Conservation of undisturbed natural forests and economic impacts on agriculture

Abstract

Conservation of undisturbed natural forests, which are important for biodiversity, carbon storage, and other ecosystem services, affects agricultural production and cropland expansion. We analyze the economic impacts of undisturbed natural forest conservation programs on agriculture and the magnitude of avoided deforestation and avoided carbon emissions in the tropics. We apply a global agricultural land use model to estimate changes in agricultural production costs for the period 2015–2055. Our forest conservation scenarios reflect two different policy goals: either maximize forest carbon storage or minimize impacts on agricultural production. In all the scenarios, the economic impacts on agriculture are relatively low. Production costs would increase due to forest conservation by a maximum of 4%, predominantly driven by increased investments in agricultural productivity increase. We also show regional differences in Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Southeast Asia, due to different growth rates in food demand, land availability and crop productivity. The area of avoided deforestation does not exceed 1.5millionhayr−1 in the period 2015–2055, while avoided carbon emissions reach a maximum of 1.9Gt CO2 per year. According to our results on the potential changes in agricultural production costs, undisturbed natural forest conservation appears to be a low-cost option for greenhouse gas emission reduction.