Disentangling the numbers behind agriculture-driven tropical deforestation
Review article, 2022
Tropical deforestation continues at alarming rates with profound impacts on ecosystems, climate, and livelihoods, prompting renewed commitments to halt its continuation. Although it is well established that agriculture is a dominant driver of deforestation, rates and mechanisms remain disputed and often lack a clear evidence base. We synthesize the best available pantropical evidence to provide clarity on how agriculture drives deforestation. Although most (90 to 99%) deforestation across the tropics 2011 to 2015 was driven by agriculture, only 45 to 65% of deforested land became productive agriculture within a few years. Therefore, ending deforestation likely requires combining measures to create deforestation-free supply chains with landscape governance interventions. We highlight key remaining evidence gaps including deforestation trends, commodity-specific land-use dynamics, and data from tropical dry forests and forests across Africa.
Author
Florence Pendrill
Chalmers, Space, Earth and Environment, Physical Resource Theory
Toby A. Gardner
Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI)
P. Meyfroidt
Universite catholique de Louvain
National Fund for Scientific Research
Martin Persson
Chalmers, Space, Earth and Environment
Justin Adams
World Economic Forum
Tasso Azevedo
Observatório do Clima
Mairon G. Bastos Lima
Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI)
Matthias Baumann
Humboldt University of Berlin
Philip G. Curtis
Veronique De Sy
Wageningen University and Research
R. Garrett
University of Cambridge
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich (ETH)
J. Godar
Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI)
Elizabeth Dow Goldman
World Resources Institute
Matthew C. Hansen
University of Maryland
Robert Heilmayr
University of California
Martin Herold
German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ)
Tobias Kuemmerle
Humboldt University of Berlin
Michael J. Lathuillière
Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI)
Vivian Ribeiro
Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI)
Alexandra Tyukavina
University of Maryland
Mikaela J. Weisse
World Resources Institute
C. West
University of York
Science (New York, N.Y.)
00368075 (ISSN) 10959203 (eISSN)
Vol. 377 6611 eabm9267-Subject Categories (SSIF 2011)
Agricultural Science
Forest Science
Physical Geography
DOI
10.1126/science.abm9267
PubMed
36074840