posts: 40038

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                        "text": "Every year the world loses around 5 million hectares of forest. 95% of this occurs in the tropics. At least three-quarters of this is driven by agriculture \u2013 clearing forests to grow crops, raise livestock and produce products such as paper.{ref}There are a number of estimates on what share of deforestation is driven by agriculture. The differences in these estimates are often explained by the different treatment of ",
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                                "text": "deforestation",
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                        "text": " versus forest ",
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                                "text": "degradation",
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                        "text": " \u2013 we cover the differences between these types of forest loss in a ",
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                                "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/deforestation#not-all-forest-loss-is-equal-what-is-the-difference-between-deforestation-and-forest-degradation",
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                                    {
                                        "text": "related post",
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                                ],
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                        "text": ". Agriculture accounts for 70-80% of tropical ",
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                                "text": "deforestation",
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                        "text": " \u2013 the permanent conversion of forested land to another land use. It accounts for a smaller percentage when degradation \u2013 the temporary loss of forest prior to regrowth \u2013 is included.",
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                        "text": "One of the most-widely cited studies on this comes from Noriko Hosonuma et al. (2012) who estimate that 73% of tropical deforestation is driven by agriculture. This is similar to estimates by Geist and Lambin (2002) who estimated that around 80% of deforestation in the 1980s and 1990s was driven by agriculture. In fact, over the longer analysis of deforestation from 1840 to 1990, they estimate 96% of deforestation was driven by agriculture. Gibbs et al. (2010) estimate that during the 1980s and 1990s, 83% of agricultural land expansion replaced forest.",
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                        "text": "Geist, H. J., & Lambin, E. F. (2002). ",
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                    },
                    {
                        "url": "https://academic.oup.com/bioscience/article/52/2/143/341135",
                        "children": [
                            {
                                "text": "Proximate Causes and Underlying Driving Forces of Tropical Deforestation",
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                    {
                        "text": ". ",
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                        "children": [
                            {
                                "text": "BioScience",
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                        "text": ", ",
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                        "children": [
                            {
                                "text": "52",
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                    {
                        "text": "(2), 143-150.",
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                        "text": "Gibbs, H. K., Ruesch, A. S., Achard, F., Clayton, M. K., Holmgren, P., Ramankutty, N., & Foley, J. A. (2010). ",
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                        "url": "https://app.dimensions.ai/details/publication/pub.1019795429",
                        "children": [
                            {
                                "text": "Tropical forests were the primary sources of new agricultural land in the 1980s and 1990s",
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                        "text": ". ",
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                        "children": [
                            {
                                "text": "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences",
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                            }
                        ],
                        "spanType": "span-italic"
                    },
                    {
                        "text": ", ",
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                    {
                        "children": [
                            {
                                "text": "107",
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                    {
                        "text": "(38), 16732-16737.",
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                        "text": "Hosonuma, N., Herold, M., De Sy, V., De Fries, R. S., Brockhaus, M., Verchot, L., ... & Romijn, E. (2012). ",
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                    {
                        "url": "https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/7/4/044009",
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                                "text": "An assessment of deforestation and forest degradation drivers in developing countries",
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                        "spanType": "span-link"
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                    {
                        "text": ". ",
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                        "children": [
                            {
                                "text": "Environmental Research Letters",
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                        ],
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                    {
                        "text": ", ",
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                        "children": [
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                                "text": "7",
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                        "text": "(4), 044009.{/ref}",
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                        "text": "If we want to tackle deforestation we need to understand two key questions: where we\u2019re losing forests, and what activities are driving it. This allows us to target our efforts towards specific industries, products, or countries where they will have the greatest impact.",
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                        "text": "In a study published in ",
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                        "children": [
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                                "text": "Global Environmental Change",
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                        "text": ", Florence Pendrill and colleagues addressed both of these questions.{ref}Pendrill, F., Persson, U. M., Godar, J., Kastner, T., Moran, D., Schmidt, S., & Wood, R. (2019). ",
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                        "url": "https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959378018314365",
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                                "text": "Agricultural and forestry trade drives large share of tropical deforestation emissions",
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                        "text": ". ",
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                        "children": [
                            {
                                "text": "Global Environmental Change",
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                        "text": ", ",
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                                "text": "56",
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                        "text": ", 1-10.{/ref} They quantified how much and where deforestation occurs from the expansion of croplands, pasture and tree plantations (for logging), and what products are grown on this converted land. They also combined this with global trade flows to assess how much of this deforestation was driven by international trade \u2013 we look at the role of trade specifically in a ",
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                                "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/deforestation#do-rich-countries-export-deforestation-to-other-countries",
                                "children": [
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                                        "text": "related article",
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                        "text": "Here we\u2019ll look at both ",
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                                "text": "where",
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                        "text": " tropical deforestation is happening and ",
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                        "children": [
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                                "text": "what products ",
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                        "text": "are driving it",
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                "text": [
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                        "text": "Brazil and Indonesia account for almost half of tropical deforestation",
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                                "text": "The study by Pendrill et al. (2019) found that, between 2005 and 2013, the tropics lost an average of 5.5 million hectares of forest per year to agricultural land. That was a decade ago, but the world is still losing a similar amount today: using satellite data, researchers at ",
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                            {
                                "url": "https://www.globalforestwatch.org/dashboards/global",
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                                        "text": "Global Forest Watch",
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                                "text": " estimate that global deforestation in 2019 was around 5.4 million hectares.{ref}The ",
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                            },
                            {
                                "url": "https://www.globalforestwatch.org/dashboards/global",
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                                        "text": "Global Forest Watch",
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                                "text": " programme categorizes forest loss drivers based on permanent deforestation \u2013 the conversion of forest to another land use \u2013 and degradation (which includes logging of tree plantations and wildfires). \u2018Commodity-driven deforestation\u2019 \u2013 which includes some activities such as mining but is predominantly agricultural commodities \u2013 totalled 5.4 million hectares in 2019.",
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                                "text": "A paper by Philip Curtis et al. (2018) discusses this classification in detail. We also look at these categories in more detail in a ",
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                                        "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/deforestation#not-all-forest-loss-is-equal-what-is-the-difference-between-deforestation-and-forest-degradation",
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                                            {
                                                "text": "related article",
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                                "text": "Curtis, P. G., Slay, C. M., Harris, N. L., Tyukavina, A., & Hansen, M. C. (2018). ",
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                            {
                                "url": "https://science.sciencemag.org/content/361/6407/1108",
                                "children": [
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                                        "text": "Classifying drivers of global forest loss",
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                                "text": ". ",
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                                        "text": "Science",
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                                "text": ", ",
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                                        "text": "361",
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                                "text": "(6407), 1108-1111.{/ref} 95% of this was in the tropics. But where in the tropics did we lose this forest?",
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                                "text": "In the chart we see the share of tropical deforestation by country and region. It's measured as the annual average between 2010 and 2014.",
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                                "text": "One-third of tropical deforestation happened in Brazil. That was 1.7 million hectares each year. The other single country where large forest areas are lost is Indonesia \u2013 it accounted for 14%. This means around half (47%) of tropical deforestation took place in Brazil and Indonesia. Again, if we look at ",
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                                "url": "https://www.globalforestwatch.org/dashboards/global/",
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                                        "text": "more recent satellite data",
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                                "text": " we find that this is still true today: in 2019, the world lost 5.4 million hectares to deforestation, with Brazil and Indonesia accounting for 52% of it.{ref}One-third (1.8 million hectares) came from Brazil, and 19% (1 million hectares) from Indonesia.{/ref} As we will see later, the expansion of pasture for beef production, croplands for soy and palm oil, and increasingly conversion of primary forest to tree plantations for paper and pulp have been the key drivers of this.",
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                                "text": "The expansion of pasture lands have also had a major impact on land use in the rest of the Americas \u2013 outside of Brazil, Latin America accounted for around one-fifth of deforestation.",
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                                "text": "The expansion of agricultural land in Africa accounted for around 17.5% of deforestation. This may slightly underestimate the loss of forests in Africa, for two reasons. Much of Africa\u2019s deforestation has been driven by subsistence agricultural activities, which are not always fully captured in national statistics. Secondly, depending on the permanence of agricultural activities such as slash-and-burn farming, some of this forest loss might be classified as temporary forest ",
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                                        "text": "degradation",
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                                "text": " rather than permanent deforestation.",
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                        "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/region-share-tropical-deforestation?tab=chart&stackMode=absolute&region=World",
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                                "text": "Related chart:",
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                        "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/commodity-deforestation-by-region",
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                        "text": "Beef, soy and palm oil are responsible for 60% of tropical deforestation",
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                                "text": "If we want to tackle deforestation we also need to know what causes it. That allows us to avoid the foods that drive deforestation or innovate the ways we produce them.",
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                                "text": "In the chart here we see the breakdown of tropical deforestation by the types of agricultural production.",
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                                "text": "Beef stands out immediately. The expansion of pasture land to raise cattle was responsible for 41% of tropical deforestation. That\u2019s ",
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                                "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/deforestation-by-commodity",
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                                        "text": "2.1 million hectares",
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                                "text": " every year \u2013 about half the size of the Netherlands. Most of this converted land came from Brazil; its expansion of beef production accounts for one-quarter (24%) of tropical deforestation. This also means that most (72%) deforestation in Brazil is driven by cattle ranching.{ref}Since Brazil accounts for 33% of tropical deforestation, and Brazilian cattle account for 24%, cattle accounts for 72% of Brazil\u2019s total [24 / 33 * 100 = 72%].{/ref} Cattle in other parts of Latin America \u2013 such as Argentina and Paraguay \u2013 also accounted for a large amount of deforestation \u2013 11% of the total. Most deforestation for beef therefore occurs in Latin America, with another 4% happening in Africa.",
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                                "text": "Palm oil and soy often claim the headlines for their environmental impact. They are categorised as \u2018oilseeds\u2019, which also include a range of smaller commodities such as sunflower, rapeseed, and sesame. They drove 18% of deforestation. Here we see that Indonesian palm oil was the biggest component of this. In neighbouring Malaysia the expansion of oil seeds was also a major driver of forest loss. Soybeans are the most common oilseed in Latin America. While many people immediately think of food products such as tofu or soy milk, ",
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                                "url": "https://www.foodsource.org.uk/building-blocks/soy-food-feed-and-land-use-change",
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                                        "text": "most of global soybean",
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                                "text": " production is used as feed for livestock, or biofuels. Just 6% is used for direct human food. The impact of soy production is one we look at in more detail in a ",
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                                        "url": "http://ourworldindata.org/soy",
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                                                "text": "related article",
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                                "text": "Combined, beef and oilseeds account for nearly 60% of deforestation.",
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                                "text": "If we add the third largest driver \u2013 forestry products, which is dominated by paper but also includes timber \u2013 then we cover almost three-quarters. Across Europe and North America, forestry products mainly come from managed plantation forests that have been established for a long period of time, or are grown on previously unforested land. This is different from most tropical countries where forestry products also come from the logging of primary rainforests or their replacement with plantations. This destroys primary rainforests and, as shown in the chart, has been an important driver of deforestation in Indonesia and elsewhere in Asia.",
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                                "text": "Related charts:",
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                        "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-deforestation-agricultural-products",
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                        "text": "We can tackle a lot of deforestation by focusing on a few key supply chains",
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                        "text": "If almost three-quarters of tropical deforestation is driven by the production of a few key products \u2013 beef, soybeans, palm oil, and paper \u2013 then we can achieve a lot by focusing our efforts on these supply chains.",
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                        "text": "There are some signs that progress is possible. Soybean production in Brazil was once also an important driver of deforestation in the Amazon region.{ref}Tyukavina, A., Hansen, M. C., Potapov, P. V., Stehman, S. V., Smith-Rodriguez, K., Okpa, C., & Aguilar, R. (2017). ",
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                        "url": "https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/3/4/e1601047",
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                                "text": "Types and rates of forest disturbance in Brazilian Legal Amazon, 2000\u20132013",
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                        "text": "(4), e1601047.{/ref} In 2006, under pressure from retailers and NGOs, the world\u2019s major soybean traders signed Brazil\u2019s Soy Moratorium (SoyM) \u2013 the world\u2019s first voluntary zero-deforestation agreement. Traders agreed that they would not purchase soy that was grown on deforested lands in the Brazilian Amazon after July 2006. Overall, it was a success: in the two years before the agreement, 30% of soybean expansion in the region came at the expense of forest; afterwards, deforestation declined dramatically and by 2014 only 1% of expansion was turning forests into land for oilseed production.{ref}Gibbs, H. K., Rausch, L., Munger, J., Schelly, I., Morton, D. C., Noojipady, P., ... & Walker, N. F. (2015). ",
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                                "text": "Brazil's soy moratorium",
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                        "text": "(6220), 377-378.{/ref},{ref}Boucher, D., Roquemore, S., & Fitzhugh, E. (2013). ",
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                        "url": "https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/194008291300600308",
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                                "text": "Brazil's success in reducing deforestation",
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                        "text": ". ",
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                                "text": "Tropical Conservation Science",
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                        "text": "(3), 426-445.{/ref}\u00a0",
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                        "text": "But, as we show in ",
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                                        "text": "our article",
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                        "text": " on the impact of soy, there are also lessons to learn about how to implement these commitments more effectively. There is evidence that while the moratorium reduced deforestation rates in the Brazilian Amazon, some of this deforestation may have \u2018leaked\u2019 to neighbouring regions. Soybean production has shifted from the Amazon to the Cerrado region south of the Amazonas, often at the expense of forests there.{ref}Kuschnig, N., Crespo Cuaresma, J., & Krisztin, T. (2019). ",
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                    {
                        "url": "https://ideas.repec.org/p/wiw/wus045/7335.html",
                        "children": [
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                                "text": "Unveiling Drivers of Deforestation: Evidence from the Brazilian Amazon",
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                        "text": ".{/ref} This suggests that zero-deforestation agreements can be effective but must be considered in the wider context of how they shape forest and agricultural changes elsewhere. To combat this, researchers have suggested the SoyM be expanded to not only include the Amazon but also regions such as the Cerrado.{ref}Gibbs, H. K., Rausch, L., Munger, J., Schelly, I., Morton, D. C., Noojipady, P., ... & Walker, N. F. (2015). ",
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                                "text": "Brazil's soy moratorium",
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                        "text": "(6220), 377-378.{/ref}",
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                        "text": "If we can take similar action in the other industries \u2013 beef, palm oil and paper \u2013 then there is the potential to cut out a large share of deforestation today.",
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                        "text": "Looking to the future, a shift in focus towards Sub-Saharan Africa looks likely. The demands for increased agricultural production in Africa are going to be large, and could come at the cost of forests.{ref}Clark, M. A., Williams, D. R., Buchanan, G. M., Ficetola, G. F., Rondinini, C., & Tilman, D. (2020). ",
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                        "url": "https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-020-00656-5",
                        "children": [
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                                "text": "Proactive conservation to prevent habitat losses to agricultural expansion",
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                        "text": ". ",
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                        "children": [
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                                "text": "Nature Sustainability",
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                        "text": ".{/ref} Solutions there will have to focus on major ",
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                        "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/crop-yields",
                        "children": [
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                                "text": "improvements in crop yields",
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                        "text": " so African farmers can produce more food without increasing the amount of land they need to do so.",
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                        "text": "Alternative ways of making high-quality protein could also be transformative. Beef is the leading driver of deforestation, and the demand for meat across the world will continue to grow in the coming decades. Technological innovations in meat substitute and cultured meat products would allow people to continue eating meat-like products without the destruction of tropical forests that come with it.\u00a0\u00a0",
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        "title": "Drivers of Deforestation",
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