Forest transitions, trade, and the global displacement of land use
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Reducing tropical deforestation is an international priority, given its impacts on carbon emissions and biodiversity. We examined whether recent forest transitions—a shift from net deforestation to net reforestation—involved a geographic displacement of forest clearing across countries through trade in agricultural and forest products. In most of the seven developing countries that recently experienced a forest transition, displacement of land use abroad accompanied local reforestation. Additional global land-use change embodied in their net wood trade offset 74% of their total reforested area. Because the reforesting countries continued to export more agricultural goods than they imported, this net displacement offset 22% of their total reforested area when both agriculture and forestry sectors are included. However, this net displacement increased to 52% during the last 5 y. These countries thus have contributed to a net global reforestation and/or decrease in the pressure on forests, but this global environmental benefit has been shrinking during recent years. The net decrease in the pressure on forests does not account for differences in their ecological quality. Assessments of the impacts of international policies aimed at reducing global deforestation should integrate international trade in agricultural and forest commodities.
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Global market integration has increased connectivity between world regions, with regions having the highest demand for land resources often experiencing agricultural abandonment and reforestation while displacing their production needs to less developed regions.
“Global market integration has increased connectivity between world regions, with regions having the highest demand for land resources often experiencing agricultural abandonment and reforestation while displacing their production needs to less developed regions (127), mirroring patterns from the colonial era.”
From Used planet: a global history (2013) · cites this paper as [127]
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- Authors
- Meyfroidt, P., Rudel, T. K., & Lambin, E. F.
- Affiliations
- UCLouvain (BE)
- Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey (US)
- Earth and Life Institute, Georges Lemaître Centre for Earth and Climate Research (TECLIM), Université Catholique de Louvain, 1348 Louvain-La-Neuve, Belgium; Departments of
- Venue
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
- Publisher
- National Academy of Sciences
- Published
- 2010-11-15
- Volume
- 107
- Issue
- 49
- Pages
- 20917-20922
- ISSN
- 0027-8424 (ISSN-L)
- 1091-6490
- PMC
- PMC3000287
- OpenAlex
- W2064672104
- Cited by
- 586
- References
- 34
- Citations by year
- 2026: 22 · 2025: 34 · 2024: 29 · 2023: 36 · 2022: 43 · 2021: 34 · 2020: 41 · 2019: 43 · 2018: 35 · 2017: 38 · 2016: 45 · 2015: 57 · 2014: 28 · 2013: 50 · 2012: 38
- FWCI
- 28.71
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DIAL (Catholic University of Leuven) (submittedVersion)
- DIAL (Catholic University of Leuven) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Global and Planetary Change › Conservation, Biodiversity, and Resource Management
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Global and Planetary Change › Land Use and Ecosystem Services
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Global and Planetary Change › Forest Management and Policy
- Keywords
- forest transition, tropical deforestation, reforestation, land use change, international trade, agricultural trade, timber trade, developing countries, deforestation policy, CO2 emissions, biodiversity
- MeSH terms
- Agriculture, Conservation of Natural Resources, Geography, Trees, Forestry, Marketing
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