Increasing impacts of land use on biodiversity and carbon sequestration driven by population and economic growth

Biodiversity and ecosystem service losses driven by land-use change are expected to intensify as a growing and more affluent lobal population requires more agricultural and forestry products, and teleconnections in the global economy lead to increasingremote environmental responsibility. By combining global biophysical and economic models, we show that, between theyears 2000 and 2011, overall population and economic growth resulted in increasing total impacts on bird diversity and carbonsequestration globally, despite a reduction of land-use impacts per unit of gross domestic product (GDP). The exceptions wereNorth America and Western Europe, where there was a reduction of forestry and agriculture impacts on nature accentuated bythe 2007–2008 financial crisis. Biodiversity losses occurred predominantly in Central and Southern America, Africa and Asiawith international trade an important and growing driver. In 2011, 33% of Central and Southern America and 26% of Africa’sbiodiversity impacts were driven by consumption in other world regions. Overall, cattle farming is the major driver of biodiversityloss, but oil seed production showed the largest increases in biodiversity impacts. Forestry activities exerted the highestimpact on carbon sequestration, and also showed the largest increase in the 2000–2011 period. Our results suggest that toaddress the biodiversity crisis, governments should take an equitable approach recognizing remote responsibility, and promotea shift of economic development towards activities with low biodiversity impacts.