Rising demand for food and wood, as well as urban expansion, are leading to greater competition for the world’s finite amount of land. These pressures mean less land is left to conserve biodiversity and store carbon, even as the world looks to restore ecosystems for both nature and climate goals.

Join WRI for a webinar to dive into its latest report, which combines modeling for the land and carbon effects of all three rising sources of demand for land, their land use, and the carbon consequences. The Global Land Squeeze: Managing Growing Competition for Land (publishing on July 20th) provides a rare analysis of all three rising sources of land use to reveal an accurate global picture.

WRI experts find that the global land squeeze has been largely underestimated, and as a result many policy and climate proposals – such as using more wood in building construction – would place more demands on land and likely lead to an increase in planet-warming emissions.

The underappreciated nature of the challenge has also led to underappreciation of many potential solutions.

In this webinar, the authors will lay out the headline figures from our new modeling, rethink commonly held beliefs about wood harvesting and use, and outline solutions to sustainably and equitably manage the world’s land.

Presenters:

  • Tim Searchinger, Senior Fellow and Technical Director for Agriculture, Forestry & Ecosystems, World Resources Institute | Senior Research Scholar, Princeton University
  • Liqing Peng, Food and Agriculture Modeler, Food Program, World Resources Institute
  • Richard Waite, Senior Research Associate, Food and Climate Programs, World Resources Institute

 

Cover image by Kevin/Adobe Stock