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

• Autores: Aide, T. Mitchell; Clark, Matthew L.; Grau, Hector Ricardo; López Carr, David; Levy, Marc A.; Redo, Daniel; Bonilla Moheno, Martha; Riner, George; Andrade Núñez, María J.; Múñiz, María
• Año de publicación: 2012
• Idioma: inglés
• Tipo de recurso: artículo
• Materia: Deforestation; Reforestation; Latin America; Land Use Change
• Institución: Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas

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 km2 ), particularly in the moist forest, dry forest, and savannas/shrublands biomes in South America. Extensive areas also recovered woody vegetation (+362,430 km2 ), 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.
Fil: Aide, T. Mitchell. Universidad de Puerto Rico; Puerto Rico
Fil: Clark, Matthew L.. Sonoma State University; Estados Unidos
Fil: Grau, Hector Ricardo. Universidad Nacional de Tucumán. Instituto de Ecología Regional. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Tucumán. Instituto de Ecología Regional.; Argentina
Fil: López Carr, David. University of California; Estados Unidos
Fil: Levy, Marc A.. Columbia University; Estados Unidos
Fil: Redo, Daniel. Universidad de Puerto Rico; Puerto Rico
Fil: Bonilla Moheno, Martha. Instituto de Ecología; México
Fil: Riner, George. Sonoma State University; Estados Unidos
Fil: Andrade Núñez, María J.. Universidad de Puerto Rico; Puerto Rico
Fil: Múñiz, María. Columbia University; Estados Unidos