Retaining natural vegetation to safeguard biodiversity and humanity

Humanity is on a pathway of unsustainable loss of the natural systems upon which we, and all life, rely. To date, global efforts to deliver internationally-agreed goals to reduce carbon emissions, halt biodiversity loss, and retain essential ecosystem services, have been poorly integrated. All these goals rely in part on preserving natural (e.g. native, largely unmodified) and semi-natural (e.g. under some form of low-intensity/sustainable human use) forests, woodlands and grasslands. Here, we show how to unify these goals by empirically deriving spatially explicit, quantitative area-based targets for the retention of natural and semi-natural (e.g. native) terrestrial vegetation. We found that at least 67 million km2 of Earth's terrestrial vegetation (∼79% of the area of vegetation remaining) requires retention – via sustainable and appropriate land use and management – to contribute to biodiversity, climate, soil and freshwater objectives under four United Nations Resolutions. This equ..., The data in this repository were produced for a global spatial analysis of where and how much terrestrial ecosystems need to be retained on Earth to achieve multiple nature conservation and ecosystem service goals. First, publicly-available (or available on request) datasets representing key sites for the achievement of four environmental 'targets' (biodiversity, carbon, soil and freshwater) were overlaid on a map of remaining terrestrial ecosystems (see associated article for definitions and input data). This was done to determine the extent and location of terrestrial ecosystems that need retention to contribute to these respective targets' achievement. This spatial analysis allowed for the production of four terrestrial ecosystem retention maps, which, when overlaid on one another, allowed for the calculation of the total amount of terrestrial ecosystem retention required to synergistically help achieve all four targets. From this overlay map, the amount of terrestrial ecosystem rete..., The ArcGIS rasters available in this repository represent terrestrial ecosystems (see above mentioned manuscript for definitions and input data) that need to be retained to contribute, respectively, to global environmental targets for biodiversity, carbon, soil and freshwater. A raster map produced by overlapping all four rasters is also provided. The vector map of jurisdictional boundaries was used to extract retention extent by nation.人类正处于一场不可持续的自然系统衰退路径之中，而自然系统正是我们与所有生命赖以存续的根基。迄今为止，全球为实现国际共识目标所开展的工作——包括降低碳排放、遏制生物多样性丧失、维持关键生态系统服务——彼此间整合度严重不足。上述所有目标，在一定程度上都依赖于对自然（如原生、基本未受干扰的）与半自然（如处于某种低强度/可持续人类利用模式下的）森林、林地与草原的保护。本研究通过实证推导得到自然与半自然（如原生）陆地植被的空间显性、基于面积的量化保护目标，以此实现上述目标的统一。研究发现，在四项联合国决议框架下，要达成生物多样性、气候、土壤与淡水相关目标，地球至少需要保留6700万平方千米的陆地植被（约占现存植被总面积的79%），这一目标需通过可持续且合理的土地利用与管理手段实现。此处…… 本存储库中的数据集，是为开展一项全球空间分析而生成的——该分析旨在明确地球陆地生态系统的保护位置与所需面积，以实现多项自然保护与生态系统服务目标。首先，研究将代表达成四项环境“目标”（生物多样性、碳、土壤与淡水）的关键区域的公开（或可按需获取）数据集，与现存陆地生态系统地图进行叠加分析（相关定义与输入数据参见关联论文）。该步骤用于明确需予以保护的陆地生态系统的范围与位置，以助力对应目标的达成。通过该空间分析可生成四张陆地生态系统保护地图，将这四张地图叠加后，即可计算出可协同助力四项目标全部达成的陆地生态系统总保护需求量。基于该叠加地图，可获取陆地生态系统保护…… 本存储库中提供的ArcGIS栅格数据，分别代表需予以保护以助力全球生物多样性、碳、土壤与淡水环境目标达成的陆地生态系统（相关定义与输入数据参见前述论文）。此外还提供了将四张栅格数据叠加后生成的栅格地图。研究使用行政区划边界矢量地图，按国家提取了生态系统保护范围。