Reaching “peak agricultural land” does not mean the problem of deforestation is solved. Growing demand for products like beef, soy, cocoa and palm oil has put increasing pressure on land across South America, South East Asia and Africa. In the last decade, the world lost an area of tropical forest twice the size of Spain.
Still, acre-for-acre across the world there has been yet more farmland abandonment, driven by reforestation in Europe and North America and the abandonment of pastures in Australia and Central Asia.
Overall, the steady slowdown in agricultural land use is welcome. However, it’s not guaranteed to continue, nor is it fast enough to bring about the land use change we need to achieve our global climate or biodiversity goals. To keep global temperature rise below 2C, we will need to tap the huge potential of our natural ecosystems to suck carbon out of the atmosphere.
