The possibility for environmental benefits from the abandonment of former farmland is dependent not only on how much is abandoned, but how long it remains uncultivated, explained the Princeton press release. “It will remain a missed opportunity to fight climate change and biodiversity loss.” candidate at Princeton University’s School of Public and International Affairs Christopher Crawford, who was lead author of the study, as The Hill reported. “Unless countries and policymakers develop better regulations and incentives to allow these lands to recover, this chance to restore ecosystems will not be fully realized,” said Ph.D. ![]() The paper was published Wednesday in the journal Science Advances. In the study’s findings, “Rural Land Abandonment Is Too Ephemeral to Provide Major Benefits for Biodiversity and Climate,” researchers call for policy interventions to ensure that habitat restoration happens on former farmland so that the planet can reap the benefits of nature’s natural balancing process. “Our work shows that this is not happening because the ‘abandoned’ lands are being rapidly recultivated.” “As people move from rural areas into cities, there is a chance for wildlife and the climate to gain ground - literally - as abandoned farms and pastures revert back to forests and grasslands,” said David Wilcove, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology and public affairs at the High Meadows Environmental Institute, one of the co-authors of the study, as a press release from the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs reported. In a new study, researchers found that croplands are unlikely to be allowed to rejuvenate on a large enough scale to be impactful unless lawmakers intervene, since much of the land will end up being recultivated, The Hill reported. ![]() The farmers abandon their croplands for various reasons having to do with finances, conflicts or climate change, but, whatever the catalyst, the abandonment of former farmland means an opportunity for ecological restoration and carbon sequestration that could lead to a positive impact on the climate crisis - if the land is allowed to regenerate. Increasingly, farmers around the world are moving into urban centers in an act called “rural outmigration,” leaving hundreds of millions of acres of land to be reclaimed by the Earth.
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