The drivers of tree cover expansion: global, temperate and tropical zones analysis

RUDEL, TK; GRAU, HR; CHAZDON R; SLOAN S

LAND USE POLICY

PERGAMON

Lugar: Oxford; Año: 2016 vol. 58 p. 502 - 513

0264-8377

This paper uses new, high resolution satellite-derived data to explore recent cross-national differences in expanding tree cover. Increases in tree cover have concentrated in nations with recent histories of extensive deforestation, humid climates, high crop yields, small numbers of farm workers, and declining rural populations. The associations of expanded tree cover with high yields for cereal crops and small populations of cultivators suggests a dynamic, sometimes referred to as a forest transition, in which urbanization and industrialization promote an expansion in tree cover. The association of tree cover gains with tree cover losses and humid climates suggests a second dynamic, a recurrent, corporate-led regrowth in which tree cover gains occur with regrowth after harvests by loggers and plantation owners. The forest transition dynamic suggests that smallholders would allow tree cover to expand on their lands if payments for environmental services were available. The iterative, corporate-led cycles of tree cover losses followed by tree cover gains raises important research questions about the implications of corporate-led land use conversions into plantations for biodiversity, carbon sequestration, and social justice.