{"id":1006,"date":"2021-04-03T23:25:01","date_gmt":"2021-04-03T23:25:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/eos.co.id\/main\/?p=1006"},"modified":"2021-04-03T23:25:01","modified_gmt":"2021-04-03T23:25:01","slug":"scientists-calculate-trade-related-deforestation-footprint-of-rich-countries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eos.co.id\/main\/uncategorized\/scientists-calculate-trade-related-deforestation-footprint-of-rich-countries\/","title":{"rendered":"Scientists calculate trade-related \u2018deforestation footprint\u2019 of rich countries"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Source >>><\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

A new study has found that the UK, Germany, France, Italy and Japan ‘imported’ more than 90% their national deforestation footprints from abroad between 2001 and 2015, most of which were from tropical forests.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"Deforestation
Deforestation in the Philippines. Image: fazon1<\/a>, CC BY-NC-ND 3.0<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

By Ayesha Tandon, Carbon BriefApril 1, 2021<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many developed countries are \u201cencouraging\u201d deforestation in poorer nations through international trade, new research shows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Agriculture and forestry are responsible for 80 per cent of global deforestation<\/a> (pdf). This is mainly driven by demand for goods \u2013 including coffee, chocolate, cattle, soy, palm oil and timber \u2013 that are often then traded and consumed in countries around the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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CARBON & CLIMATE<\/a><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Tree planting can help tropical forests \u2018recover 50% faster\u2019 from logging<\/a><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

 Read now<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The new study \u2013 published in Nature Ecology and Evolution<\/a> \u2013 calculates the \u201cdeforestation footprints\u201d of individual countries, comparing their domestic deforestation to that which they \u201cimport\u201d from abroad through their consumption of foreign-made products.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The UK, Germany, France, Italy and Japan \u201cimported\u201d more than 90 per cent of their national deforestation footprints from abroad between 2001 and 2015, the study finds, of which between 46 per cent and 57 per cent was from tropical forests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe wish people would think more about deforestation before buying and consuming forest-risk commodities,\u201d the lead author of the study tells Carbon Brief. He warns that \u201cobtaining net forest gains domestically, but expanding non-domestic deforestation footprints \u2013 especially in the tropics \u2013 might do more harm than good for climate change mitigation\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Imported deforestation\u2019<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Forests cover 31 per cent<\/a> of the global land surface and provide important services, such as sequestering carbon<\/a> and protecting biodiversity<\/a>. However, deforestation is now one of the largest sources<\/a> of greenhouse-gas emissions on the planet. A report<\/a> from the UN Food and Agricultural Organisation<\/a> estimates that only around half of the world\u2019s forests are still \u201crelatively intact\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Previous research suggests that 29-39 per cent<\/a> of deforestation-related emissions are driven by international trade. However, while forest clearance often takes place in developing nations, the demand for commodities generally comes from richer countries<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr Daniel Moran<\/a> \u2013 a researcher from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology<\/a> who was not involved in the study \u2013 explains that developed countries are driving deforestation overseas through consumer choices:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s easy to look at the farmers, foresters and countries where deforestation is occurring and wish they would stop. But they are responding to signals from the global market. We are buying their soy as feed for our hamburgers and salmon and their palm oil as input to our lipstick.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The new study estimates how much deforestation countries \u201cimport\u201d through the logging associated with the goods they receive in trade. The authors then calculate a country\u2019s \u201cdeforestation footprint\u201d from its \u201cimported deforestation\u201d plus any domestic deforestation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The maps below show the cumulative deforestation footprints of China, Brazil, Germany, Singapore, Japan and the US for 2001-15. The shading shows where each country\u2019s deforestation footprint originates and the scale of forest loss it drives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This map is developed using forest loss data<\/a>, analysis of the drivers of deforestation<\/a> and a global supply chain model<\/a>. For this study, \u201cdeforestation\u201d is defined as a grid square in which all vegetation above five metres in height has been cleared.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The study is global, and calculates deforestation footprints for a range of countries. However, the authors also focus on these six countries because Japan, the US, Germany and China are currently the world\u2019s four largest economies. Meanwhile, Brazil is home to the world\u2019s largest area of tropical rainforest and Singapore is classified as one of the four \u201cAsian Tigers<\/a>\u201d due to its rapid economic growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most timber products from the Atlantic forest<\/a> in Brazil are used locally, the study finds, but demand for soy and beef in the US, China and countries throughout the European Union also drive Brazilian deforestation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More than half of Earth\u2019s remaining tropical rainforests are located in the Amazon Basin, where deforestation has \u201cincreased sharply\u201d under the presidency of Jair Bolsonaro, the study notes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The map also shows a strong US influence in Canada which, according to the study, is because the US is the primary export destination for Canada\u2019s forest products. The US has the most clearly distinguishable footprint, the study adds, importing timber from Cambodia, rubber and related products from Liberia, edible fruits and nuts from Guatemala and soy and beef from Brazil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

China, South Korea and Japan also engage in \u201ctimber exploitation\u201d in north Vietnam, the paper adds, while Germany poses the highest risk to forests in C\u00f4te d\u2019Ivoire and Ghana through its demand for cocoa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The deforestation leaderboard<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

The plot below shows how national deforestation footprints have changed between 2001 and 2015 for the six focus countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The chart shows the scale of the deforestation footprints of the US (pink line) and Brazil (blue), while also highlighting how China\u2019s (red) has increased steadily since 2001.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The study notes that China \u2013 along with India and many developed countries \u2013 have increased their imported deforestation while also seeing forest gains within their borders. In 2014, for example, China and India\u2019s imported deforestation was more than six times their 2001 levels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moran tells Carbon Brief that these findings for India and China are \u201cfascinating\u201d:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is a potentially delicate situation \u2013 the countries have realised net afforestation at home, but their global deforestation footprint has actually grown due to outsourcing\u2026 the fact that the environmental damage is being done elsewhere makes it more difficult \u2013 both morally and logistically \u2013 to motivate political change at home.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The authors also look at each country\u2019s per-capita (per person) deforestation levels. The plots below show the number of trees lost (left) and the area of forest removed in metres squared (right) for 24 countries in 2015. The blue bars show domestic deforestation and red show imported (\u201cnon-domestic\u201d) deforestation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is worth noting that these figures only show the absolute forest losses without compensating for forest restoration<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"poor<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Residents in G7 countries<\/a> drove an average loss of 3.9 trees or 58m2 of forest per capita through their consumption patterns in 2015, the results show, with the per-capita tree loss of the US in 2015 clocking in at twice that of Japan, Germany, France or the UK.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tree loss in Singapore was almost entirely imported from south-east Asia, the study notes. Meanwhile, Brazilian deforestation was predominantly categorised as domestic \u2013 although much of it was the result of producing goods that would be exported.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tropical deforestation<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

To explore the impacts of deforestation from different types of forests, the authors define six forest \u201cdomains\u201d using data from the US environmental organisation the Nature Conservancy<\/a> \u2013 tropical, temperate, boreal, mangroves, mediterranean and \u201cother\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While global deforestation is decreasing<\/a> overall, the study finds that imports of tropical deforestation-related commodities are on the rise. Most developed countries and China have become \u201cmajor\u201d importers of tropical deforestation-related commodities, while developing countries such as Brazil are \u201cmajor\u201d exporters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tropical forests are the most threatened by supply chains in many countries, the study says. For example, for 2015, the research shows that Japan, Germany, France, the UK and Italy imported 91-99 per cent of their deforestation from abroad, of which 46\u201357 per cent was from tropical forests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prof Simon Lewis<\/a> \u2013 a researcher from the University of Leeds<\/a> and University College London<\/a> \u2013 wrote a Carbon Brief guest post<\/a> on tropical forests last year. In it, he explains that tropical forests are important carbon stores:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOf particular importance are intact tropical forests, which, according to a landmark paper published in 2011, absorbed 15 per cent of all human-generated CO2 emissions between 1990 and 2007.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lewis tells Carbon Brief that there are also human rights issues linked to tropical deforestation:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTropical deforestation is often linked to human rights abuses because much tropical deforestation is illegal, alongside better-known global impacts on climate change and biodiversity loss.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr Nguyen Tien Hoang<\/a> from the Research Institute for Humanity and Nature<\/a> is the lead author of the study. Hoang adds that tropical forests also \u201cstand out as the richest biodiverse ecosystems \u2013 harbouring 50-90 per cent of all terrestrial species\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The plot below shows the deforestation imports and exports from selected countries in 2001 and 2015. Bars to the left of the y-axis indicate that the country is a net exporter of deforestation from the specified biome, while bars to the right indicate that it is a net importer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"poor<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The plot shows that deforestation for the countries listed is more significant for tropical forests than for any other biome. Furthermore, while exports of tropical deforestation decreased in Brazil between 2001 and 2015, imports increased in this time in the US, China, Japan, Germany and Singapore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ending deforestation \u2018essential\u2019 for net-zero<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis study shows us a way forward\u201d, Moran tells Carbon Brief:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt shines a light on these complex global supply chains and shows us which purchases induce deforestation. The way their methods expose the complete supply chains means that consumers, companies and governments at the producer, trade and consumer points of the supply chain can all recognise their role and be given a voice.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hoang tells Carbon Brief that the responsibility of reducing deforestation \u201cmay have to be shared between the public and private sectors and between producers and consumers\u201d and notes that developed nations need to help developing countries to protect their forests:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDeveloped countries have strong financial and legal foundations to reduce their deforestation footprints. Conversely, forest protection at the tropics, mainly including poor and developing countries, requires long-term and comprehensive solutions, along with significant funding. There is a need for resource sharing from developed countries to protect forests in tropical countries.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEnding deforestation is an essential part of achieving net-zero emissions and stabilising our climate,\u201d Lewis tells Carbon Brief. He adds the tackling the deforestation caused by agriculture will be key:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe key implication of the findings is the need for deforestation-free supplies of agricultural products to feed 7.8 billion people globally. This will require interlocking and reinforcing policies, from clear land tenure in tropical forest regions to tracing product supply chains, alongside tackling food waste and some people changing diets away from high meat consumption because this meat production is a very inefficient use of land.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, Dr Niki De Sy<\/a> \u2013 an associate professor at Wageningen University and Research<\/a> who was not involved in the study \u2013 tells Carbon Brief that as well as the national trends shown in this paper, more specific monitoring will be needed to help make policy decisions regarding deforestation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She adds that the paper \u201cvery nicely shows\u201d the importance of looking at deforestation in terms of global supply chains, and notes that international climate change and deforestation policy is currently focused on national commitments:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis paper shows that as an underlying driver, international trade should not be ignored, and that consumer countries should play a role to \u2013 or be held accountable \u2013 for part of that deforestation as well. For me this illustrates that as long as the \u2018business as usual\u2019 around commodities linked with deforestation does not change, it will find a way of least resistance.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This story was published with permission from<\/em> Carbon Brief.<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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