Agriculture Drives More Than 90% of Tropical Deforestation
Published:30 Sep.2022 Source:Chalmers University of Technology
Halting deforestation will require a step-change in approach, and to be effective measures must address underlying and indirect roles of agriculture, says study.
A new study published today in leading journal, Science, finds that between 90 and 99 percent of all deforestation in the tropics is driven directly or indirectly by agriculture. Yet only half to two-thirds of this results in the expansion of active agricultural production on the deforested land.
"Our review makes clear that between 90 and 99 percent of all deforestation in the tropics is driven directly or indirectly by agriculture. But what surprised us was that a comparatively smaller share of the deforestation -- between 45 and 65 percent -?? results in the expansion of actual agricultural production on the deforested land. This finding is of profound importance for designing effective measures to reduce deforestation and promote sustainable rural development," says Florence Pendrill, lead author of the study at Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden.
The study makes clear that a handful of commodities are responsible for the majority of deforestation linked to actively producing agricultural land - well over half of which is linked to pasture, soy and palm oil alone. But it also calls out the shortcomings of sector-specific initiatives that are limited in their ability to deal with indirect impacts.
And the study's findings point to the need for supply chain interventions to go beyond a focus on specific commodities and risk management, to help drive genuine partnerships between producer and consumer markets and governments. This needs to include strong incentive-based measures that make sustainable agriculture economically attractive, while disincentivising further conversion of native vegetation and supporting the most vulnerable smallholder farmers. The authors say this should include a stronger focus on domestic markets, often the biggest drivers of demand for many commodities, including beef, and a strengthening of partnerships between companies, governments and civil society in producer jurisdictions.
Finally, the study highlights three critical gaps where a stronger evidence base is needed to better target efforts to reduce deforestation; "The first is that without a globally and temporally consistent data product on deforestation we cannot be confident about overall trends in conversion. The second is that except for oil palm and soy, we lack data on the coverage and expansion of specific commodities to know which are more important, with our understanding of global pasture and grazing lands being especially dire. The third is that we know comparatively very little indeed about tropical dry forests, and forests in Africa," saidProfessor Martin Persson of Chalmers University of Technology.