Variable impacts of land-based climate mitigation on habitat area for vertebrate diversity

Land‑based climate mitigation strategies—reforestation, afforestation and bioenergy crops—are often assumed to benefit biodiversity indirectly. Modeling climate and habitat requirements for 14,234 vertebrate species shows their impacts arise primarily from habitat conversion, not climate mitigation. Reforestation generally expands habitat through both land‑cover change and climate benefits, while afforestation and bioenergy cropping typically cause net habitat loss that outweighs mitigation gains. These results identify where land‑based mitigation can be deployed without reducing global biodiversity and highlight the need to evaluate climate strategies through a habitat‑focused lens.