Risk of intact forest landscape loss goes beyond global agricultural supply chains
Journal article, 2023

The continued loss of unfragmented intact forest landscapes (IFLs) despite numerous global conservation initiatives indicates the need for improved knowledge of proximate and underlying drivers. Yet the role of non-agricultural activities in forest degradation and fragmentation has not received adequate attention. We focus on IFL loss caused by various economic activities and investigate the influence of global consumption and trade via the multi-regional input-output model. For IFL loss associated with the 2014 world economy, over 60% was related to final consumption of non-agricultural products. More than one-third of IFL loss was linked to export, primarily from Russia, Canada, and tropical regions to mainland China, the EU, and the United States. Of IFL loss associated with export, 51% and 26% was directly caused by logging and mining or energy extraction, respectively. The dispersed nature of IFL loss drivers and their indirect links to individual final consumers call for stronger government engagement and supply chain interventions.

international trade

non-agricultural commodities

deforestation

global supply chains

Intact forest landscapes

Author

Siyi Kan

Beijing University of Technology

University College London (UCL)

Bin Chen

Fudan University

Martin Persson

Chalmers, Space, Earth and Environment, Physical Resource Theory

Guoqian Chen

Macau University of Science and Technology

Beijing University of Technology

Yutao Wang

Fudan University

Jiashuo Li

Shandong University

Jing Meng

University College London (UCL)

Heran Zheng

University College London (UCL)

Lan Yang

Fudan University

Rui Li

Beijing Forestry University

Mingxi Du

Xi'an Jiaotong University

Thomas Kastner

Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre (SBiK-F)

One Earth

25903330 (ISSN) 25903322 (eISSN)

Vol. 6 1 55-65

Subject Categories

Economics and Business

Earth and Related Environmental Sciences

DOI

10.1016/j.oneear.2022.12.006

More information

Latest update

1/27/2023