Domain: Deforestation and Land Use Change
Causes and consequences of tropical deforestation, land use transitions, and their links to biodiversity loss and carbon emissions
Temporal scope: 2000-present | Population: Tropical and subtropical countries
Key Findings
- Countries with higher forest area percentages experienced greater rates of agricultural land conversion, indicating that remaining forests face increasing pressure (negative, moderate)
- Agricultural expansion is the primary driver of tropical deforestation, with more than 80% of new agricultural land in the tropics replacing forests during the 1980s and 1990s (positive, strong)
- Annual global tree cover loss increased by approximately 2,101 square kilometers per year from 2000 to 2012, with tropical regions showing the steepest increases (positive, strong)
- Global forest loss contributes approximately 10% of total anthropogenic CO2 emissions, making land use change the second largest source after fossil fuels (positive, strong)
- Commodity-driven deforestation accounts for 27% of global tree cover loss, with the remainder attributed to forestry, shifting agriculture, wildfire, and urbanization (positive, moderate)