Deforestation and Reforestation of Latin America and the Caribbean (2001-2010)

• Published in: Biotropica Vol. 45; no. 2; pp. 262 - 271
• Main Authors: Aide, T. Mitchell, Clark, Matthew L., Grau, H. Ricardo, López-Carr, David, Levy, Marc A., Redo, Daniel, Bonilla-Moheno, Martha, Riner, George, Andrade-Núñez, María J., Muñiz, María
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Hoboken, NJ Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.03.2013; Wiley Subscription Services; Wiley; Wiley Subscription Services, Inc
• Subjects: Agricultural land; Animal, plant and microbial ecology; Applied ecology; Biological and medical sciences; Biomes; Cities; Conservation, protection and management of environment and wildlife; Deforestation; Dry forests; food production and consumption; forest cover; Forestry; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; General aspects; General forest ecology; Generalities. Production, biomass. Quality of wood and forest products. General forest ecology; globalization; land change; MODIS; population; Population density; Population dynamics; Random Forests; Reforestation; Tropical Conservation; Tropical forests; Vegetation; America; Latin America; South America; Caribbean Region; ASW, Caribbean Sea; Deforestation; Forests; Tropical zone; globalization; food production and consumption; Random Forests; Food production; Afforestation; MODIS; land change; population; Food intake; forest cover
• ISSN: 0006-3606; 1744-7429
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1744-7429.2012.00908.x

Forest cover change directly affects biodiversity, the global carbon budget, and ecosystem function. Within Latin American and the Caribbean region (LAC), many studies have documented extensive deforestation, but there are also many local studies reporting forest recovery. These contrasting dynamics have been largely attributed to demographic and socio-economic change. For example, local population change due to migration can stimulate forest recovery, while the increasing global demand for food can drive agriculture expansion. However, as no analysis has simultaneously evaluated deforestation and reforestation from the municipal to continental scale, we lack a comprehensive assessment of the spatial distribution of these processes. We overcame this limitation by producing wall-to-wall, annual maps of change in woody vegetation and other land-cover classes between 2001 and 2010 for each of the 16,050 municipalities in LAC, and we used nonparametric Random Forest regression analyses to determine which environmental or population variables best explained the variation in woody vegetation change. Woody vegetation change was dominated by deforestation (—541,835 km 2 ), particularly in the moist forest, dry forest, and savannas/shrublands biomes in South America. Extensive areas also recovered woody vegetation (+362,430 km 2 ), particularly in regions too dry or too steep for modern agriculture. Deforestation in moist forests tended to occur in lowland areas with low population density, but woody cover change was not related to municipality-scale population change. These results emphasize the importance of quantitating deforestation and reforestation at multiple spatial scales and linking these changes with global drivers such as the global demand for food.