80% of tropical agricultural expansion between 1980-2000 came at expense of forests
The study, based on analysis satellite images collected by the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) and led by Holly Gibbs of Stanford University, found that 55 percent of new agricultural land came at the expense of intact forests, while 28 percent came from disturbed forests. The remainder came from shrub lands.
Total agricultural land increased by 629 million hectares (ha) in developing countries the 1980s and 1990s, including a net rise of than 100 million ha in tropical regions. Much of the expansion occurred in Brazil, Indonesia, and Malaysia, countries that now produce 40 percent of the world’s of sugarcane, soybeans, and palm oil, but have experienced high rates of forest loss.
Continue: Mongabay
Paper
Tropical forests were the primary sources of new agricultural land in the 1980s and 1990s
H. K. Gibbs, A. S. Ruesch, F. Achard, M. K. Clayton, P. Holmgren, N. Ramankutty and J. A. Foley
Continue: PNAS
Tags: Biodiversity, Carbon Footprint, Ecology, Food, Forests
