Biodiversity ↔ land use and land cover change

Relations (1)

related 2.81 — strongly supporting 6 facts

Land use and land cover change (LULCC) is identified as a primary driver that impacts biodiversity, with specific activities like agriculture, urban growth, and forestry serving as key examples [1]. Practitioners evaluate the relative threat to biodiversity by comparing the land footprint of renewable energy projects against these other LULCC drivers {fact:2, fact:3, fact:5, fact:6}.

Facts (6)

Sources

Practitioners' perceived risks to biodiversity from renewable energy ... nature.com Nature 6 facts

procedurePractitioners compared the direct net impacts on biodiversity from the land footprint of large-scale wind and solar energy (LSWS) with impacts from other industrial-scale land-use and land-cover change (LULCC) drivers, including agriculture, farming, urban growth, timber harvest, and fossil fuel extraction and operations.

claimPractitioners across all regions expect that urban, agrarian, and farming land-use and land-cover change (LULCC) will have greater impacts on biodiversity by 2050 compared to large-scale wind and solar (LSWS).

measurementPractitioners perceive the relative impact of large-scale solar and wind energy on biodiversity as less than any of the six other examined drivers of land-use and land-cover change (LULCC), with relative impact values ranging from 0.42 to 0.97 on a Likert scale.

measurementOn average, practitioners across all regions except the Mountain region report that wind energy has less impact on all biodiversity categories than other land-use and land-cover change (LULCC) drivers, with scores ranging from -1 to -0.33.

claimPractitioners across regions perceive that drivers of land-use and land-cover change (LULCC) other than large-scale wind and solar (LSWS) pose a greater threat to biodiversity.

referenceScholars have identified six predominant drivers of land-use and land-cover change (LULCC) that impact biodiversity: agriculture, pasturelands, urban growth, forestry, fossil fuel extraction, and fossil fuel operations.