at a planetary scale shows that if agriculture and renewable energy development are planned without consideration of biodiversity and NCP, future demands for land (6.2 million km2 globally) could impact nearly 1 million km2 of high-priority areas for nature, habitats of 440 threatened vertebrate species, and 21 Gt of vulnerable carbon stocks. Multi-sector planning can mitigate potential land conflict, reducing the number of species exposed by 15% and the amount of carbon loss by 19%. If development proceeds without coordinated planning, there is insufficient land available to achieve conservation and development targets. Our findings underscore the need to ensure critical areas for biodiversity, carbon storage, and NCP are conserved; reduce land demand for food and energy; meet remaining demand more efficiently through spatial targeting; and coordinate land use across sectors more intentionally, such as through multi-functional landscapes. Earth and environmental sciences/Ecology/Conservation biology Earth and environmental sciences/Climate sciences/Climate change/Climate-change mitigation Biological sciences/Ecology/Climate-change ecology Full Text Additional Declarations There is NO Competing Interest. Supplementary Files BrocketalSupplementaryData.xlsx Supplementary Data SupplementaryInformation.pdf Cite Share Download PDF Status: Published Journal Publication published 07 Mar, 2026 Read the published version in Nature Communications → Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. 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Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-3798412","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":332249046,"identity":"0509d7c6-76ed-4a93-80af-9a575f9f3149","order_by":0,"name":"Cameryn 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