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Deforestation Land Use

topic v1.0.0 2026-04-05 Agent-extracted

Causes and consequences of tropical deforestation, land use transitions, and their links to biodiversity loss and carbon emissions. Covers forest cover change dynamics, agricultural expansion as a deforestation driver, and CO2 contributions from land use change.

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Domain: Deforestation and Land Use Change

Causes and consequences of tropical deforestation, land use transitions, and their links to biodiversity loss and carbon emissions

Period: 2000-present Population: Tropical and subtropical countries Level: macro

Overview

6
Constructs
5
Findings
3
Engines

Constructs

forest_area_percent Forest Area as Percentage of Land Area

The proportion of total land area covered by forest, measured as a percentage of the country's total land area

annual_deforestation_rate Annual Deforestation Rate

The rate of forest area loss per year, typically expressed as a percentage of remaining forest or in hectares per year

agricultural_land_share Agricultural Land Share

The proportion of total land area used for agriculture including cropland and pasture, expressed as a percentage

co2_from_land_use_change CO2 Emissions from Land Use Change

Carbon dioxide emissions resulting from changes in land use, particularly deforestation and forest degradation, measured in tonnes of CO2 equivalent

tree_cover_loss_hectares Tree Cover Loss in Hectares

Total area of tree cover removed or destroyed in a given year, measured in hectares using satellite-derived estimates

palm_oil_production Palm Oil Production Volume

Annual production volume of palm oil in metric tonnes, a key commodity crop linked to tropical deforestation in Southeast Asia and West Africa

Findings

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

Direction: positive Confidence: strong Method: remote_sensing_analysis

Global forest loss contributes approximately 10% of total anthropogenic CO2 emissions, making land use change the second largest source after fossil fuels

Direction: positive Confidence: strong Method: satellite_time_series

Commodity-driven deforestation accounts for 27% of global tree cover loss, with the remainder attributed to forestry, shifting agriculture, wildfire, and urbanization

Direction: positive Confidence: moderate Method: classification_analysis

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

Direction: positive Confidence: strong Method: remote_sensing_analysis

Countries with higher forest area percentages experienced greater rates of agricultural land conversion, indicating that remaining forests face increasing pressure

Direction: negative Confidence: moderate Method: ols_regression

Engines

ols_regression correlation_matrix random_forest

Sources

Hansen, M.C., Potapov, P.V., Moore, R., Hancher, M., et al. (2013). High-resolution global maps of 21st-century forest cover change DOI
Gibbs, H.K., Ruesch, A.S., Achard, F., Clayton, M.K., et al. (2010). Tropical forests were the primary sources of new agricultural land in the 1980s and 1990s DOI
Curtis, P.G., Slay, C.M., Harris, N.L., Tyukavina, A., Hansen, M.C. (2018). Classifying drivers of global forest loss DOI

Tags

topicdeforestation-land-use

Details

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

  • 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)
  • 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)
  • 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)
  • Countries with higher forest area percentages experienced greater rates of agricultural land conversion, indicating that remaining forests face increasing pressure (negative, moderate)

Installation

Install this PAX into your Praxis instance:

praxis_import_pax("deforestation-land-use.pax.tar.gz", install=True)