Taking the Bitter with the Sweet: Sugarcane's Return as a Driver of Tropical Deforestation

Krystof Obidzinski,Sophia Gnych,Koen Kusters

doi:10.1111/conl.12172

Krystof Obidzinski, Sophia Gnych + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1111/conl.12172

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Abstract

AbstractOver more than 400 years, large areas of tropical forest in Brazil, the Caribbean, the Philippines, Australia, and other parts of the world were cleared to make way for sugarcane plantations. There is a general consensus in the scientific community that since the 1950s, the frontier expansion of sugarcane has stabilized and direct pressure on tropical forests from sugarcane expansion has diminished. Here, we show, however, that sugarcane plantations are on the cusp of returning as a major driver of deforestation in Indonesia. The Indonesian government has developed preferential policies designed to boost sugar production in the name of national food security, and is seeking to convert more than 1 million hectares of tropical forest into sugarcane plantations. If fully developed, the plantation expansion program will undermine Indonesia's goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The scale of the expansion program is such that it will radically alter the global environmental impact of sugarcane.

Highlights

Throughout its long history of commercial cultivation, sugarcane has demanded large areas of land
In other parts of the world too, such as the state of Queensland in Australia and the Philippines, cultivating sugarcane became synonymous with deforestation as forests gave way to plantations and further land-use change due to improved infrastructure and increased migration (Honda 1996; Griggs 2007)
In Brazil, there is some debate about whether sugarcane production persisted as an indirect driver of deforestation, by displacing commercial crops and cattle ranching in established agricultural zones and forcing them into the frontier areas in the Amazon region (Sparovek et al 2009; Lapola et al 2010)

Summary

Introduction

Throughout its long history of commercial cultivation, sugarcane has demanded large areas of land. In Brazil, there is some debate about whether sugarcane production persisted as an indirect driver of deforestation, by displacing commercial crops and cattle ranching in established agricultural zones and forcing them into the frontier areas in the Amazon region (Sparovek et al 2009; Lapola et al 2010). Sugarcane agriculture is no longer a direct driver of deforestation in the Amazon (Sparovek et al 2009; Gao et al 2011). This is true for Brazil, and for other areas of sugarcane production.

Taking the bitter with the sweet

Number of concessions

Findings

Making the most of existing smallholder farms