Tropical Forest Loss Research Articles

Towards the use of satellite-based tropical forest disturbance alerts to assess selective logging intensities

Illegal logging is an important driver of tropical forest loss. A wide range of organizations and interested parties wish to track selective logging activities and verify logging intensities as reported by timber companies. Recently, free availability of 10 m scale optical and radar Sentinel data has resulted in several satellite-based alert systems that can detect increasingly small-scale forest disturbances in near-real time. This paper provides insight in the usability of satellite-based forest disturbance alerts to track selective logging in tropical forests. We derive the area of tree cover loss from expert interpretations of monthly PlanetScope mosaics and assess the relationship with the RAdar for Detecting Deforestation (RADD) alerts across 50 logging sites in the Congo Basin. We do this separately for various aggregation levels, and for tree cover loss from felling and skidding, and logging roads. A strong linear relationship between the alerts and visually identified tree cover loss indicates that with dense time series satellite data at 10 m scale, the area of tree cover loss in logging concessions can be accurately estimated. We demonstrate how the observed relationship can be used to improve near-real time tree cover loss estimates based on the RADD alerts. However, users should be aware that the reliability of estimations is relatively low in areas with few disturbances. In addition, a trade-off between aggregation level and accuracy requires careful consideration. An important challenge regarding remote verification of logging activities remains: as opposed to tree cover loss area, logging volumes cannot yet be directly observed by satellites. We discuss ways forward towards satellite-based assessment of logging volumes at high spatial and temporal detail, which would allow for better remote sensing based verification of reported logging intensities and tracking of illegal activities.

Changes in trophic ecology of mobile predators in response to rainforest degradation

Abstract Accelerating loss and degradation of tropical forests has led to a pressing need to understand the conservation value of remaining forests. Whereas most studies focus on the responses in community composition and taxonomic richness, more sensitive responses to habitat degradation are likely to be apparent through changes in the trophic complexity of generalist predators. Food web theory predicts that both trophic position and niche breadth of predators decrease with habitat degradation, with consequences for biotic interactions and ecosystem functioning. Using a stable isotope approach, we analysed trophic positions and niche breaths of an important guild of top predators: insectivorous bats, in the tropical forests of Sabah, Borneo. We aimed to determine the responses in their trophic ecology across an experimental gradient of forest degradation at different spatial scales. At the landscape scale, trophic niche breadth contracted substantially (78%) in association with a narrow reduction (26%) in forest cover. However, food chains were longer in ecosystems with lower tree canopies, representative of localised habitat simplification. Marked differences in trophic niche breath of and trophic position between echolocation guilds provided further evidence for inter‐guild niche partitioning within bat assemblages. Overall, the functionally important shifts in trophic pathways discriminated among habitats of varying degrees of degradation more reliably than conventional community descriptors, such as diversity metrics. Synthesis and applications. This study reveals that habitat quality thresholds—below which we see substantial changes to trophic complexity—are higher than previously considered. Our analysis suggests that patches of forest with cover above 90% should be prioritised for conservation over more highly degraded ecosystems. As these effects were detected after approximately 30 years post‐logging, they likely reflect relatively long‐term responses to forest degradation.

The carbon sink of secondary and degraded humid tropical forests.

The globally important carbon sink of intact, old-growth tropical humid forests is declining because of climate change, deforestation and degradation from fire and logging1-3. Recovering tropical secondary and degraded forests now cover about 10% of the tropical forest area4, but how much carbon they accumulate remains uncertain. Here we quantify the aboveground carbon (AGC) sink of recovering forests across three main continuous tropical humid regions: the Amazon, Borneo and Central Africa5,6. On the basis of satellite data products4,7, our analysis encompasses the heterogeneous spatial and temporal patterns of growth in degraded and secondary forests, influenced by key environmental and anthropogenic drivers. In the first 20 years of recovery, regrowth rates in Borneo were up to 45% and 58% higher than in Central Africa and the Amazon, respectively. This is due to variables such as temperature, water deficit and disturbance regimes. We find that regrowing degraded and secondary forests accumulated 107 Tg C year-1 (90-130 Tg C year-1) between 1984 and 2018, counterbalancing 26% (21-34%) of carbon emissions from humid tropical forest loss during the same period. Protecting old-growth forests is therefore a priority. Furthermore, we estimate that conserving recovering degraded and secondary forests can have a feasible future carbon sink potential of 53 Tg C year-1 (44-62 Tg C year-1) across the main tropical regions studied.

Tropical Dry Forest Dynamics Explained by Topographic and Anthropogenic Factors: A Case Study in Mexico

Tropical dry forest is one of the most threatened ecosystems, and it is disappearing at an alarming rate. Shifting cultivation is commonly cited as a driver of tropical dry forest loss, although it helps to maintain the forest coverage but with less density. We investigated tropical dry forest dynamics and their contributing factors to find out if there is an equilibrium between these two processes. We classified multi-temporal Sentinel-2A images with machine learning algorithms and used a logistic regression model to associate topographic, anthropogenic, and land tenure variables as plausible factors in the dynamics. We carried out an accuracy assessment of the detected changes in loss and gain considering the imbalance in area proportion between the change classes and the persistence classes. We estimated a 1.4% annual loss rate and a 0.7% annual gain rate in tropical dry forest and found that the topographic variable of slope and the anthropogenic variable of distance to roads helped explain the occurrence probability of both tropical forest loss and tropical forest gain. Since the area estimation yielded a wide confidence interval for both tropical forest loss and gain despite the measures that we took to counterbalance the disproportion in areas, we cannot conclude that the loss process was more intense than the gain process, but rather that there was an equilibrium in tropical dry forest dynamics under the influence of shifting cultivation.

The role of elections as drivers of tropical deforestation

Tropical forests support immense biodiversity and provide essential ecosystem services for billions of people. Despite this value, tropical deforestation continues at a high rate. Emerging evidence suggests that elections can play an important role in shaping deforestation, for instance by incentivising politicians to allow increased utilisation of forests in return for political support. Nevertheless, the role of elections as driver of deforestation has not yet been comprehensively tested at broad geographic scales. Here, we created an annual database from 2001 to 2018 on political elections and forest loss for 55 tropical nations and modelled the effect of elections on deforestation. In total, 1.5 million km2 of forest was lost during this time period, especially in the Amazon, the Congo Basin and in Southeast Asia. The annual rate of deforestation increased in 37 (67 %) of the analysed countries. Deforestation was significantly lower in years with uncompetitive lower chamber elections compared to competitive election years (i.e. when the opposition can participate in elections and has a legitimate chance to gain governmental power). Our results show a pervasive loss of tropical forests and suggest that competitive elections can be potential drivers of deforestation. Future analyses at higher resolution (intra-annual deforestation and sub-national governance) and simultaneous collection of data on additional mechanisms (legislative changes, financial investments, and binding term limits) will likely provide additional insights into the impacts of elections. We therefore recommend that organisations monitoring election transparency and fairness should also monitor environmental impacts such as forest loss, habitat destruction and resource exploitation.

Beyond species loss: How anthropogenic disturbances drive functional and phylogenetic homogenization of Neotropical dung beetles

Anthropogenic activities drive tropical forest loss and biodiversity decay. However, few studies have addressed how the biodiversity response varies between disturbance-adapted species (i.e., winners) and those highly susceptible to disturbance (i.e., losers), or whether such responses differ between the taxonomic, functional, or phylogenetic dimensions of diversity. Understanding these dynamics can help prevent or buffer biotic homogenization processes. Using a meta-analytical approach with dung beetles as model organisms, we evaluated how anthropogenic habitat disturbances influence the multiple diversity dimensions of winner and loser species relative to conserved forest sites in the Neotropics. Habitats were organized according to a disturbance gradient ranging from second-growth forests, shaded agroforestry, lowly-shaded agroforestry, living fences, and pastures. Our database included 30 studies, from which we calculated nine metrics divided into three alfa diversity aspects: richness, evenness, and divergence. We also evaluated the beta-diversity response to disturbance and forest protection. All dimensions of dung beetle diversity decreased significantly with increasing disturbance levels, with phylogenetic diversity showing the highest losses, whereas evenness metrics increased in second-growth forests and agroforestry systems. Loser dung beetles showed high diversity loss as well as functional and phylogenetic clustering, reflecting a pervasive biotic homogenization in the most severely disturbed habitats, whereas winner species were insensitive to anthropogenic disturbances. Beta diversity increased significantly with disturbance and forest protection. Our study showed that heavy disturbances erode and homogenized all diversity dimensions of loser dung beetles. However, second-growth forests and agroforestry systems mitigated diversity loss and homogenization processes by favoring the coexistence between functional and phylogenetically distant species and maintaining assemblages compositionally similar to those in conserved forests, highlighting their importance for conservation. We encourage natural resource managers to consider protection of disturbed off-reserve forests in management schemes as these are essential for maintaining biodiversity in an increasingly anthropized world.

Habitat fragmentation matters more than habitat loss: The case of host-parasite interactions.

While ecologists agree that habitat loss has a substantial negative effect on biodiversity it is still very much a matter of debate whether habitat fragmentation has a lesser effect and whether this effect is positive or negative for biodiversity. Here, we assess the relative influence of tropical forest loss and fragmentation on the prevalence of vector-borne blood parasites of the genera Plasmodium and Haemoproteus in six forest bird species. We also determine whether habitat loss and fragmentation are associated with a rise or fall in prevalence. We sample more than 4000 individual birds from 58 forest sites in Guadeloupe and Martinique. Considering 34 host-parasite combinations independently and a fine characterization of the amount and spatial configuration of habitat, we use partial least square regressions to disentangle the relative effects of forest loss, forest fragmentation, landscape heterogeneity, and local weather conditions on spatial variability of parasite prevalence. Then we test for the magnitude and the sign of the effect of each environmental descriptor. Strikingly, we show that forest fragmentation explains twice as much of the variance in prevalence as habitat loss or landscape heterogeneity. In addition, habitat fragmentation leads to an overall rise in prevalence in Guadeloupe, but its effect is variable in Martinique. Both habitat loss and landscape heterogeneity exhibit taxon-specific effects. Our results suggest that habitat loss and fragmentation may have contrasting effects between tropical and temperate regions and that inter-specific interactions may not respond in the same way as more commonly used biodiversity metrics such as abundance and diversity.

Abrupt loss and uncertain recovery from fires of Amazon forests under low climate mitigation scenarios

Tropical forests contribute a major sink for anthropogenic carbon emissions essential to slowing down the buildup of atmospheric CO2 and buffering climate change impacts. However, the response of tropical forests to more frequent weather extremes and long-recovery disturbances like fires remains uncertain. Analyses of field data and ecological theory raise concerns about the possibility of the Amazon crossing a tipping point leading to catastrophic tropical forest loss. In contrast, climate models consistently project an enhanced tropical sink. Here, we show a heterogeneous response of Amazonian carbon stocks in GFDL-ESM4.1, an Earth System Model (ESM) featuring dynamic disturbances and height-structured tree-grass competition. Enhanced productivity due to CO2 fertilization promotes increases in forest biomass that, under low emission scenarios, last until the end of the century. Under high emissions, positive trends reverse after 2060, when simulated fires prompt forest loss that results in a 40% decline in tropical forest biomass by 2100. Projected fires occur under dry conditions associated with El Niño Southern Oscillation and the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation, a response observed under current climate conditions, but exacerbated by an overall decline in precipitation. Following the initial disturbance, grassland dominance promotes recurrent fires and tree competitive exclusion, which prevents forest recovery. EC-Earth3-Veg, an ESM with a dynamic vegetation model of similar complexity, projected comparable wildfire forest loss under high emissions but faster postfire recovery rates. Our results reveal the importance of complex nonlinear responses to assessing climate change impacts and the urgent need to research postfire recovery and its representation in ESMs.

Tropical forest loss impoverishes arboreal mammal assemblages by increasing tree canopy openness.

Landscape-scale deforestation poses a major threat to global biodiversity, not only because it limits habitat availability, but also because it can drive the degradation of the remaining habitat. However, the multiple pathways by which deforestation directly and indirectly affects wildlife remain poorly understood, especially for elusive forest-dependent species such as arboreal mammals. Using structural equation models, we assessed the direct and indirect effects of landscape forest loss on arboreal mammal assemblages in the Lacandona rainforest, Mexico. We placed camera traps in 100 canopy trees, and assessed the direct effect of forest cover and their indirect effects via changes in tree basal area and canopy openness on the abundance and diversity (i.e., species richness and exponential of Shannon entropy) of arboreal mammals. We found that forest loss had negative indirect effects on mammal richness through the increase of tree canopy openness. This could be related to the fact that canopy openness is usually inversely related to resource availability and canopy connectivity for arboreal mammals. Furthermore, independently of forest loss, the abundance and richness of arboreal mammals was positively related to tree basal area, which is typically higher in old-growth forests. Thus, our findings suggest that arboreal mammals generally prefer old-growth vegetation with relatively low canopy openness and high tree basal area. However, unexpectedly, forest loss was directly and positively related to the abundance and richness of mammals, probably due to a crowding effect, a reasonable possibility given the relatively short history (~40years) of deforestation in the study region. Conversely, the Shannon diversity was not affected by the predictors we evaluated, suggesting that rare mammals (not the common species) are the ones most affected by these changes. All in all, our findings emphasize that conservation measures ought to focus on increasing forest cover in the landscape, and preventing the loss of large trees in the remaining forest patches.

Remote Sensing-Based Land Suitability Analysis for Forest Restoration in Madagascar

Tropical forest loss has been a prominent concern in Madagascar, portrayed by a highly fragmented landscape of forests surrounded by small-scale agricultural patches along the northwestern and eastern regions. This paper seeks to identify priority areas for forest landscape restoration at a landscape scale using a geospatial land suitability analysis approach. The study area is the watershed of Mahavavy, home to one of the most biodiverse ecosystems in the island but also an important agriculture region. The suitability analysis method comprises five major steps: (1) the identification of a set of restoration criteria, (2) the acquisition of available environmental datasets for each criterion, (3) generating suitability maps for each criterion, (4) the conception of a suitability analysis model, and (5) the design of potential sites for restoration. The specific suitability criteria combine both landscape composition and soil characteristics, including (i) distance from protected sites and forest patches, (ii) land cover classes, (iii) distance from settlements, (iv) distance from roads, (v) risk of soil erosion. We found 143,680 ha (27.9%) that were highly suitable areas for forest landscape restoration, 159127 (30.9%) moderately suitable and138031 ha (26.6%) not suitable areas. High potential suitable areas are observed in close proximity of forest patches and protected areas, and low restoration feasibility in all areas that are easily accessible and thus subjected to exploitation.

Advancing global health and the sustainable development goals through transdisciplinary research and equitable publication practices

Advancing global health and the sustainable development goals through transdisciplinary research and equitable publication practices

Reliably mapping low-intensity forest disturbance using satellite radar data

In the last decades tropical forests have experienced increased fragmentation due to a global growing demand for agricultural and forest commodities. Satellite remote sensing offers a valuable tool for monitoring forest loss, thanks to the global coverage and the temporal consistency of the acquisitions. In tropical regions, C-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data from the Sentinel-1 mission provides cloud-free and open imagery on a 6- or 12-day repeat cycle, offering the unique opportunity to monitor forest disturbances in a timely and continuous manner. Despite recent advances, mapping subtle forest losses, such as those due to small-scale and irregular selective logging, remains problematic. A Cumulative Sum (CuSum) approach has been recently proposed for forest monitoring applications, with preliminary studies showing promising results. Unfortunately, the lack of accurate in-situ measurements of tropical forest loss has prevented a full validation of this approach, especially in the case of low-intensity logging. In this study, we used high-quality field measurements from the tropical Forest Degradation Experiment (FODEX), combining unoccupied aerial vehicle (UAV) LiDAR, Terrestrial Laser Scanning (TLS), and field-inventoried data of forest structural change collected in two logging concessions in Gabon and Peru. The CuSum algorithm was applied to VV-polarized Sentinel-1 ground range detected (GRD) time series to monitor a range of canopy loss events, from individual tree extraction to forest clear cuts. We developed a single change metric using the maximum of the CuSum distribution, retrieving location, time, and magnitude of the disturbance events. A comparison of the CuSum algorithm with the LiDAR reference map resulted in a 78% success rate for the test site in Gabon and 65% success rate for the test site in Peru, for disturbances as small as 0.01 ha in size and for canopy height losses as fine as 10 m. A correlation between the change metric and above ground biomass (AGB) change was found with R2 = 0.95, and R2 = 0.83 for canopy height loss. From the regression model we directly estimated local AGB loss maps for the year 2020, at 1 ha scale and in percentages of AGB loss. Comparison with the Global Forest Watch (GFW) Tree Cover Loss (TCL) product showed a 61% overlap between the two maps when considering only deforested pixels, with 504 ha of deforestation detected by CuSum vs. 348 ha detected by GFW. Low intensity disturbances captured by the CuSum method were largely undetected by GFW and by the SAR-based Radar for Detecting Deforestation (RADD) Alert System. The results of this study confirm this approach as a simple and reproducible change detection method for monitoring and quantifying fine-scale to high intensity forest disturbances, even in the case of multi-storied and high biomass forests.

Deforestation, plantation-related land cover dynamics and oil palm age-structure change during 1990–2020 in Riau Province, Indonesia

The expansion of plantations, such as oil palm, in Indonesia has caused large-scale deforestation. Loss of tropical forest, in particular peatland forest, is a major ecological and environmental threat as well as a source of atmospheric carbon emissions. Understanding the spatio-temporal dynamics of plantation expansion may illuminate pathways to reduce deforestation while maintaining high yields in existing plantations. Beyond mapping forest conversion to plantations, it is also important to understand post-conversion plantation success and crop age. In the case of oil palm, the typical productive lifespan is 25–30 years before replanting or conversion to other land use becomes necessary. Knowledge about the extent of oil palm in different productive growth stages is important for yield estimation and improving management strategies. This study characterizes the land-cover and land-use changes inherent to oil palm plantation expansion and age-structured oil palm dynamics across Riau, the province with the greatest production of oil palm in Indonesia, using a 30 year time-series of Landsat satellite imagery. From 1990 to 2020, Riau lost 4.63 M ha of forest, while oil palm extent grew six-fold, reaching an estimated 3.52 M ha in 2020. Rapid expansion of oil palm plantations in Riau resulted in the predominance of younger age classes (<10 yr-old) and rapidly increasing yields during 2010–2020. Conversion dynamics changed over time such that, after 2014, the <10 yr age class declined by 14%, whereas the 10–20 yr-old (peak yield stage) and ⩾20 yr-old (decline stage) age classes increased by 11% and 3%, respectively. In 28 years of observation (1992–2020), 41% of oil palm planted between 1990 and 1992 underwent at least one cycle of replanting in Riau.

Transforming land use governance: Global targets without equity miss the mark

AbstractA confluence of concerns about tropical forest loss, global warming, and social inequality drive calls to transform land use governance. Yet there is widespread debate about what must be transformed, by whom, and how. The increasing equation of transformation with ambitious, quantitative global targets, such as “net zero emissions” or “zero deforestation” has gained widespread appeal as a means to inspire action and hold powerful actors to account. However presenting targets themselves as the end goals of transformation, obscures both the means of achieving them and the social and environmental values that legitimate them. The escalation of targets for land use, in particular, is disconnected from targeted geographies, lacks accountability to socially diverse knowledge and priorities, and is readily appropriated by powerful actors at multiple scales. This paper argues instead, for an equity‐based approach to transformation that reveals how unequal power distorts both the ends and the means of global governance. We illustrate this argument with five case‐study “vignettes” in Indonesia, Ghana, Peru, and Brazil that reveal how de‐contextualized, target‐based thinking has reinforced state and corporate control over resources at the expense of local access, while largely failing to deliver the promised environmental outcomes. We conclude that equity‐focused, case study research is critical not only to unpack the local consequences of pursuing global targets, but also to make visible alternative efforts to achieve deeper socio‐environmental transformations.

Plant functional traits under cattle grazing and fallow age scenarios in a tropical dry forest of Northwestern Mexico

Evaluating plant functional traits helps to understand how plants respond to changing environmental conditions and resource availability associated with disturbance events. Livestock production is one of the primary drivers of tropical forest loss and degradation. Livestock alter environmental conditions within the forest by grazing, trampling and nutrient inputs, which in turn can influence species composition and functional traits of species. Understanding how livestock influence functional traits along a successional gradient is poorly understood. Here, we studied the effect of cattle grazing and fallow age on plant functional traits and soil nutrients in secondary and old-growth tropical dry forests. We analyzed plant functional traits of the most important species in successional and old-growth forest communities in both cattle present and cattle excluded plots. Our results showed the effects of cattle grazing and fallow age on plant functional traits, with fallow age explaining more variation than cattle grazing. In early succession, functional traits were associated with water conservation (thicker leaves, lower specific leaf area), and in later successional they were linked with sunlight conservation (larger height, higher specific leaf area). The presence of large fruits and seeds in advanced successional sites suggests high resource availability, which may help plants to successfully reproduce. Moreover, under cattle grazing some functional traits are associated with herbivory defense (high foliar dry weight and thick leaves). Even though N and C increased as succession advanced, the sites with cattle grazing had higher NH4 and NO3 concentrations as a result of fecal deposition. Plant functional traits responded to fallow age than to cattle grazing. Our study showed that cattle exclusion, as a management and biodiversity conservation strategy, contributes positively to soil nutrition. Thus, fallow age and cattle exclusion facilitate soil recovery and allows establishing species with suitable functional attributes for overcoming environmental filters in abandoned cattle fields.

Madagascar's fire regimes challenge global assumptions about landscape degradation.

Narratives of landscape degradation are often linked to unsustainable fire use by local communities. Madagascar is a case in point: the island is considered globally exceptional, with its remarkable endemic biodiversity viewed as threatened by unsustainable anthropogenic fire. Yet, fire regimes on Madagascar have not been empirically characterised or globally contextualised. Here, we contribute a comparative approach to determining relationships between regional fire regimes and global patterns and trends, applied to Madagascar using MODIS remote sensing data (2003-2019). Rather than a global exception, we show that Madagascar's fire regimes are similar to 88% of tropical burned area with shared climate and vegetation characteristics, and can be considered a microcosm of most tropical fire regimes. From 2003-2019, landscape-scale fire declined across tropical grassy biomes (17%-44% excluding Madagascar), and on Madagascar at a relatively fast rate (36%-46%). Thus, high tree loss anomalies on the island (1.25-4.77× the tropical average) were not explained by any general expansion of landscape-scale fire in grassy biomes. Rather, tree loss anomalies centred in forests, and could not be explained by landscape-scale fire escaping from savannas into forests. Unexpectedly, the highest tree loss anomalies on Madagascar (4.77×) occurred in environments without landscape-scale fire, where the role of small-scale fires (<21 h [0.21 km2 ]) is unknown. While landscape-scale fire declined across tropical grassy biomes, trends in tropical forests reflected important differences among regions, indicating a need to better understand regional variation in the anthropogenic drivers of forest loss and fire risk. Our new understanding of Madagascar's fire regimes offers two lessons with global implications: first, landscape-scale fire is declining across tropical grassy biomes and does not explain high tree loss anomalies on Madagascar. Second, landscape-scale fire is not uniformly associated with tropical forest loss, indicating a need for socio-ecological context in framing new narratives of fire and ecosystem degradation.

Drivers of tropical forest loss between 2008 and 2019

During December 2020, a crowdsourcing campaign to understand what has been driving tropical forest loss during the past decade was undertaken. For 2 weeks, 58 participants from several countries reviewed almost 115 K unique locations in the tropics, identifying drivers of forest loss (derived from the Global Forest Watch map) between 2008 and 2019. Previous studies have produced global maps of drivers of forest loss, but the current campaign increased the resolution and the sample size across the tropics to provide a more accurate mapping of crucial factors leading to forest loss. The data were collected using the Geo-Wiki platform (www.geo-wiki.org) where the participants were asked to select the predominant and secondary forest loss drivers amongst a list of potential factors indicating evidence of visible human impact such as roads, trails, or buildings. The data described here are openly available and can be employed to produce updated maps of tropical drivers of forest loss, which in turn can be used to support policy makers in their decision-making and inform the public.

Multi-objective forest restoration planning in Costa Rica: Balancing landscape connectivity and ecosystem service provisioning with sustainable development

Degradation, fragmentation, and loss of tropical forests has exponentially increased in the last decades leading to unprecedented rates of species extinctions and loss of ecosystems functions and services. Forest restoration is key to recover ecosystems health and achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals. However, restoring forests at the landscape scale presents many challenges, since it requires balancing conservation goals and economic development. In this study, we used a spatial planning tool (Marxan) to identify priority areas for restoration satisfying multiple objectives across a biological corridor in Costa Rica. Biological corridors are critical conservation instruments promoting forest connectivity while acknowledging human presence. Increasing forest connectivity requires restoration initiatives that will likely conflict with other land uses, some of them of high national economic importance. Our restoration plan sought to maximize the provision of forest-related services (i.e., seed dispersal, tourism and carbon storage) while minimizing the impact on current land uses and thus avoiding potential conflicts. We quantified seed dispersal and tourism services (birdwatching potential) using species distribution models. We used the carbon sequestration model of InVEST to quantify carbon storage potential. We tested different restoration scenarios that differed in whether land opportunity costs of current uses were considered or not when identifying potential restoration areas, or how these costs were estimated. We showed how a landscape-scale forest restoration plan accounting for only forest connectivity and ecosystem service provision capacity can greatly differ from a plan that considers the potential impacts on local livelihoods. Spatial planning tools can assist at designing cost-effective landscape-scale forest restoration plans, identifying priority areas where forest restoration can maximize ecosystem provision and increase forest connectivity. Special care must be paid to the use of adequate estimates of opportunity cost, to avoid potential conflicts between restoration goals and other legitimate land uses.

A Continental Assessment of the Drivers of Tropical Deforestation With a Focus on Protected Areas

Deforestation contributes to global greenhouse gas emissions and must be reduced if the 1.5°C limit to global warming is to be realized. Protected areas represent one intervention for decreasing forest loss and aiding conservation efforts, yet there is intense human pressure on at least one-third of protected areas globally. There have been numerous studies addressing the extent and identifying drivers of deforestation at the local, regional, and global level. Yet few have focused on drivers of deforestation in protected areas in high thematic detail. Here we use a new crowdsourced data set on drivers of tropical forest loss for the period 2008–2019, which has been collected using the Geo-Wiki crowdsourcing application for visual interpretation of very high-resolution imagery by volunteers. Extending on the published data on tree cover and forest loss from the Global Forest Change initiative, we investigate the dominant drivers of deforestation in tropical protected areas situated within 30° north and south of the equator. We find the deforestation rate in protected areas to be lower than the continental average for the Latin Americas (3.4% in protected areas compared to 5.4%) and Africa (3.3% compared to 3.9%), but it exceeds that of unprotected land in Asia (8.5% compared to 8.1%). Consistent with findings from foregoing studies, we also find that pastures and other subsistence agriculture are the dominant deforestation driver in the Latin Americas, while forest management, oil palm, shifting cultivation and other subsistence agriculture dominate in Asia, and shifting cultivation and other subsistence agriculture is the main driver in Africa. However, we find contrasting results in relation to the degree of protection, which indicate that the rate of deforestation in Latin America and Africa in strictly protected areas might even exceed that of areas with no strict protection. This crucial finding highlights the need for further studies based on a bottom up crowdsourced, data collection approach, to investigate drivers of deforestation both inside and outside protected areas.

Space-Time Dynamics of Land Use in the Municipality of Goianésia Do Pará, Brazil

Hydroelectric energy generates more than 50% of all renewable electricity in the world. The Amazon is home to a large part of these ventures, promoted as a strategy of energy independence in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the countries of the region. However, these hydroelectric plants lead to changes in land cover, fragmentation, degradation, and loss of tropical forests. This article analyzes the spatial pattern of alterations in the land cover of the municipality of Goianésia do Pará, one of the seven municipalities affected by the artificial lake of the Tucuruí hydroelectric plant. This case study integrates remote sensing and landscape metrics to identify, quantify, and spatialize the loss of tropical forest within the municipality by using satellite images of the TM-Landsat 5, ETM+-Landsat 7 and OLI-Landsat 8 sensors. The results show that the average deforestation rates were high in the first two periods: 1984–1988 (23,101.2 ha per year) and 1988–1999 (13,428.6 ha per year). However, this rate drastically fell in the last period because, by 2010, more than 60% of the territory was already deforested, which shows the consolidation of the municipality’s deforestation process.