Deforestation Of Tropical Forests Research Articles

From Stand to Forest: Woody Plant Recruitment in an Andean Restoration Project.

The growing deforestation of tropical forests requires the implementation of restoration actions capable of assisting the recovery of biodiversity and the functioning of these ecosystems. This research aimed to identify the environmental factors that influence the abundance and diversity of woody plant recruitment in an Andean forest restoration project in Medellin (Colombia). Data from woody plant individuals taller than 80 cm were collected in 22 plots of 200·m-2. The environmental factors selected were edaphic variables, plantation structure, slope, elevation, prior land use, and landscape forest cover. Generalized linear models (GLM) were used to analyze recruitment densit and Linear Mixed Models (LMM) to assess recruited species richness, diversity, and dominance. Woody plant recruitment attributes in our study area were similar to those of secondary succession in an Andean forest, but planted trees contributed little to recruitment density and diversity. While recruitment density was affected by slope, canopy closure, and landscape forest cover, recruitment diversity was influenced by physical (bulk density) and chemical (pH, aluminum, Cation Exchange Capacity) edaphic factors, planted tree diversity (species richness and composition), canopy closure, and the mortality rate of planted trees. We conclude that sites with lower mortality rates of planted trees and denser canopies enhance both recruitment density and diversity, indicating a synergy between active restoration and passive regeneration processes.

Aboveground biomass in a post-mining forest succession in the Colombian Pacific

Introduction: Mining is one of the main drivers of deforestation of tropical forests. This activity affects the storage of aboveground biomass of these ecosystems; therefore, their ability to contribute to the mitigation of global climate change. Objective: To assess the influence of soil properties on the aboveground biomass storage of post-mining forests in the Colombian Pacific. Methods: Plots were established in areas post-mining and with different successional ages (12-15 years, 30-35 years, and mature forest). The aboveground biomass and physicochemical parameters of the soil were measured. Results: An aboveground biomass of 15.58 t ha-1, 35.17 t ha-1, and 178.32 t ha-1 was recorded at 12-15 years, 30-35 years, and mature forests, respectively. The species with the highest biomass content in post-mining forests were Cespedesia spathulata and Clidemia septuplinervia. The aboveground biomass was positively correlated with organic matter (OM), calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg), CICE, total nitrogen (N), and silt. In contrast, the relationship was negative with sand, aluminum (Al), and potassium (K) content. It was evidenced that the relationship between aboveground biomass and soils differed in each successional age. When evaluating the changes of aboveground biomass and soils in the succession, it was observed that the aboveground biomass and total N increased with the recovery time. At the same time, the P and K decreased with succession. On the other hand, the contents of OM, Mg, Al, Ca, and CICE showed curvilinear tendencies since they increased in the first stages and then decreased in the advanced successional stages. Conclusions: Aboveground biomass increases with forest recovery time in the study area. This increase is influenced by the presence of two dominant species shared among the investigated ecosystems and by the soil's N, P, and K content.

Analysis of deforestation in the Matahuayo-Tahuayo sector (Loreto) using images from TM, ETM+ and OLI sensors during the period 2007-2015

This project presents a methodology to identify deforestation in the Matahuayo sector. Tahuayo, which arises from the problem of the expansion of deforestation in tropical forests from Peru. The main objective of this study is to implement a methodology that allows detecting and quantify the deforested areas in the aforementioned sector, located in the department of Loreto. 36 Landsat 5, 7 and 8 L1T level image data were used for the time 2007 - 2015 with spatial resolution of 30 m x 30 m. The implemented methodology consists of three phases: (i) The preprocessing stage, the radiometric correction was developed, the TOA reflectance was calculated and atmospheric correction to obtain the reflectance of the ground surface. (ii) In processing Spatial and temporal distribution maps were produced from different biophysical indices (NDVI, RVI) and transformations (Tasseled Cap, PCA) that constitute the compound of 18 synthetic bands and Through spectral separability we select the synthetic bands that are used as inputs in unsupervised K-means classification. (iii) In the post processing the contours were generated of deforested areas for each year of study. From the results obtained it can be indicate a reduction of extensive areas of Amazonian forests in the study sector for the period 2007-2015. Deforestation obtained in hectares per year presents a linear upward trend of 9635 ha/year.

Угрозы гуманитарной безопасности в Латинской Америке

Like any other region of the world Latin America is a subject to threats that negatively affect the standard of living of people. The author identifies and analyzes the main economic, social, political, and environmental threats of the region, referring to the documents of international organizations such as the UN, the World Bank, Human Rights Watch and experts studying the problems. The author notes that the immediate economic threat to human security arises from a drop in production, loss of income and rising unemployment, which leads to a significant increase in poverty and a decrease in citizens’ confidence in the future. Against the backdrop of global crises, the World Bank forecasts a modest increase in the GDP of countries in the coming years. The author identifies three social groups that are most vulnerable to threats to human security: migrants, indigenous people, women, and children. A common problem for the region is the high percentage of cases of violence that also come from the authorities. The main threat to the political security of citizens is the weakness of democracies, since this political system in the region has existed for about forty years and is not yet as developed as in other regions of the world. The high level of corruption among officials aggravates the situation in the country, which often leads to rallies and strikes throughout the region. Among the transnational threats to human security, the author notes terrorism and organized crime, including money laundering and drug trafficking, as well as trafficking in short-barreled weapons. These threats pose a direct danger to people’s lives. Against the background of deforestation of tropical forests, the threat to environmental security is extremely acute. The danger is that deforestation leads to the deprivation of indigenous peoples of their habitat, which directly affects the human security of the region.

The role of forest fragmentation in yellow fever virus dispersal

The intense process of deforestation in tropical forests poses serious challenges for the survival of biodiversity, as well as for the human species itself. This scenario is supported by the increase in the incidence of epidemics of zoonotic origin observed over the last few decades. In the specific case of sylvatic yellow fever (YF), it has already been shown that an increase in the transmission risk of the causative agent (yellow fever virus - YFV) is associated with areas with a high degree of forest fragmentation, which can facilitate the spread of the virus. In this study we tested the hypothesis that areas with more fragmented landscapes and a higher edge density (ED) but a high degree of connectivity between forest patches favor YFV spread. To this end, we used YF epizootics in non-human primates (NHPs) in the state of São Paulo to build direct networks, and used a multi-selection approach to analyze which landscape features could facilitate YFV spread. Our results showed that municipalities with the potential to spread the virus exhibited a higher amount of forest edge. Additionally, the models with greater empirical support showed a strong association between forest edge density and the risk of occurrence of epizootic diseases, as well as the need for a minimum threshold of native vegetation cover to restrict their transmission. These findings corroborate our hypothesis that more fragmented landscapes with a higher degree of connectivity favor the spread of YFV, while landscapes with fewer connections tend to act as dead zones for the circulation of the virus.

Biodiversity (Wilson & Peters, 1988) revisited: How has tropical conservation science changed in the last 35 years?

This commentary examines the dynamics of tropical conservation science, the translation of scientific insights into practical conservation actions, and the resulting conservation outcomes over the last 35 years, using Biodiversity (Wilson & Peters, 1988) as a point of reference. Despite significant scientific advancements, the overall conservation outcomes at regional and global levels have been discouraging, marked by ongoing deforestation of tropical forests and declining animal populations. Recognizing the complex socio-economic nature of the biodiversity crisis, this commentary proposes the expansion of indigenous territories and protected areas, the establishment of a global biodiversity monitoring network, and the training of a new generation of translational ecologists, as potential pathways toward a more promising future. Data sharing is not applicable as no data were created or analyzed in this study.

Analysis of Fire Scars Spatiotemporal Distribution and Carbon Emission in the Southeast Siberia Permafrost Degradation Area

Affected by climate change and other factors, global fires occur frequently, and the fire burning area in the high latitude permafrost region with low temperature is gradually expanding. The occurrence of fire will cause a large amount of carbon to be released into the air, which will further exacerbate global climate change. Through the fourth edition of the Global Fire Emissions Database (GFED), this paper analyzes the burning area and carbon emissions in the permafrost region of southeast Siberia from 1997 to 2020. The results show that the global carbon emissions from fires are mainly grassland and shrub fires, agricultural waste burning, northern forest fires, and tropical forest deforestation and degradation. The changes of grassland and shrub fires are relatively stable, and the burning area of agricultural waste has decreased, while the northern forest fires, especially in the northern North America and the Siberian permafrost region, have increased and increased rapidly in recent years. Further analysis of southeast Siberia shows that the fire burning area in southeast Siberia is mainly concentrated in spring (March to May) and autumn (September to November), of which the fire burning area in spring (March to May) is the largest, and the fire burning area in spring is 3.5 times of that in autumn. The gradually rising air temperature and gradually thawing carbon will become an important driving force of north forest fires. The occurrence of fire will further form positive feedback on climate change by affecting soil microorganism and soil structure, etc. Therefore, for sensitive areas such as southeast Siberia permafrost degradation area, targeted fire warning and management mechanisms need to be established to effectively reduce the risk of wildfire.

Soil type determines the magnitude of soil fertility changes by forest-to-pasture conversion in Western Amazonia

The deforestation of tropical forests raises environmental concerns worldwide. Removing the pristine forest impacts the soil, consequently affecting the environmental services it provides. Within this context, the main goal of this study was to determine how the conversion of the tropical rainforest to pasture affects soil fertility across an extended range of soil heterogeneity, including different soil types. We sampled 13 sites, among forests, recent pastures (≤7-year-old), and old pastures (≥10-year-old), on Acrisols, Ferralsols, Plinthosols, and Luvisols, across a ± 800 km geographical range in the Western Brazilian Amazon. Soils were classified taxonomically, and their superficial layer's chemical and physical properties (0–10 cm) were analyzed. Furthermore, we tested the sensibility of Actinobacteria and Proteobacteria to detect changes in these soil properties based on their ecological habitat. An inter-regional gradient of soil fertility was observed, and the sampling sites were clustered mostly by soil type and associated land use than by spatial distance. The Sum of bases, Ca + Mg, base saturation, Al saturation, and pH were consistently affected by land use, increasing after conversion to pasture, at different degrees and with a more pronounced effect on oxidic soils. The Sum of bases was the only property that increased significantly among the study sites (Radj = 0.860, p < 0.001), being able to detect the effect of anthropic land use on a larger coverage of soil types. Finally, the Actinobacteria:Proteobacteria ratio was also sensitive to the impact of forest-to-pasture conversion, with a higher ratio observed in pasture systems, and it was positively correlated with soil pH (rho = 0.469, p < 0.001). Our results consistently show that the forest-to-pasture conversion leads to strong alterations in the soil environment, with varying intensities depending on soil type.

Embedding circularity into the transition towards sustainable agroforestry systems in Peru

Peru is promoting the adoption of agroforestry systems with the aim to halt the deforestation of tropical forests caused by smallholder farmers. However, deficient soil conservation practices and nutrient management are common among the targeted smallholders, hampering the success of this strategy. In this study, we explore the potential of valorizing municipal biowaste as compost to be used as soil amendment in coffee agroforestry systems and in silvopastoral systems. The analysis was concentrated in four Peruvian regions and the most populous city in each of them. For lands with coffee production, it was assumed that 90 kg N ha−1 (i.e., 50% of the N requirements) should come from compost, while for pastures, the requirement was 40 kg P ha−1. We found that composting could lead to large greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions compared with the current waste disposal methods (i.e., deep dumping and landfilling), as it only emits 5–10% of the GHG emissions produced with the other methods. Nonetheless, the area of agroforestry and silvopastoral systems that could be fertilized with compost obtained from the main city of each region is limited and insufficient. If all compost were to be used for the coffee agroforestry system, less than 3% of the coffee agroforestry area could be fertilized, while in the case of pastures, only 4% would be attained. Large amounts of compost could be obtained from Lima, the most populated city; however, its transportation to the agroforestry areas would increase compost GHG emissions by 15–60%. Although composting municipal food waste and loss may bring GHG benefits and should be promoted, its use as a fertilizer requires mixing with N-rich sources to improve its nutrient quality.

Effect of farming on the vegetation structure, soil properties and termite assemblages in the northern Congo Basin

AbstractThe growing human population requires vast amounts of supplies that are satisfied by a large agricultural expansion leading to alarming deforestation of tropical forests. Agriculture in the large part now is unsustainable as tropical soils are relatively nutrient poor, the amount of organic matter decreases fast and the soil invertebrates and microorganisms vanish over time. From a socio‐economic point of view, agroforestry is a sustainable alternative to slash‐and‐burn practices, but its impact on termites, major macroinvertebrates responsible for the organic matter turnover, is poorly understood. Furthermore, other vegetation layers besides tree canopy are rarely included in studies despite their strong effect on soil macrofauna. Thus, we investigated the impact of human activities in Southern Cameroon by analysing the biomass of termites, the soil properties, the vegetation structure at three different classes (trees, shrubs and herbs) and the amount of raw vegetal material along a land‐use gradient of primary forest ‐ secondary forest ‐ cocoa agroforestry ‐ maize cropland. Within each of the habitats, two independent areas of 1 ha each were laid out for samples collection. Our results show similar trends for all variables, with a reduction of organic carbon as well as available micronutrients, plant diversity and abundance and dead plant matter stocks along the land‐use intensification. The same trend is shown by the abundance and biomass of termites, best exemplified by the absence of soil‐feeding termites in the maize cropland. We thus recommend for support to nature‐friendly agroforestry systems preserving a large share of the original soil invertebrates.

Plant Growth Promotion and Biocontrol by Endophytic and Rhizospheric Microorganisms From the Tropics: A Review and Perspectives

Currently, the tropics harbor a wide variety of crops to feed the global population. Rapid population expansion and the consequent major demand for food and agriculture-based products generate initiatives for tropical forest deforestation, which contributes to land degradation and the loss of macro and micronative biodiversity of ecosystems. Likewise, the entire dependence on fertilizers and pesticides also contributes to negative impacts on environmental and human health. To guarantee current and future food safety, as well as natural resource preservation, systems for sustainable crops in the tropics have attracted substantial attention worldwide. Therefore, the use of beneficial plant-associated microorganisms is a promising sustainable way to solve issues concerning modern agriculture and the environment. Efficient strains of bacteria and fungi are a rich source of natural products that might improve crop yield in numerous biological ways, such as nitrogen fixation, hormone production, mobilization of insoluble nutrients, and mechanisms related to plant biotic and abiotic stress alleviation. Additionally, these microorganisms also exhibit great potential for the biocontrol of phytopathogens and pest insects. This review addresses research regarding endophytic and rhizospheric microorganisms associated with tropical plants as a sustainable alternative to control diseases and enhance food production to minimize ecological damage in tropical ecosystems.

APPLICATION OF THE STANDARDIZED VEGETATION INDEX (SVI) AND GOOGLE EARTH ENGINE (GEE) FOR DROUGHT MANAGEMENT IN PERU

&lt;p class="Subheading"&gt;Background. The SVI (Standardized Vegetation Index) provides a relative comparison of the condition of the vegetation in different classifications for monitoring droughts. Objective. In this research, the SVI was used through the Google Earth Engine (GEE) at the national level and in three study points for a coastal, Amazonian, and Andean region for October 31, 2020, and two decades. Methodology. For the construction of the SVI, the data from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Version 6 were used; of the Terra sensor (MOD13Q1) with a temporal resolution of 16 days, a spatial resolution of 250 meters, and as a level 3 product. Results. The SVI was represented in five classifications: with green color ≥ 0 (No Drought), yellow color -0.10 to -0.94 (Slight drought), light orange color -0.95 to -1.44 (Moderate drought), dark orange color -1.45 to -1.94 (Severe drought), and red color ≤ -1.95 (Extreme drought). Implications. The change in historical SVI values was evidenced due to causes such as El Niño costero (coastal) and deforestation of Tropical Forests; for the Sechura Desert in Piura and La Pampa in Madre de Dios, respectively. Subsequently, in the Andes of Peru, in Ollachea, Puno, it was determined that the SVI value, more extreme negative, represented an extreme drought never registered for this area. Conclusion. The SVI and GEE provided tools for drought management with high spatial and temporal resolution.&lt;/p&gt;

Deforestation risk in the Peruvian Amazon basin

SummaryThe prevention of tropical forest deforestation is essential for mitigating climate change. We tested the machine learning algorithm Maxent to predict deforestation across the Peruvian Amazon. We used official annual 2001–2019 deforestation data to develop a predictive model and to test the model’s accuracy using near-real-time forest loss data for 2020. Distance from agricultural land and distance from roads were the predictor variables that contributed most to the final model, indicating that a narrower set of variables contribute nearly 80% of the information necessary for prediction at scale. The permutation importance indicating variable information not present in the other variables was also highest for distance from agricultural land and distance from roads, at 40.5% and 14.3%, respectively. The predictive model registered 73.2% of the 2020 early alerts in a high or very high risk category; less than 1% of forest cover in national protected areas were registered as very high risk, but buffer zones were far more vulnerable, with 15% of forest cover being in this category. To our knowledge, this is the first study to use 19 years of annual data for deforestation risk. The open-source machine learning method could be applied to other forest regions, at scale, to improve strategies for reducing future deforestation.

Forest and forestry policy between the EU and its Member States

Trees and forests in Europe have never been centre stage the way they are now. Until a couple of years ago, forest-related concerns of European citizens focused mainly on international deforestation in tropical forests. The aggravation of the double climate and biodiversity crisis has significantly increased European citizens’ interest in the EU forests as irreplaceable carbon sinks and reservoirs of biodiversity. The pressure of public opinion on EU forest policies therefore is on the rise, also due to the fact that the more Europe takes action vis-à-vis third countries’ forest protection, the more its domestic agenda must be effective and credible; a case in point is the news about systematic illegal harvesting of primeval forests in Eastern European states such as Poland’s well-known Bielowieza, Romania (where the murder of official rangers sparked outrage across Europe), and Slovakia, which resonated powerfully. Citizens’ concerns are not ill-founded: European forests, in fact, are generally not in good ecological condition. Recent scientific reports further paint a worrying picture. According to the 2020 State of Nature Report by the European Environment Agency, less than 15% of assessed woodland and forest habitats are favourable, while up to 84% were assessed as unfavourable-inadequate. The EU Joint Research Centre assessment of ecosystems concludes that “the condition of EU forests is poor, and there are serious concerns regarding upward trends of several pressures and degrading condition indicators”. Even the sustainability of current harvesting levels is subject to debate. Overall, the current intensive use of forests will need to be better balanced against the objectives of carbon sink preservation and biodiversity protection. This ’greener‘ approach to forests has sparked a heated debate in the EU institutions as well as among stakeholders and NGOs, all seeking to influence in some way the future forest policy of the EU. This debate includes some legal issues.

Building Data Sets for Rainforest Deforestation Detection Through a Citizen Science Project

Originally, the ForestEyes project aims to detect deforestation in tropical forests based on citizen science (CS) and machine learning (ML) approaches, in which the volunteers analyze and label segments of remote sensing images to build new training sets for creating different classification models. In previous work, only three modules related to CS have been proposed. In this letter, two new modules are created: 1) organization and selection and 2) ML. Therefore, these modules turn the ForestEyes project a more robust system in the deforestation detection task, building high-confidence labeled collections, increasing the monitoring coverage, and decreasing volunteer dependence. Performed experiments show that volunteers create better data sets than those based on automatic PRODES-based approaches, selecting the most relevant samples and discarding noisy segments that might disrupt ML techniques. Finally, the results showed the feasibility of allying CS with ML for rainforest deforestation detection task.

Deforestation and reforestation impacts on soils in the tropics

Soils under natural, tropical forests provide essential ecosystem services that have been shaped by long-term soil–vegetation feedbacks. However, deforestation of tropical forest, with a net rate of 5.5 million hectares annually in 2010–2015, profoundly impacts soil properties and functions. Reforestation is also prominent in the tropics, again altering the state and functioning of the underlying soils. In this Review, we discuss the substantial changes in dynamic soil properties following deforestation and during reforestation. Changes associated with deforestation continue for decades after forest clearing eventually extend to deep subsoils and strongly affect soil functions, including nutrient storage and recycling, carbon storage and greenhouse gas emissions, erosion resistance and water storage, drainage and filtration. Reforestation reverses many of the effects of deforestation, mainly in the topsoil, but such restoration can take decades and the resulting soil properties still deviate from those under natural forests. Improved management of soil organic matter in converted land uses can moderate or reduce the ecologically deleterious effects of deforestation on soils. We emphasize the importance of soil knowledge not only in cross-disciplinary research on deforestation and reforestation but also in developing effective incentives and policies to reduce deforestation. Deforestation and reforestation cause dramatic changes to tropical ecosystems, including underlying soil properties and their corresponding ecosystem services. In this Review, the impacts of this land-use change on soils and their functions are discussed.

Tropical forest loss enhanced by large-scale land acquisitions

Tropical forests are vital for global biodiversity, carbon storage and local livelihoods, yet they are increasingly under threat from human activities. Large-scale land acquisitions have emerged as an important mechanism linking global resource demands to forests in the Global South, yet their influence on tropical deforestation remains unclear. Here we perform a multicountry assessment of the links between large-scale land acquisitions and tropical forest loss by combining a new georeferenced database of 82,403 individual land deals—covering 15 countries in Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia—with data on annual forest cover and loss between 2000 and 2018. We find that land acquisitions cover between 6% and 59% of study-country land area and between 2% and 79% of their forests. Compared with non-investment areas, large-scale land acquisitions were granted in areas of higher forest cover in 11 countries and had higher forest loss in 52% of cases. Oil palm, wood fibre and tree plantations were consistently linked with enhanced forest loss while logging and mining concessions showed a mix of outcomes. Our findings demonstrate that large-scale land acquisitions can lead to elevated deforestation of tropical forests, highlighting the role of local policies in the sustainable management of these ecosystems. Tropical deforestation rates are linked to large-scale land investments, according to georeferenced land deal records and remote sensing of forest loss over the past two decades.

ANALYSIS OF FORESTS’ GENETIC VULNERABILITY AND ARGUMENTS TO REDUCE DEFORESTATION

Abstract Forests play an essential role in protecting natural resources such as soil, water and environmental services. The aims of the current study are to analyze definitions involving issues such as forest cover and its vulnerability, as well as to present arguments to help reducing deforestation. Solutions focused on mitigating tree vulnerability are herein presented, namely: genetic conservation and local creation of genetic databases on natural forests; pursuit of maximum genetic diversity to maintain reproduction index and avoid cloning effects; scientifically investigating how to help trees to adapt to environmental changes; use of genetic improvement and programs such as Payment for Environmental Services, Bolsa Floresta Program, Crop-Livestock-Forest Integration and ABC Program to reduce deforestation in tropical forests.

Expansión de cultivos industriales en el sudeste asiático:El caso de la palma aceitera en Indonesia y Malasia

The oil palm or African palm (Elaeis guineensis) is a native plant of West Africa. In recent decades, approximately since the sixties, this crop has experienced significant growth in the tropical regions of the southern hemisphere, as a monoculture for the production of vegetable oils for export. Within a context in which oil palm cultivation is expanding into new regions of the world, such as Africa and Central America, research aims to identify the social and environmental problems that the development of industrial oil palm crops has had in the two main oil palm producing countries in the world: Indonesia and Malaysia. It is hypothesized that the expansion of industrial monoculture of oil palm is inserted in the current extractivist paradigm of appropriation of natural resources worldwide; also, that it is responsible for the massive deforestation of tropical forests in Southeast Asia; and that, therefore, it endangers the food sovereignty of the countries of Southeast Asia, by displacing family farming and traditional food crops. The methodology consisted in the survey of academic sources and reports of international organizations and NGOs.

Global loss of climate connectivity in tropical forests

Range shifts are a crucial mechanism enabling species to avoid extinction under climate change1,2. The majority of terrestrial biodiversity is concentrated in the tropics3, including species considered most vulnerable to climate warming4, but extensive and ongoing deforestation of tropical forests is likely to impede range shifts5,6. We conduct a global assessment of the potential for tropical species to reach analogous future climates—‘climate connectivity’—and empirically test how this has changed in response to deforestation between 2000 and 2012. We find that over 62% of tropical forest area (~10 million km2) is already incapable of facilitating range shifts to analogous future climates. In just 12 years, continued deforestation has caused a loss of climate connectivity for over 27% of surviving tropical forest, with accelerating declines in connectivity as forest loss increased. On average, if species’ ranges shift as far down climate gradients as permitted by existing forest connectivity, by 2070 they would still experience 0.77 °C of warming under the least severe climate warming scenario and up to 2.6 °C warming for the most severe scenario. Limiting further forest loss and focusing the global restoration agenda towards creating climate corridors are global priorities for improving resilience of tropical forest biotas under climate change. Physically connected habitats are required for terrestrial species to shift their liveable ranges as the tropics warm. The authors show that over half of tropical forest area is currently unable to provide such climate connectivity, and that loss of connectivity is accelerating with deforestation.