Beef and dairy drive 41% of biodiversity damage linked to global farmland

Published in Nature Food , the research also shows that the environmental impacts of farming are concentrated in relatively few places. Two-thirds of the world's carbon loss from agriculture and two-thirds of its biodiversity loss occur on just one-third of global farmland, creating opportunities to tackle both challenges together.

Agriculture has already caused the loss of an estimated 300 billion tonnes of stored carbon and put around 14% of species at risk of extinction through land conversion. The carbon lost from converted ecosystems is equivalent to around 140 years of agricultural emissions at today's rates. Much of this damage is concentrated across parts of South America, sub-Saharan Africa and South-East Asia. Half of all carbon loss comes from just 12% of farmland, suggesting that focusing restoration efforts on these areas could deliver benefits for both climate and biodiversity.