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Deforestation

Deforestation is a major driver of harmful land use impacts, and deforestation is responsible for 2.6 billion tons of carbon dioxide emissions worldwide annually 1, about 6% of the total. Since 6000 BC, forest cover has decreased from about 47% of the Earth's land surface to 30%, though the rate of forest loss has slowed from 7.3 million hectares per year from 1990-2000 to 3.3 million hectares per year from 2000-2015 2.

Drivers of Deforestation

Most deforestation is to clear room for expansion of agriculture and other crops. While the clearing of forests for cities gets much attention, this comprises a small portion of total deforestation.

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Source: Curtis et al. 3.

Another way to look at drivers of deforestation is by crop. Beef and oil crops, such as oil palm for biofuels, are the most important drivers.

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The above figures assess the contribution of crops to tropical deforestation, which comprises about 95% of all deforestation worldwide. Source: Pendrill et al. 1, with figures presented by Our World in Data 4.

Other assessments of deforestation use somewhat different methodologies but come to similar conclusions (e.g. 5, 6).

References

  1. Pendrill, F., Persson, U. M., Godar, J., Kastner, T., Moran, D., Schmidt, S., Wood, R. "Agricultural and forestry trade drives large share of tropical deforestation emissions". Global Environmental Change 56, pp. 1-10. May 2019. ↩ ↩2

  2. Runyan, C., Stehm, J. "Deforestation: Drivers, Implications, and Policy Responses". In Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Environmental Science. June 2020. ↩

  3. Curtis, P., Slay, C., Harris, N., Tyukavina, A., Hansen, M. "Classifying drivers of global forest loss". Science 361(6407), pp. 1108-1111. September 2018. ↩

  4. Ritchie, H. "Cutting down forests: what are the drivers of deforestation?". Our World in Data. February 2021. ↩

  5. Hosonuma, N., Herold, M., De Sy, V., De Fries, R., Brockhaus, M., Verchot, L., Angelsen, A., Romijn, E. "An assessment of deforestation and forest degradation drivers in developing countries". Environmental Research Letters 7(4). October 2012. ↩

  6. Jayathilake, H. M., Prescott, G. W., Carrasco, L. R., Rao, M., Symes. W. S. "Drivers of deforestation and degradation for 28 tropical conservation landscapes". Ambio 50, pp. 215-228. 2021. ↩