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Publication Details
AFRICAN RESEARCH NEXUS
SHINING A SPOTLIGHT ON AFRICAN RESEARCH
Land use patterns and related carbon losses following deforestation in South America
Environmental Research Letters, Volume 10, No. 12, Article 124004, Year 2015
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Description
Land use change in South America, mainly deforestation, is a large source of anthropogenic CO2 emissions. Identifying and addressing the causes or drivers of anthropogenic forest change is considered crucial for global climate change mitigation. Few countries however, monitor deforestation drivers in a systematic manner. National-level quantitative spatially explicit information on drivers is often lacking. This study quantifies proximate drivers of deforestation and related carbon losses in South America based on remote sensing time series in a systematic, spatially explicit manner. Deforestation areas were derived from the 2010 global remote sensing survey of the Food and Agricultural Organisation Forest Resource Assessment. To assess proximate drivers, land use following deforestation was assigned by visual interpretation of high-resolution satellite imagery. To estimate gross carbon losses from deforestation, default Tier 1 biomass levels per country and eco-zone were used. Pasture was the dominant driver of forest area (71.2%) and related carbon loss (71.6%) in South America, followed by commercial cropland (14% and 12.1% respectively). Hotspots of deforestation due to pasture occurred in Northern Argentina, Western Paraguay, and along the arc of deforestation in Brazil where they gradually moved into higher biomass forests causing additional carbon losses. Deforestation driven by commercial cropland increased in time, with hotspots occurring in Brazil (Mato Grosso State), Northern Argentina, Eastern Paraguay and Central Bolivia. Infrastructure, such as urban expansion and roads, contributed little as proximate drivers of forest area loss (1.7%). Our findings contribute to the understanding of drivers of deforestation and related carbon losses in South America, and are comparable at the national, regional and continental level. In addition, they support the development of national REDD+ interventions and forest monitoring systems, and provide valuable input for statistical analysis and modelling of underlying drivers of deforestation. © 2015 IOP Publishing Ltd.
Authors & Co-Authors
De Sy, Veronique
Netherlands, Wageningen
Wageningen University & Research
Herold, M.
Netherlands, Wageningen
Wageningen University & Research
Achard, Frédéric
Belgium, Brussels
European Commission Joint Research Centre
Clevers, Jan G.P.W.
Netherlands, Wageningen
Wageningen University & Research
Lindquist, Erik
Italy, Rome
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Verchot, Louis Vincent
Indonesia, Bogor
Center for International Forestry Research, West Java
Statistics
Citations: 160
Authors: 6
Affiliations: 4
Identifiers
Doi:
10.1088/1748-9326/10/12/124004
ISSN:
17489318
Research Areas
Environmental
Food Security
Study Design
Cross Sectional Study
Study Approach
Quantitative