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Cited by 234Conservation, Biodiversity, and Resource ManagementOil Palm Production and SustainabilityAgriculture, Land Use, Rural Development

Deforestation risk due to commodity crop expansion in sub-Saharan Africa

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Ordway, Elsa M, Asner, Gregory P, Lambin, Eric F·2017·Environmental Research Letters
DOI 10.1088/1748-9326/aa6509
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Abstract

Rapid integration of global agricultural markets and subsequent cropland displacement in recent decades increased large-scale tropical deforestation in South America and Southeast Asia. Growing land scarcity and more stringent land use regulations in these regions could incentivize the offshoring of export-oriented commodity crops to sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). We assess the effects of domestic- and export-oriented agricultural expansion on deforestation in SSA in recent decades. Analyses were conducted at the global, regional and local scales. We found that commodity crops are expanding in SSA, increasing pressure on tropical forests. Four Congo Basin countries, Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Côte d'Ivoire were most at risk in terms of exposure, vulnerability and pressures from agricultural expansion. These countries averaged the highest percent forest cover (58% ± 17.93) and lowest proportions of potentially available cropland outside forest areas (1% ± 0.89). Foreign investment in these countries was concentrated in oil palm production (81%), with a median investment area of 41 582 thousand ha. Cocoa, the fastest expanding export-oriented crop across SSA, accounted for 57% of global expansion in 2000–2013 at a rate of 132 thousand ha yr −1 . However, cocoa only amounted to 0.89% of foreign land investment. Commodity crop expansion in SSA appears largely driven by small- and medium-scale farmers rather than industrial plantations. Land-use changes associated with large-scale investments remain to be observed in many countries. Although domestic demand for commodity crops was associated with most agricultural expansion, we provide evidence of a growing influence of distant markets on land-use change in SSA.

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  • Pressure on sub-Saharan African forests from smallholder and commercial agriculture is rapidly intensifying.

    “However pressure on sub-Saharan African forests, from among others smallholder and commercial agriculture, is rapidly intensifying (Ordway et al 2017, FAO, UNEP 2020).”

    From The impact of deforestation on rainfall in Africa: a data-driven assessment (2021) · cites this paper as Ordway et al 2017

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Authors
Ordway, E. M., Asner, G. P., & Lambin, E. F.
Affiliations
  • Stanford University (US)
  • Carnegie Institution for Science (US)
Corresponding author
Ordway, Elsa M
ORCID
Venue
Environmental Research Letters
Publisher
IOP Publishing
Published
2017-04-01
Volume
12
Issue
4
Pages
044015
ISSN
1748-9326 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1088/1748-9326/aa6509
OpenAlex
W2605224014
Cited by
234
References
9
Citations by year
2026: 18 · 2025: 25 · 2024: 22 · 2023: 29 · 2022: 38 · 2021: 35 · 2020: 27 · 2019: 25 · 2018: 11 · 2017: 4
FWCI
12.12
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • Environmental Research Letters (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • Digital Access to Libraries (Université catholique de Louvain (UCL), l'Université de Namur (UNamur) and the Université Saint-Louis (USL-B)) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion)
  • eScholarship (California Digital Library) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
  • Environmental Research Letters (cc-by)
Funders
  • McGee/Levorsen Research Grant
  • Graduate Research Fellowship Program, National Science Foundation (2012118590)
  • Center for African Studies, Stanford University
  • Morrison Institute for Population and Resource Studies
Topics
  • Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Global and Planetary Change › Conservation, Biodiversity, and Resource Management
  • Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Ecology › Oil Palm Production and Sustainability
  • Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › General Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Agriculture, Land Use, Rural Development
Keywords
tropical deforestation, sub-Saharan Africa, agricultural land use change, foreign direct investment in agriculture, oil palm, Theobroma cacao, Congo Basin, export-oriented agriculture, smallholder farmers, land scarcity

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