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Pastures, on which ruminant livestock graze, occupy one third of the earth's surface. Removing livestock from pastures can support climate change mitigation through carbon sequestration in regrowing vegetation and recovering soils, particularly in potentially forested areas. However, this would also decrease food and fiber production, generating a tradeoff with pasture productivity and the ruminant meat production pastures support. We evaluate the magnitude and distribution of this tradeoff globally, called the "carbon opportunity intensity" of pastures, at a 5-arcminute resolution. We find that removing beef-producing cattle from high-carbon intensity pastures could sequester 34 (22 to 43) GtC i.e. 125 (80 to 158) GtCO2 into ecosystems, which is an amount greater than global fossil CO2 emissions from 2021-2023. This would lead to only a minor loss of 13 (9 to 18)% of the global total beef production on pastures, predominantly within high-and upper-middle- income countries. If areas with low-carbon intensity pastures and less efficient beef production simultaneously intensified their beef production to 47% of OECD levels, this could fully counterbalance the global loss of beef production. The carbon opportunity intensity can inform policy approaches to restore ecosystems while minimizing food losses. Future work should aim to provide higher-resolution estimates for use at local and farm scales, and to incorporate a wider set of environmental indicators of outcomes beyond carbon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Constraining the climate crisis requires urgent action to reduce anthropogenic emissions while simultaneously removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Improved information about the maximum magnitude and spatial distribution of opportunities for additional land-based removals of CO2 is needed to guide on-the-ground decisionmaking about where to implement climate change mitigation strategies. Here, we present a globally consistent spatial dataset (approximately 500-m resolution) of current, potential, and unrealized potential carbon storage in woody plant biomass and soil organic matter. We also provide a framework for prioritizing actions related to the restoration, management, and maintenance of woody carbon stocks and associated soils. By comparing current to potential carbon storage, while excluding areas critical to food production and human habitation, we find 287 petagrams (PgC) of unrealized potential storage opportunity, of which 78% (224 PgC) is in biomass and 22% (63 PgC) is in soil. Improved management of existing forests may offer nearly three-fourths (206 PgC) of the total unrealized potential, with the majority (71%) concentrated in tropical ecosystems. However, climate change is a source of considerable uncertainty. While additional research is needed to understand the impact of natural disturbances and biophysical feedbacks, we project that the potential for additional carbon storage in woody biomass will increase (+17%) by 2050 despite projected decreases (212%) in the tropics. Our results establish an absolute reference point and conceptual framework for national and jurisdictional prioritization of locations and actions to increase land-based carbon storage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tropical forest loss currently exceeds forest gain, leading to a net greenhouse gas emission that exacerbates global climate change. This has sparked scientific debate on how to achieve natural climate solutions. Central to this debate is whether sustainably managing forests and protected areas will deliver global climate mitigation benefits, while ensuring local peoples' health and wellbeing. Here, we evaluate the 10-y impact of a human-centered solution to achieve natural climate mitigation through reductions in illegal logging in rural Borneo: an intervention aimed at expanding health care access and use for communities living near a national park, with clinic discounts offsetting costs historically met through illegal logging. Conservation, education, and alternative livelihood programs were also offered. We hypothesized that this would lead to improved health and well-being, while also alleviating illegal logging activity within the protected forest. We estimated that 27.4 km² of deforestation was averted in the national park over a decade (~70% reduction in deforestation compared to a synthetic control, permuted P = 0.038). Concurrently, the intervention provided health care access to more than 28,400 unique patients, with clinic usage and patient visitation frequency highest in communities participating in the intervention. Finally, we observed a dose-response in forest change rate to intervention engagement (person-contacts with intervention activities) across communities bordering the park: The greatest logging reductions were adjacent to the most highly engaged villages. Results suggest that this community-derived solution simultaneously improved health care access for local and indigenous communities and sustainably conserved carbon stocks in a protected tropical forest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]