7. Land-Based Environmental Services

As the world becomes richer, competing priorities for land use are emerging. Developing countries are increasingly following the lead set by rich countries and they are setting aside reserves to preserve biodiversity as well as create opportunities for eco-tourism. Initiatives to reduce deforestation and forest degradation have also gained momentum over the past decade, with ambitious REDD+ initiatives associated with climate mitigation getting added attention. This chapter reviews the environmental demands for land, how they have evolved historically, their likely paths in the future, and the implications for global cropland availability. Particular attention will be paid to the potential for land-based carbon sequestration as a path to climate change mitigation. Recent research has shown that such initiatives could have a very significant impact on global cropland supplies and also on food prices and food security. We review this evidence and use it as the basis for SIMPLE model simulations in which the supply of land to agriculture is altered in light of projected carbon sequestration initiatives. Results highlight the impacts on food prices and food security from these competing uses of land.