Land use patterns and related carbon losses following deforestation in South America
Open accessAbstract
Land use change in South America, mainly deforestation, is a large source of anthropogenic CO 2 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.
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Despite an increasing focus on commodity agriculture, both Amazon-wide studies and case studies show that smallholder farming is still a relevant driver, especially in the western and northern regions of the Amazon.
“Despite an increasing focus on commodity agriculture, both Amazon-wide studies and case studies625show that smallholder farming is still a relevant driver, especially in the western and northern regions 626 of the Amazon (Figure5)[21,22].”
From A systematic comparison of deforestation drivers and policy effectiveness across the Amazon biome (2023) · cites this paper as [22]
The Discussion reports that smallholder and mixed agriculture remained important deforestation drivers in the Andean countries, and Results §3.1 places smallholder crop expansion mostly in that region. This supports the claim's regional pattern, but the study covers South America as a whole; these passages do not establish the finding specifically for the western and northern Amazon or identify the study as Amazon-wide. (LLM, conf=0.82)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredDeforestation, especially at large scales, has become driven mostly by the expansion of commodity agriculture (particularly beef and soy production).
“As indicated in global and Amazon-wide analyses [21,22], deforestation, especially at large scales, 601 has become driven mostly by the expansion of commodity agriculture (particularly beef and soy 602 production).”
From A systematic comparison of deforestation drivers and policy effectiveness across the Amazon biome (2023) · cites this paper as [22]
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- Authors
- Sy, V. D., Herold, M., Achard, F., Beuchle, R., Clevers, J. G. P. W., Lindquist, E., & Verchot, L.
- Affiliations
- Wageningen University & Research (NL)
- Joint Research Centre (IT)
- Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (IT)
- Center for International Forestry Research (ID)
- Corresponding author
- Sy, V De
- Venue
- Environmental Research Letters
- Publisher
- IOP Publishing
- Published
- 2015-11-27
- Volume
- 10
- Issue
- 12
- Pages
- 124004
- ISSN
- 1748-9326 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2177187964
- Cited by
- 261
- References
- 6
- Citations by year
- 2026: 11 · 2025: 22 · 2024: 24 · 2023: 23 · 2022: 30 · 2021: 27 · 2020: 46 · 2019: 24 · 2018: 26 · 2017: 19 · 2016: 7 · 2013: 1
- FWCI
- 12.98
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Environmental Research Letters (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Socio-Environmental Systems Modeling (acceptedVersion, cc-by)
- CGSPace A Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion)
- Publication Database GFZ (GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences) (submittedVersion)
- Joint Research Centre (European Commission) (submittedVersion)
- Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Funders
- University of Cambridge
- Australian Agency for International Development (46167)
- Direktoratet for Utviklingssamarbeid (QZA‐10/0468)
- Wageningen University and Research
- 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
- deforestation drivers, land use change, carbon loss, South America, pasture expansion, deforestation hotspots, forest biomass, anthropogenic CO2 emissions, REDD+, forest monitoring, urban expansion, road infrastructure
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