Geography

Tropical forest loss enhanced by large-scale land acquisitions

Document Type

Article

Abstract

Tropical forests are vital for global biodiversity, carbon storage and local livelihoods, yet they are increasingly under threat from human activities. Large-scale land acquisitions have emerged as an important mechanism linking global resource demands to forests in the Global South, yet their influence on tropical deforestation remains unclear. Here we perform a multicountry assessment of the links between large-scale land acquisitions and tropical forest loss by combining a new georeferenced database of 82,403 individual land deals—covering 15 countries in Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia—with data on annual forest cover and loss between 2000 and 2018. We find that land acquisitions cover between 6% and 59% of study-country land area and between 2% and 79% of their forests. Compared with non-investment areas, large-scale land acquisitions were granted in areas of higher forest cover in 11 countries and had higher forest loss in 52% of cases. Oil palm, wood fibre and tree plantations were consistently linked with enhanced forest loss while logging and mining concessions showed a mix of outcomes. Our findings demonstrate that large-scale land acquisitions can lead to elevated deforestation of tropical forests, highlighting the role of local policies in the sustainable management of these ecosystems.

Publication Title

Nature Geoscience

Publication Date

2020

Volume

13

Issue

7

First Page

482

Last Page

488

ISSN

1752-0894

DOI

10.1038/s41561-020-0592-3

Keywords

biodiversity, deforestation, forest cover, forest management, human activity, spatiotemporal analysis, sustainable forestry, tropical forest

Link to Full Text

Share

COinS