Search

• Tropical deforestation for agriculture and tree plantations releases 2.6 GtCO 2 yr. • 29–39% of emissions are driven by international trade, mainly in beef and oilseeds. • Deforestation emissions make up large share of carbon footprint of forest-risk commodities. • A sixth of the carbon footprint of av. EU diets is due to deforestation emissions. • Imported deforestation emissions rival domestic agricultural emissions in many countries. Deforestation, the second largest source of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions, is largely driven by expanding forestry and agriculture. However, despite agricultural expansion being increasingly driven by foreign demand, the links between deforestation and foreign demand for agricultural commodities have only been partially mapped. Here we present a pan-tropical quantification of carbon emissions from deforestation associated with the expansion of agriculture and forest plantations, and trace embodied emissions through global supply chains to consumers. We find that in the period 2010–2014, expansion of agriculture and tree plantations into forests across the tropics was associated with net emissions of approximately 2.6 gigatonnes carbon dioxide per year. Cattle and oilseed products account for over half of these emissions. Europe and China are major importers, and for many developed countries, deforestation emissions embodied in imports rival or exceed emissions from domestic agriculture. Depending on the trade model used, 29–39% of deforestation-related emissions were driven by international trade. This is substantially higher than the share of fossil carbon emissions embodied in trade, indicating that efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from land-use change need to consider the role of international demand in driving deforestation. Additionally, we find that deforestation emissions are similar to, or larger than, other emissions in the carbon footprint of key forest-risk commodities. Similarly, deforestation emissions constitute a substantial share (˜15%) of the total carbon footprint of food consumption in EU countries. This highlights the need for consumption-based accounts to include emissions from deforestation, and for the implementation of policy measures that cross these international supply-chains if deforestation emissions are to be effectively reduced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Trade liberalization has greatly accelerated the volume of traded agricultural products in past decades. As land resources become more limited in some countries, international trade plays an important role in compensating for land scarcity in these countries. This paper aims to measure and locate the virtual land use hidden in China''s imports and exports, for both primary crops and processed products, from 1986 to 2009. The results show that as China''s crop imports had grown greatly during the last decade, the net virtual land trade hidden in international trade had increased from −4.42Mha in 1986 to 28.90Mha in 2009. The main category of virtual land imports had changed from cereals to oil crops, which accounted for 82.2% of the total virtual land imports in 2009. Over the two decades the main source of virtual land imports had changed from North America to both South America and North America. International trade could also lower demand for land resources at the global level: our results showed that China''s crop trade was contributing to global land savings by 3.27Mha on annual average during 1986–2009. Economic development, and associated dietary changes and policy shifts were linked to the change of China''s virtual land trade pattern. To make land use more sustainable at the global level, both importing and exporting countries of virtual land should consider ecological and socio-economic impacts of these trade flows in their policies. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]