Socioeconomic and environmental effects of soybean production in metacoupled systems

Ramon Felipe Bicudo Da Silva,Emilio F Moran,Yue Dou,Mateus Batistella,Andrés Viña,Jianguo Liu

doi:10.1038/s41598-021-98256-6

Abstract

Human–environment interactions within and across borders are now more influential than ever, posing unprecedented sustainability challenges. The framework of metacoupling (interactions within and across adjacent and distant coupled human–environment systems) provides a useful tool to evaluate them at diverse temporal and spatial scales. While most metacoupling studies have so far addressed the impacts of distant interactions (telecouplings), few have addressed the complementary and interdependent effects of the interactions within coupled systems (intracouplings) and between adjacent systems (pericouplings). Using the production and trade of a major commodity (soybean) as a demonstration, this paper empirically evaluates the complex effects on deforestation and economic growth across a globally important soybean producing region (Mato Grosso in Brazil). Although this region is influenced by a strong telecoupling process (i.e., soybean trade with national and international markets), intracouplings pose significant effects on deforestation and economic growth within focal municipalities. Furthermore, it generates pericoupling effects (e.g., deforestation) on adjacent municipalities, which precede economic benefits on adjacent systems, and may occur during and after the soybean production takes place. These results show that while economic benefits of the production of agricultural commodities for global markets tend to be localized, their environmental costs tend to be spatially widespread. As deforestation also occurred in adjacent areas beyond focal areas with economic development, this study has significant implications for sustainability in an increasingly metacoupled world.

Highlights

Human–environment interactions within and across borders are more influential than ever, posing unprecedented sustainability challenges
We developed two models to assess the effects of soybean production on environmental and socioeconomic [Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita model] variables within and in adjacent municipalities
Through the use of a Spatial Durbin Error Model (SDEM), these analyses provide a different perspective from previous studies that focused on general indirect land change processes pushing deforestation into far distant a reas[37,38]

Summary

Introduction

Human–environment interactions within and across borders are more influential than ever, posing unprecedented sustainability challenges. While the metacoupling framework has been used to evaluate the environmental outcomes induced by distant and adjacent interactions such as trade and has been successfully applied to many systems worldwide[18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25], no empirical studies have been conducted to assess the economic and environmental effects of intracouplings (human–environment interactions such as soybean production within a system) and pericouplings (human–environment interactions among adjacent s ystems16) within the context of a dominant telecoupling process (Fig. 1) To fill this important knowledge gap, this study focused on all the municipalities within the state of Mato Grosso, Brazil (a major producer of soybean for international and national markets26), and evaluated socioeconomic and environmental outcomes of the soybean production at the producing municipalities and on neighboring municipalities

Methods

Results

Conclusion