Intact forests have a crucial role in regulating the climate and serving as refuges for wildlife, but they are disappearing quickly. Contrary to popular belief, agriculture is not the only cause of forest loss, as demonstrated by the authors of new research that will appear in the journal One Earth on January 20, 2023.
The authors make the case that we should take into account global trade markets when developing conservation strategies because over 60% of the forest loss associated with the global economy in 2014 was related to the final consumption of non-agricultural products, such as minerals, metals, and wood-related goods.
“Regional land use change is no longer simply driven by local demand; it is also indirectly influenced by international markets and the surging consumption of land-based products,” say the authors, led by Bin Chen, a postdoctoral fellow at Fudan University. “Countries with forest conservation goals can import finished land-based products via global supply chains, displacing land-use pressure and related eco-environmental impacts outside their own territory borders.”
To assess the primary and indirect effects of intact forest landscape loss, the researchers used multi-source geographic information data and economic modeling. When compared to disturbed or managed forests, intact forests may store more than three times as much carbon per hectare, host a wider variety of species, and are more tolerant to natural disturbances like wildfires.
Regional land use change is no longer simply driven by local demand; it is also indirectly influenced by international markets and the surging consumption of land-based products. Countries with forest conservation goals can import finished land-based products via global supply chains, displacing land-use pressure and related eco-environmental impacts outside their own territory borders.
The authors
Focusing on intact forests instead than deforestation, which is the full removal of tree cover, allowed the authors to draw attention to the pernicious implications that degradation and fragmentation play.
“Even the removal of narrow tracts of forests can affect overall forest structure and composition,” say the authors. “Considering the exceptional conservation value of intact forest landscapes in terms of stabilizing terrestrial carbon stocks and harboring biodiversity, intact forest landscapes loss displacement can also reflect potential indirect driving forces behind carbon emissions and biodiversity loss.”
“It is widely thought that beef production drives deforestation in the Amazon, but it is hard for consumers to realize that the production of highly processed equipment may involve timber and metals produced at the expense of intact forest and that services provided by tertiary sectors may be supported by electricity generated from oil and gas associated with this loss,” the authors say. “The more dispersed nature of intact forest loss drivers and their indirect links to individual final consumers call for stronger government engagement and supply-chain interventions.”
