Potential synergies between existing multilateral environmental agreements in the implementation of land use, land-use change and forestry activities Annette Cowie a, *, Uwe A. Schneider b,c , Luca Montanarella d a NSW Department of Primary Industries, PO Box 100, Beecroft, NSW 2119, Australia b Research Unit Sustainability and Global Change, Hamburg University, Bundesstrasse 55, 20146 Hamburg, Germany c Forestry Program, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, Schlossplatz 1, A-2361 Laxenburg, Austria d European Commission Joint Research Centre, Institute for Environment and Sustainability, T.P. 280, I-21020 Ispra, VA, Italy 1. Introduction The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) recognizes that management of the terrestrial biosphere can contribute to mitigation of climate change. Within the context of climate change policy, emis- sions and removals of greenhouse gases resulting from direct human-induced impacts on the terrestrial biosphere are accounted within the sector known as land use, land use change and forestry (LULUCF). 1 Besides their relevance to the UNFCCC objectives, measures undertaken in the LULUCF sector are relevant to several other multilateral environmental agreements that have entered into force during recent years, environmental science & policy 10 (2007) 335–352 article info Published on line 24 April 2007 Keywords: Climate change LULUCF Biodiversity Desertification Sustainable development abstract There is potential for synergy between the global environmental conventions on climate change, biodiversity and desertification: changes in land management and land use under- taken to reduce net greenhouse gas emissions can simultaneously deliver positive out- comes for conservation of biodiversity, and mitigation of desertification and land degradation. However, while there can be complementarities between the three environ- mental goals, there are often tradeoffs. Thus, the challenge lies in developing land use policies that promote optimal environmental outcomes, and in implementing these locally to promote sustainable development. The paper considers synergies and tradeoffs in implementing land use measures to address the objectives of the three global environ- mental conventions, both from an environmental and economic perspective. The intention is to provide environmental scientists and policy makers with a broad overview of these considerations, and the benefits of addressing the conventions simultaneously. # 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. * Corresponding author. Tel.: +61 2 9872 0138; fax: +61 2 9871 6941. E-mail address: annettec@sf.nsw.gov.au (A. Cowie). 1 National greenhouse gas (GHG) inventories are currently prepared following the Revised 1996 IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories and Common Reporting Formats, in which the Land Use Change and Forestry (LUCF) sector is reported separately from the Agriculture, Energy, Industrial Processes and Waste sectors (Houghton et al., 1997). The 2006 Guidelines combine reporting for the Agriculture and LUCF sectors under the title Agriculture, Forestry and Other Land Use (AFOLU) (IPCC, 2006). In Kyoto Protocol accounting, carbon stock changes and non-CO 2 emissions from afforestation, reforestation and deforestation, and, if elected, forest management, cropland management, grazing land management and revegetation are reported under ‘‘Land use, land use change and forestry’’(LU- LUCF), except for non-CO 2 agricultural emissions, which are reported under Agriculture, and fuel use in agricultural and forestry operations which are reported in the Energy sector. The term ‘‘land use’’ is here used to include all emissions and removals associated with agricultural and forestry land uses. available at www.sciencedirect.com journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/envsci 1462-9011/$ – see front matter # 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.envsci.2007.03.002