Final Report Summary - GLOLAND (Integrating human agency in global-scale land change models)
Land is a limited resource that is under pressure of demand from different sectors and affected by many of the global targets in the Sustainable Development Goals. While serving the global population, land management is decided upon by individual land owners and managers that pursue different objectives and have different means. The GLOLAND project addressed land as a socio-ecological system and explicitly addressed the different actors and decision making mechanisms that are important to land use change. Insights in decision making and the variety of land systems were included in a land systems model that simulates changes between different land management systems including agricultural systems that range from shifting cultivation for subsistence needs to large-scale land acquisitions serving the global value chains. The land systems model CLUMondo was applied both on national and global scales. For the global scale the model allowed making an exploration of how land systems globally would look like if the agreed international targets that relate to land restoration and reforestation would be achieved. This simulation sheds insights in the tradeoffs embedded in such targets and the possible pathways of achieving such global targets.