TY - JOUR
T1 - Trends in size of tropical deforestation events signal increasing dominance of industrial-scale drivers
AU - Austin, Kemen G.
AU - González-Roglich, Mariano
AU - Schaffer-Smith, Danica
AU - Schwantes, Amanda M.
AU - Swenson, Jennifer J.
N1 - Funding Information:
KGA was supported by the National Science Foundations Graduate Research Fellowship Program (DGE-1106401). AMS was supported by a NASA Earth and Space Science Fellowship (NNX13AN86H), a James B Duke Fellowship, and a Duke Graduate School Fellowship. DS was supported by a NASA Earth and Space Science Fellowship (NNX13AQ15H).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 The Author(s). Published by IOP Publishing Ltd.
PY - 2017/5/9
Y1 - 2017/5/9
N2 - Deforestation continues across the tropics at alarming rates, with repercussions for ecosystem processes, carbon storage and long term sustainability. Taking advantage of recent fine-scale measurement of deforestation, this analysis aims to improve our understanding of the scale of deforestation drivers in the tropics. We examined trends in forest clearings of different sizes from 2000-2012 by country, region and development level. As tropical deforestation increased from approximately 6900 kha yr-1 in the first half of the study period, to >7900 kha yr-1 in the second half of the study period, >50% of this increase was attributable to the proliferation of medium and large clearings (>10 ha). This trend was most pronounced in Southeast Asia and in South America. Outside of Brazil >60% of the observed increase in deforestation in South America was due to an upsurge in medium- and large-scale clearings; Brazil had a divergent trend of decreasing deforestation, >90% of which was attributable to a reduction in medium and large clearings. The emerging prominence of large-scale drivers of forest loss in many regions and countries suggests the growing need for policy interventions which target industrial-scale agricultural commodity producers. The experience in Brazil suggests that there are promising policy solutions to mitigate large-scale deforestation, but that these policy initiatives do not adequately address small-scale drivers. By providing up-to-date and spatially explicit information on the scale of deforestation, and the trends in these patterns over time, this study contributes valuable information for monitoring, and designing effective interventions to address deforestation.
AB - Deforestation continues across the tropics at alarming rates, with repercussions for ecosystem processes, carbon storage and long term sustainability. Taking advantage of recent fine-scale measurement of deforestation, this analysis aims to improve our understanding of the scale of deforestation drivers in the tropics. We examined trends in forest clearings of different sizes from 2000-2012 by country, region and development level. As tropical deforestation increased from approximately 6900 kha yr-1 in the first half of the study period, to >7900 kha yr-1 in the second half of the study period, >50% of this increase was attributable to the proliferation of medium and large clearings (>10 ha). This trend was most pronounced in Southeast Asia and in South America. Outside of Brazil >60% of the observed increase in deforestation in South America was due to an upsurge in medium- and large-scale clearings; Brazil had a divergent trend of decreasing deforestation, >90% of which was attributable to a reduction in medium and large clearings. The emerging prominence of large-scale drivers of forest loss in many regions and countries suggests the growing need for policy interventions which target industrial-scale agricultural commodity producers. The experience in Brazil suggests that there are promising policy solutions to mitigate large-scale deforestation, but that these policy initiatives do not adequately address small-scale drivers. By providing up-to-date and spatially explicit information on the scale of deforestation, and the trends in these patterns over time, this study contributes valuable information for monitoring, and designing effective interventions to address deforestation.
KW - conservation policy
KW - export agriculture
KW - forest transition
KW - industrial plantations
KW - land use
KW - monitoring
KW - spatiotemporal dynamics
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U2 - 10.1088/1748-9326/aa6a88
DO - 10.1088/1748-9326/aa6a88
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85019879995
SN - 1748-9318
VL - 12
JO - Environmental Research Letters
JF - Environmental Research Letters
IS - 5
M1 - 054009
ER -