New Delhi, Jan 11 (PTI) Only 18 per cent of global land area that provides for human well-being while also conserving biodiversity is protected, a research has found.

An international team of researchers has found that roughly half of the global land area, excluding Antarctica, provides about 90 per cent of current levels of nature's services to people while also conserving biodiversity for 27,000 species of birds, mammals, reptiles, and amphibians.

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However, the team including researchers from the Cornell University, US, also pointed out a potential conflict because 37 per cent of this land area is "highly suitable for development by agriculture, renewable energy, oil and gas, mining, or urban expansion."

They found that conserving or sustainably managing an additional 34 per cent of land area beyond the current system of protected areas would be required to provide 90 per cent of current levels of nature's contribution to ensuring the well-being of humans and conserving biodiversity.

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Defining "protection" in their study, the researchers said that strictly protected areas precluded activities such as grazing or timber harvesting which are essential to the provision of nature's certain contributions to humans. It was published in the journal 'Nature Communications'.

Conserving the additional land area than what is currently protected would therefore require "creative solutions," the researchers said.

"Biodiversity, climate, and sustainable development cannot be considered in isolation," said lead author Rachel Neugarten at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

"We must also factor in nature's contributions to human well-being, including clean water, carbon storage, crop pollination, flood mitigation, coastal protection, and more," said Neugarten.

Renewable energy development, when designed carefully, could be compatible with conserving biodiversity and ecosystem's services to people, according to Neugarten, examples of which included livestock grazing under wind farms or cultivating native pollinator gardens under solar panels.

"Careful planning" was however needed to ensure that renewable energy goals did not conflict with those around nature conservation, said Neugarten.

"Focusing on regions of high conservation value that are also under high development pressure reveals some unlikely areas that don't always garner global conservation attention - these include working landscapes in the southeastern United States, southern Brazil and Uruguay, southeastern Australia, and Eurasia," said Patrick Roehrdanz, a study co-author and director of climate change and biodiversity at the American non-profit environmental organisation Conservation International.

The study could be helpful for decision-making in "government, conservation NGOs, as well as donors and funding agencies to identify nature's key benefits for people and species—benefits that are key to our survival and well-being," said World Wildlife Fund Global Biodiversity Lead Scientist Becky Chaplin-Kramer.

Further, "conservation and development projects should always be co-developed in partnership with indigenous peoples and local communities to respect local perspectives and sovereignty, and to result in more effective and equitable outcomes," the researchers wrote.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)