Abstract
Natural and working lands (NWLs) provide many benefits to people, including storing
greenhouse gases (GHGs), supporting biodiversity, and generating other ecosystem services.
Management of NWLs can influence their condition and function and therefore the benefits
they provide. This project surveys the synthesis literature to assess how different
management actions on various types of NWLs affect biodiversity and GHG outcomes.
This information can help to determine how to best manage these lands to contribute
to both biodiversity and climate solutions in the United States.
These results are a starting point to assess how different forms of management on
various types of NWLs contribute to or detract from biodiversity and GHG outcomes.
Though this study’s scope was limited to an exploration of biodiversity and GHG benefits
provided by NWLs, this process could be adapted to examine the effects of management
on other important ecosystem services, as well as how management affects equitable
distribution of those services. Additional quantitative synthesis is also needed to
compare the magnitude of different management activities’ impacts on biodiversity
and carbon and to better understand how the intensity of certain activities influences
these outcomes.
This report is a collaboration between the Nicholas Institute for Energy, Environment
& Sustainability and the Gund Institute for Environment at the University of Vermont.
This research was supported by the US Department of Agriculture, Office of Environmental
Markets, under a cooperative agreement. The findings and conclusions in this report
are those of the authors and should not be construed to represent any official USDA
or US Government determination or policy.
For related work, please see Tracking the Benefits of Natural & Working Lands in the
United States: Dataset Evaluation and Readiness Assessment.
Material is made available in this collection at the direction of authors according
to their understanding of their rights in that material. You may download and use
these materials in any manner not prohibited by copyright or other applicable law.
Rights for Collection: Research and Writings
Works are deposited here by their authors, and
represent their research and opinions, not that of Duke University. Some materials
and descriptions may include offensive content.
More info