Forest transitions, trade, and the global displacement of land use

Abstract

Reducing tropical deforestation is an international priority, given its impacts on carbon emissions and biodiversity. We examined whether recent forest transitions—a shift from net deforestation to net reforestation—involved a geographic displacement of forest clearing across countries through trade in agricultural and forest products. In most of the seven developing countries that recently experienced a forest transition, displacement of land use abroad accompanied local reforestation. Additional global land-use change embodied in their net wood trade offset 74% of their total reforested area. Because the reforesting countries continued to export more agricultural goods than they imported, this net displacement offset 22% of their total reforested area when both agriculture and forestry sectors are included. However, this net displacement increased to 52% during the last 5 y. These countries thus have contributed to a net global reforestation and/or decrease in the pressure on forests, but this global environmental benefit has been shrinking during recent years. The net decrease in the pressure on forests does not account for differences in their ecological quality. Assessments of the impacts of international policies aimed at reducing global deforestation should integrate international trade in agricultural and forest commodities.

Framing Sustainability in a Telecoupled World

“…Studies at the global and national scales can provide a broad context of telecouplings, while studies at regional and local scales can achieve detailed understanding of coupled systems, flows, agents, causes, and effects of telecouplings in particular systems. For example, although there have been studies at the international level on displacement of land use (Meyfroidt et al 2010, Lambin and Meyfroidt 2011), especially deforestation (DeFries et al 2010, few studies at the national, regional, and local scales have been simultaneously linked to global-scale analyses (Rudel 2005, DeFries et al 2010. By taking a multiscale systems approach, it is possible to trace telecouplings.…”

“…For example, even though global trade is widely studied, many of its effects remain unknown. Although accounting for the land area necessary to produce traded agricultural products is useful (Meyfroidt et al 2010), it does not measure many important environmental and socioeconomic effects because it does not consider the large differences among land-cover types in carbon stocks, biogeochemistry, and human well-being (Meyfroidt et al 2010). Furthermore, in most studies, spillover systems have not been considered or recognized.…”

Exploring the links between forest transition and landscape changes in the Mediterranean. Does forest recovery really lead to better landscape quality?

“…Furthermore, lower pressures on forests in transition have often been reached, at least in part, by importing wood products from countries with declining forests, thus the potential of global forests return may be lower than suggested by national trajectories (Meyfroidt et al 2010;Kastner et al 2011). Some authors suggest that forest transitions should be enhanced by policymakers given their potential for slowing down soil erosion, improving water quality, and slowing climate change through carbon sequestration (Rudel et al 2005).…”

中国劳动力转移对森林转型的影响

“…http://www.resci.cn 至 15% [9] 条重要的经验路径 [14] 。Lambin 等作出进一步扩展， 总结出五种森林转型路径： 森林稀缺路径、 国家森 林政策路径、 经济发展路径、 土地利用集约化路径 和全球化路径 [15] 。其中， 森林稀缺路径认为林产品 或森林生态服务的稀缺会提高林产品价格， 从而激 励政府或私人部门实施有效的造林计划， 促进森林 资源增长 [14,16] [17][18][19] ； 经济发展路径关注经济增长和城市化水平 的提高对森林资源恢复的影响 [10][11][12] ； 土地利用集约 化路径关注耕地的生产效率以及耕地与林业用地 间相互转化关系 [20][21][22] 。 在上述路径中， 森林转型的全球化路径是当前 学术界研究的前沿问题。现有研究主要关注农林 产品贸易及相关 "溢出效应" [23][24][25] ， 侨汇经济增长 [26] ， 国外移民 [27， 28] ， 以及国际旅游发展 [29] 等因素对森林转 型的影响。在全球化的影响下， 人口流动目的地从 本国城市扩展到国外经济发达地区， 追求高收入的 劳动力可从国外汇款到农村地区， 从而减少生计对 当地森林等自然资源的压力 [30] 。在塞尔瓦多， 收到 汇款的家庭砍伐相对较少的森林 [11] 。全球旅游业的 发展则有助于生态保护理念的传播 [31] 。 "溢出效应"…”