Land Use in Life Cycle Assessment: Global Characterization Factors Based on Regional and Global Potential Species Extinction

Land use is one of the main drivers of biodiversity loss. However,
many life cycle assessment studies do not yet assess this effect because
of the lack of reliable and operational methods. Here, we present
an approach to modeling the impacts of regional land use on plants,
mammals, birds, amphibians, and reptiles. Our global analysis calculates
the total potential damage caused by all land uses within each WWF
ecoregion and allocates this total damage to different types of land
use per ecoregion. We use an adapted (matrix-calibrated) species-area
relationship to model the potential regional extinction of nonendemic
species caused by reversible land use and land use change impacts.
The potential global extinction of endemic species is used to assess
irreversible, permanent impacts. Model uncertainty is assessed using
Monte Carlo simulations. The impacts of land use on biodiversity varied
strongly across ecoregions, showing the highest values in regions
where most natural habitat had been converted in the past. The approach
is thus retrospective and was able to highlight the impacts in highly
disturbed regions. However, we also illustrate how it can be applied
to prospective assessments using scenarios of future land use. Uncertainties,
modeling choices, and validity are discussed.