A systematic review of the socio-economic impacts of large-scale tree plantations, worldwide

Dalia D’Amato,Wen Zhou,Nicholas J. Hogarth,Markku Kanninen,Romain Pirard,Arttu Malkamäki,Anne Toppinen

doi:10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2018.09.001

Abstract

Since their widespread introduction in the 1980s, large-scale tree plantations have seen contestations over their socio-economic impacts. With the establishment of new plantations on the rise, a review of the literature examining their impacts on local communities is needed to inform policies and practices. In this systematic review, we followed an a priori protocol to reduce the selection biases inherent to conventional literature reviews, and considered both grey and peer-reviewed literature. Of the 20,450 studies identified in our literature search, only 92 studies met our predefined inclusion criteria. However, only 22 studies presented a clear comparator and considered confounding factors in their analysis. Of the 251 impacts identified in this sample, most impacts across the nine categories were characterised as predominantly negative impacts attributed to large-scale tree plantations. Impacts on employment (22% of reported impacts/of which 41% predominantly negative), land (21%/81%), livelihoods (12%/48%) and the often intertwined social impacts (20%/69%) were the most commonly considered categories, within which a majority of studies agreed on the impact dynamics when in similar contexts, resembling the dynamics observed in other large-scale land-based investments. Most impacts were reported from Southeast Asia (34% of reported impacts), South America (29%), Africa (23%) and Australasia (12%). We corroborate that costs of large-scale tree plantations for residents tend to be front-loaded, especially when plantations have displaced customary land uses, and possible benefits to accrue over time, moderated by the emergence of local processing and complementary livelihood activities. However, given the methodological inconsistencies in our sample and the under-representation of areas known to have undergone plantation development, strong global evidence on the long-term socio-economic impacts of large-scale tree plantations remains limited.

Highlights

We can trace the origins of large-scale tree plantations to the colonial era, they have seen increasingly widespread adoption since the 1980s as an alternative source of raw material for tree-based commodities (Bull et al, 2006; Evans, 2009)
We used an a priori systematic review protocol published as Malkamäki et al (2017), which was prepared based on the guidance for systematic reviews by the Collaboration for Environmental Evidence (CEE, 2013)
In Australia, investments into plantations in the early 2000s followed the introduction of favourable tax regulations for projects under the Managed Investment Scheme (O’Toole and Keneley, 2010)

Summary

Introduction

We can trace the origins of large-scale tree plantations to the colonial era, they have seen increasingly widespread adoption since the 1980s as an alternative source of raw material for tree-based commodities (Bull et al, 2006; Evans, 2009). Tree plantations are often characterised by high density monocultures of non-native species, established to meet increasing commercial demands and reduce the exploitation of natural forests (Chazdon et al, 2016; D’Amato et al, 2017a; Pirard et al, 2016a). Such plantations are often posited as a means of mitigating the effects of climate change through carbon sequestration in woody biomass (Ingram et al, 2016; Kröger, 2016).

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Discussion

Conclusion