Global Economic and Diet Transitions Drive Latin American and Caribbean Forest Change during the First Decade of the Century: A Multi-Scale Analysis of Socioeconomic, Demographic, and Environmental Drivers of Local Forest Cover Change

David López-Carr, Sadie J. Ryan and Matthew L. Clark
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David López-Carr: Department of Geography, University of California at Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA
Sadie J. Ryan: Department of Geography, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32601, USA
Matthew L. Clark: Center for Interdisciplinary Geospatial Analysis, Department of Geography, Environment, and Planning, Sonoma State University, Rohnert Park, CA 94928, USA

Land, 2022, vol. 11, issue 3, 1-11

Abstract: Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) contain more tropical high-biodiversity forest than the remaining areas of the planet combined, yet experienced more than a third of global deforestation during the first decade of the 21st century. While drivers of forest change occur at multiple scales, we examined forest change at the municipal and national scales integrated with global processes such as capital, commodity, and labor flows. We modeled multi-scale socioeconomic, demographic, and environmental drivers of local forest cover change. Consistent with LAC’s global leadership in soy and beef exports, primarily to China, Russia, the US, and the EU, national-level beef and soy production were the primary land use drivers of decreased forest cover. National level gross domestic product (GDP), migrant worker remittances and foreign investment, along with municipal-level temperature and area, were also significantly related to reduced forest cover. This challenges forest transition frameworks, which theorize that rising GDP and intensified agricultural production should be increasingly associated with forest regrowth. Instead, LAC forest change was linked to local, national, and global demographic, dietary and economic transitions, resulting in massive net forest cover loss. This suggests an urgent need to reconcile forest conservation with mounting global demand for animal protein.

Keywords: economic transition; diet transition; forest change; Latin America; Caribbean; deforestation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jlands:v:11:y:2022:i:3:p:326-:d:756510

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