Academic literature on the topic 'Imported deforestation'

At COP26, the Glasgow Leaders Declaration committed to ending deforestation by 2030. Implementing deforestation-free supply chains is of growing importance to importers and exporters but challenging due to the complexity of supply chains for agricultural commodities which are driving tropical deforestation. Monitoring tools are needed that alert companies of forest losses around their source farms. ForestMind has developed compliance monitoring tools for deforestation-free supply chains. The system delivers reports to companies based on automated satellite image analysis of forest loss around farms. We describe an algorithm based on the Python for Earth Observation (PyEO) package to deliver near-real-time forest alerts from Sentinel-2 imagery and machine learning. A Forest Analyst interprets the multi-layer raster analyst report and creates company reports for monitoring supply chains. We conclude that the ForestMind extension of PyEO with its hybrid change detection from a random forest model and NDVI differencing produces actionable farm-scale reports in support of the EU Deforestation Regulation. The user accuracy of the random forest model was 96.5% in Guatemala and 93.5% in Brazil. The system provides operational insights into forest loss around source farms in countries from which commodities are imported.

Background: Commodity-driven deforestation is a major driver of forest loss worldwide, and globalisation has increased the disconnect between producer and consumer countries. Recent due-diligence legislation aiming to improve supply chain sustainability covers major forest-risk commodities. However, the evidence base for specific commodities included within policy needs assessing to ensure effective reduction of embedded deforestation. Methods: We conducted a rapid evidence synthesis in October 2020 using three databases; Google Scholar, Web of Science, and Scopus, to assess the literature and identify commodities with the highest deforestation risk linked to UK imports. Inclusion criteria include publication in the past 10 years and studies that didn’t link commodity consumption to impacts or to the UK were excluded. The development of a review protocol was used to minimise bias and critical appraisal of underlying data and methods in studies was conducted in order to assess the uncertainties around results. Results: From a total of 318 results, 17 studies were included in the final synthesis. These studies used various methodologies and input data, yet there is broad alignment on commodities, confirming that those included in due diligence legislation have a high deforestation risk. Soy, palm oil, and beef were identified as critical, with their production being concentrated in just a few global locations. However, there are also emerging commodities that have a high deforestation risk but are not included in legislation, such as sugar and coffee. These commodities are much less extensively studied in the literature and may warrant further research and consideration. Conclusion: Policy recommendations in the selected studies suggests further strengthening of the UK due diligence legislation is needed. In particular, the provision of incentives for uptake of policies and wider stakeholder engagement, as well as continual review of commodities included to ensure a reduction in the UK’s overseas deforestation footprint.

Abstract Consumer countries and blocs, including the UK and the EU, are defining legal measures to tackle deforestation linked to commodity imports, potentially requiring imported goods to comply with the relevant producer countries’ land-use laws. Nonetheless, this measure is insufficient to address global deforestation. Using Brazil’s example of a key exporter of forest-risk commodities, here we show that it has ∼3.25 Mha of natural habitat (storing ∼152.8 million tons of potential CO2 emissions) at a high risk of legal deforestation until 2025. Additionally, the country’s legal framework is going through modifications to legalize agricultural production in illegally deforested areas. What was illegal may become legal shortly. Hence, a legality criterion adopted by consumer countries is insufficient to protect forests and other ecosystems and may worsen deforestation and conversion risks by incentivizing the weakening of social-environmental protection by producer countries.

Tropical rainforest deforestation is a major problem in many tropical regions and can have major impacts on system ecology and long term soil productivity. This paper examines the trend of increased colonization of tropical rainforest regions and the resulting effects on long term natural system productivity in these areas. It also explores the impact of conventional agricultural practices, the majority of which were developed in temperate climates, when employed in a tropical context. International trends in the consumption of imported tropical wood and rainforest products are also suggested as a major culprit for increased tropical deforestation. Reduction in international rainforest product consumption and greater awareness on the part of Western consumers as to the impacts of tropical deforestation are suggested as potential solutions to reduce this problem.

Plant-based meat alternatives from grain legumes and oil crops are expected to play an increasing role in human nutrition. Several commercially available products use pea protein isolate as protein basis and rapeseed oil as lipid basis. The aim of the present study is to estimate the prospective area of peas and rapeseed for plant-based meat alternatives in the EU. A simple calculation model is employed to assess the impacts on land use and imported deforestation, in case plant-based meat alternatives substitute meat consumption in different shares. Various data sources and scenarios were used to estimate the cultivation potential. While pea acreage would increase considerably compared to current production, additional rapeseed acreage would be more limited. Even in an extreme scenario of 100% substitution only 12% of EU’s arable land would be used for pea and rapeseed as main ingredients for plant-based meat alternative. If pea protein isolate and rapeseed oil as main ingredients of plan-based meat alternatives increase, the land currently used for animal feed production would become partly available and imported deforestation could be decreased: a substitution of 25% of meat consumption would allow to provide the equivalent of food proteins without extending the cultivated areas in Europe, while avoiding soybean and maize imports for feed.

This article analyses how the United Kingdom’s Due Diligence Regulations on Forest Risk Commodities (UKDR) relate to the bilateral soybean trade between Brazil and the UK. The findings strongly suggest that soybeans from Brazil are one of the main targets of the UK's new legislation. The crossing of literature, NGO reports, trade data, and open governmental and institutional documents showed that the UK highly relies on soybeans from South America to fulfil its internal animal protein food industry, with soybeans from Brazil being the second major case of the UK’s ‘imported deforestation’. Between 2020 and 2022, soybeans were also the second most exported product from Brazil to the UK, after gold, reinstating the Brazilian traditional place as an exporter of raw and essential commodities to developed countries. This article advocates that even though the new UKDR will affect Brazil disproportionally, compared to other agri-exporter countries, the legislation is not designed to challenge the soybeans economic model or deforestation on a broader aspect but to ‘clean’ UK’s agricultural supply chain from illegal tropical forest deforestation. The article's findings show that in the last five years (2017 -2022), the annual percentage of Brazilian soybean exports from states that comprise the Amazon biome, in part or wholly, to the UK was above 70% every year, a trend that does not follow Brazilian general soybean exports, suggesting that the UK may be more exposed to deforestation than other importing countries. The UK food industry could be financing an agricultural production model contributing to Amazon forest deforestation.

Abstract. Fluxes of organic and inorganic carbon within the Amazon basin are considerably controlled by annual flooding, which triggers the export of terrigenous organic material to the river and ultimately to the Atlantic Ocean. The amount of carbon imported to the river and the further conversion, transport and export of it depend on temperature, atmospheric CO2, terrestrial productivity and carbon storage, as well as discharge. Both terrestrial productivity and discharge are influenced by climate and land use change. The coupled LPJmL and RivCM model system (Langerwisch et al., 2016) has been applied to assess the combined impacts of climate and land use change on the Amazon riverine carbon dynamics. Vegetation dynamics (in LPJmL) as well as export and conversion of terrigenous carbon to and within the river (RivCM) are included. The model system has been applied for the years 1901 to 2099 under two deforestation scenarios and with climate forcing of three SRES emission scenarios, each for five climate models. We find that high deforestation (business-as-usual scenario) will strongly decrease (locally by up to 90 %) riverine particulate and dissolved organic carbon amount until the end of the current century. At the same time, increase in discharge leaves net carbon transport during the first decades of the century roughly unchanged only if a sufficient area is still forested. After 2050 the amount of transported carbon will decrease drastically. In contrast to that, increased temperature and atmospheric CO2 concentration determine the amount of riverine inorganic carbon stored in the Amazon basin. Higher atmospheric CO2 concentrations increase riverine inorganic carbon amount by up to 20 % (SRES A2). The changes in riverine carbon fluxes have direct effects on carbon export, either to the atmosphere via outgassing or to the Atlantic Ocean via discharge. The outgassed carbon will increase slightly in the Amazon basin, but can be regionally reduced by up to 60 % due to deforestation. The discharge of organic carbon to the ocean will be reduced by about 40 % under the most severe deforestation and climate change scenario. These changes would have local and regional consequences on the carbon balance and habitat characteristics in the Amazon basin itself as well as in the adjacent Atlantic Ocean.

Abstract. Fluxes of organic and inorganic carbon within the Amazon basin are considerably controlled by annual flooding, which triggers the export of terrigenous organic material to the river and ultimately to the Atlantic Ocean. The amount of carbon imported to the river and the further conversion, transport and export of it, depend on terrestrial productivity and discharge, as well as temperature and atmospheric CO2. Both terrestrial productivity and discharge are influenced by climate and land use change. To assess the impact of these changes on the riverine carbon dynamics, the coupled model system of LPJmL and RivCM (Langerwisch et al., 2015) has been used. Vegetation dynamics (in LPJmL) as well as export and conversion of terrigenous carbon to and within the river (RivCM) are included. The model system has been applied for the years 1901 to 2099 under two deforestation scenarios and with climate forcing of three SRES emission scenarios, each for five climate models. The results suggest that, following deforestation, riverine particulate and dissolved organic carbon will strongly decrease by up to 90 % until the end of the current century. In parallel, discharge increases, leading to roughly unchanged net carbon transport during the first decades of the century, as long as a sufficient area is still forested. During the following decades the amount of transported carbon will decrease drastically. In contrast to the riverine organic carbon, the amount of riverine inorganic carbon is only determined by climate change forcing, namely increased temperature and atmospheric CO2 concentration. Mainly due to the higher atmospheric CO2 it leads to an increase in riverine inorganic carbon by up to 20 % (SRES A2). The changes in riverine carbon fluxes have direct effects on the export of carbon, either to the atmosphere via outgassing, or to the Atlantic Ocean via discharge. Basin-wide the outgassed carbon will increase slightly, but can be regionally reduced by up to 60 % due to deforestation. The discharge of organic carbon to the ocean will be reduced by about 40 % under the most severe deforestation and climate change scenario. The changes would have local and regional consequences on the carbon balance and habitat characteristics in the Amazon basin itself but also in the adjacent Atlantic Ocean.

L'essor du commerce international du soja suscite une inquiétude croissante quant à son impact sur la déforestation, et par conséquent sur le climat et la biodiversité. Le rôle des consommateurs étrangers par le biais de leur demande de produits agricoles est crucial, ce qui révèle le poids considérable du commerce extérieur dans la déforestation. Ces constats marquent un changement dans la manière dont nous abordons la déforestation, passant d'un problème de gestion des ressources locales à une préoccupation internationale. Le concept de déforestation importée illustre ce changement de perspective. Cette thèse vise à éclairer les liens entre commerce et déforestation en se focalisant sur le commerce de soja en provenance du Brésil. À travers une approche empirique, elle explore ces liens à différents niveaux de la chaîne d'approvisionnement, de l'amont à l'aval.Le premier chapitre analyse les décisions de production et d'exportation en examinant les effets d'une politique brésilienne de conservation des forêts sur le secteur du soja. En 2008, le gouvernement a établi une liste des municipalités les plus vulnérables à la déforestation pour cibler les efforts de prévention et contrôle de la déforestation. Nous utilisons cette expérience quasi-naturelle pour estimer les impacts collatéraux de cette politique sur le secteur du soja et les changements d'usages des sols. Cette question de recherche permet d'aborder les tensions entre conservation de la nature et compétitivité internationale. Pour y répondre, nous recourons à des méthodes de double différences et de contrôle généralisé. Nos résultats indiquent que le secteur du soja a bénéficié de la politique en termes d'utilisation des terres, de production et d'exportations.Dans un monde où les perturbations des chaînes d'approvisionnement mondiales deviennent de plus en plus fréquentes, il est essentiel de comprendre comment ces chaînes s'ajustent. Le deuxième chapitre de cette thèse se penche sur la manière dont les chaînes d'approvisionnement en soja au Brésil réagissent aux chocs d'offre locaux, en prenant pour exemple les sécheresses. Les résultats révèlent que ces chocs entraînent une diminution des rendements, de la production et des exportations de soja au niveau des municipalités de production. Bien que les transactions avec les entreprises exportatrices puissent être affectées sur la marge intensive, cela n'impacte pas nécessairement l'existence des relations entre fournisseurs et acheteurs. Les entreprises exportatrices exposées à ces chocs montrent, en moyenne, une certaine résilience, en accroissant leurs achats auprès d'autres fournisseurs qui ne sont pas affectés. Cela soulève des questions pour les politiques contre la déforestation importée, notamment en ce qui concerne la concentration du marché, les frictions dans les réseaux d'approvisionnement, et les risques de délocalisation vers d'autres fournisseurs.Enfin, le troisième chapitre évalue la crédibilité des politiques de demande dans la lutte contre la déforestation liée à la production de soja, en analysant les liens entre demandes étrangères et production, et en en tirant des implications pour la déforestation. Nous constatons une élasticité moyenne positive des exportations de soja par rapport à la demande étrangère, ce qui confirme l'efficacité des politiques centrées sur la demande. Cependant, cette réponse moyenne dissimule des hétérogénéités entre les exportateurs et entre les municipalités brésiliennes. Les élasticités des exportations et le potentiel d'expansion du soja sont positivement corrélés, ce qui signifie que les endroits où les exportations réagissent fortement à la demande sont également ceux où il reste encore de vastes étendues forestières. Ainsi, de nombreuses municipalités présentent un potentiel élevé de réduction de la déforestation. Dans cette perspective, on peut s'attendre à ce que les politiques basées sur la demande contribuent à ralentir la déforestation au Brésil
The growth in international soy trade is giving rise to mounting concern about its impact on deforestation, and consequently on climate and biodiversity. The role of foreign consumers through their demand for agricultural products is crucial, revealing the considerable weight of foreign trade in deforestation. These findings mark a shift in the way we approach deforestation, from a local resource management issue to an international concern. The concept of imported deforestation illustrates this change in perspective. This thesis aims to shed light on the links between trade and deforestation by focusing on the soy trade in Brazil. Using an empirical approach, it explores these links at different levels of the supply chain, from upstream to downstream.The first chapter analyses production and export decisions by examining the effects of a Brazilian forest conservation policy on the soy sector. In 2008, the government drew up a list of municipalities most vulnerable to deforestation in order to target efforts to prevent and control deforestation. We draw on this quasi-natural experience to estimate the collateral impacts of this policy on the soy sector and changes in land use. This research question addresses the tensions between nature conservation, economic development and international competitiveness in an agricultural context. To answer this question, we use double difference and synthetic generalized control methods. Our results indicate that the soybean sector has benefited from the policy in terms of land use, production and exports.In a world where disruptions to global supply chains are becoming increasingly frequent, it is essential to understand how these chains adjust. The second chapter of this thesis looks at how soybean supply chains in Brazil respond to local supply shocks, using droughts as an example. The results indicate that these shocks lead to a reduction in soybean yields, production and exports at the level of the producing municipalities. Although transactions with exporting firms may be affected at the intensive margin, this does not necessarily affect the existence of relationships between suppliers and buyers. Exporting firms exposed to these shocks show, on average, some resilience by increasing their purchases from other unaffected suppliers. This raises questions for policies against imported deforestation, particularly with regard to market concentration, frictions in supply networks, and the risks of relocation to other suppliers.Finally, the third chapter investigates the credibility of demand policies in the fight against deforestation linked to soy production, by analysing the links between foreign demand and production, and drawing implications for deforestation. We find a positive average elasticity of soy exports with respect to foreign demand, which confirms the effectiveness of demand-side policies. However, this average response conceals heterogeneities among exporters and among Brazilian municipalities. Export elasticities and the potential for soy expansion are positively correlated, meaning that the places where exports respond strongly to demand are also those where there are still large areas of forest. Thus, many municipalities have a high potential for reducing deforestation. From this perspective, it is reasonable to expect that demand-side policies will help to slow deforestation in Brazil

A Teoria da Transição Florestal prevê recuperação das florestas a partir de alterações no foco da economia, onde os setores terciário e secundário substituiriam o setor primário. Críticos desta hipótese afirmam que a transição ocorre por meio do deslocamento da produção agropecuária ao exterior, enquanto os países produtores passariam por uma expansão da agricultura, perdendo cobertura florestal. Outros autores refutam o argumento de que o comércio internacional seria o principal canal de ligação entre a Transição Florestal em países importadores e o avanço das fronteiras agrícolas nos países produtores. Diante da divergência dos modelos explicativos, o presente estudo busca avaliar se o comércio internacional de commodities agrícolas promove o deslocamento das áreas de desmatamento de países importadores de commodities para países exportadores. Foram analisados dados de exportações e importações de soja em grão e óleo de palma pelos principais países nesses mercados, confrontando-os com dados de variação histórica da cobertura florestal nacional entre os anos de 1990 e 2015. Os resultados apontam que o comércio internacional de commodities agrícolas opera como um canal de realocação entre o ganho de florestas em países importadores e o desmatamento em países exportadores
The Forest Transition Theory predicts that forest recover arises from changes in the focus of the economy, where the service and industry sectors replace the agriculture sector. Critics affirm that the transition occurs through the displacement of agricultural production abroad, while producing countries would undertake agriculture an expansion and lose forest cover. Other authors refute the argument that international trade would be the main linkage between the Forest Transition occurrence in importing countries and the advance of agricultural frontiers in producing countries. Considering the divergence between explanatory models, this study seeks to assess whether the international trade of agricultural commodities promotes the displacement of deforestation areas from importing countries to commodity-exporting countries. Data of exports and imports of soya bean and palm oil from the main countries in these markets were confronted to the historical variation of national forest cover between 1990 and 2015. Results point out that international trade of agricultural commodities operates as a relocation channel between forest gains in importer countries and deforestation in exporter ones

AbstractCombining data from multiple sensors is the best way to increase data density and hence detect change faster. The purpose of this chapter is to demonstrate a simple method of combining Landsat, Sentinel-2, and Sentinel-1 data for monitoring tropical forest disturbance. You will learn how to import, preprocess, and fuse optical and synthetic aperture radar (SAR) remote sensing data. You will also learn how to monitor change using time-series models.

The word Amazonia conjures up diverse images, ranging from an exotic jungle to resources for development to a vast web of ecosystems that interact with global element cycles-the focus of this book. This chapter examines the biogeochemical role of extractive reserves, a relatively new land use type within Amazonia in which nontimber forest extraction is the defining human activity. The chapter also provides examples of how participatory research with local communities can enhance the quality of the results and improve their transmission to society. Humans have been a part of the Amazon for the past several thousand years. Amerindian activities have affected forest structure in significant manners by selective planting and clearing (Balée 1989) and by increasing fire frequency, particularly during mega-El Niño events (Meggers 1994). During the last few centuries, neo-Europeans have tragically reduced native indigenous populations by several million and made wide-scale transformations in the tropics of the Americas (Crosby 1993, Ribeiro 1996). The booms in rubber extraction in the late 1800s and during World War II brought waves of nonindigenous migrants to Brazilian Amazonia (Dean 1989). More recently, large-scale implantation of cattle ranching and colonization projects, and to a lesser degree, mining activity, have accelerated change in Amazonian landscapes (Schmink and Wood 1992). In addition, the ensuing road network and infrastructure left in the wake of these recent activities increased access to primary forest, precipitating further deforestation. By 1996, about 52 million hectares, nearly the size of France, had been deforested in Brazilian Amazonia (INPE 1998). At the average rate of deforestation from 1992 to 1996 (1.9 million hectares per year), another area equivalent to this figure will be added by the year 2025, a time frame within the career of many reading this book. Continuation of the present trends will result in an increasing savannization of the Amazonian region, with pastures, secondary forests, and crop lands expanding into areas once occupied by closed-canopy forests. This phenomenon may also be called the “Africanization” of Amazonia because most of the pastures are planted with grasses imported from Africa, such as Bracharia brisanthum, which are notably different in their response to rainfall patterns and to fire than the forests that they replace.

There is a growing wave of concern for the embodied carbon in traded goods. One manifestation of that concern is large economies such as the USA and the European Union enacting climate-related trade measures, including border carbon adjustment. This paper reviews more than ten climate-related trade measures that are currently enacted or under discussion globally and five initiatives from large companies to source low-carbon inputs. It then assesses Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, and Perus vulnerability to trade restrictions, based on estimated greenhouse gas intensity of their exported goods (using an input-output analysis) relative to other global producers, and an exposure analysis that assesses the likelihood that current importers of these products might implement climate-related trade measures. Finally, it reviews existing scenarios of global oil, natural gas and coal demand, and asks what they mean for fossil fuel exports from these countries. Agricultural goods stand out as vulnerable, as they are the main driver of deforestation and associated emissions. The most serious threat is the vulnerability of fossil fuel exports, primarily crude oil and gas, which dominate the four countries current exports. The paper exposes recommendations in terms of diversifying the economy away from fossil fuels and preparing exporters to comply with emerging climate-related trade restrictions.

As global trade markets have expanded, there has been an increasing volume of agricultural commodities and food products imported to, and exported from, the United Kingdom (UK). In response to these market and political changes, standards for imported foods are being implemented to control the trade of goods and services. Alongside the development and implementation of standards for imported foods, there has been a growing public desire to understand where the food we eat comes from, and increasingly, to understand not just the safety of food, but the inter-country variation in the sustainability of food production practices. For example, is a product sourced from one country comparable to another country in terms of animal welfare, environmental sustainability (for example, greenhouse gas emissions, deforestation, biodiversity etc.) and nutritional composition. To inform future research needs, the Food Standards Agency required a detailed understanding of the current data and literature landscape regarding imported food standards, with a particular focus on data availability around three themes: animal welfare, environmental sustainability, and nutritional composition. Data on food safety was not considered as part of the review as this has been well documented in previous research by the Food Standards Agency. To achieve the research needs, a review was undertaken to explore and assess measurable metrics, which could be used to measure and monitor the consistency or differences of imported food production standards across the three themes. The assessment of each theme was coupled with parameters relevant to imported food products consumed in the UK. In addition, the research aimed to inform data gaps and requirements. The information outlined in this report provides an independent assessment of how the three themes are currently considered within international imported food standards and trade agreements. The outputs will inform the Food Standard Agency’s 2023 Annual Review of Food Standards across the UK.