Fig. 1: Global abandoned cropland: extent, suitability, and potential.

Abandoned cropland extent (a) and binary maps of suitable area for recultivation and reforestation (b). Proportions (donut chart) and spatial distribution (maps) of four suitability types of abandoned cropland: only suitable for either recultivation (11%) or reforestation (33%), suitable for both purposes (50%), and not suitable for both purposes (7%). Food production potential (c) and climate change mitigation potential (d) when either recultivation or reforestation is solely considered. The colored areas in the donut charts illustrate which suitability types and proportions of abandoned cropland are allocated for either recultivation (brown) or reforestation (green). The color scales are categorized by every 20th quantile, and the maps are aggregated from 10 arc-second to 1 arc-degree resolution for better visualization (similarly hereinafter).