New study confirms agricultural expansion remains the biggest driver of deforestation and identifies future risk areas in Africa
Deforestation is complex and has many underlying causes; therefore, it is important to understand any recurring patterns and correlations that can help countries to tailor their efforts towards reducing the loss of forests and its associated carbon emission. With the goal to identify such patterns and use them to manage the world’s forests sustainably in the future, a new study “Global deforestation patterns: comparing recent and past forest loss processes through a spatially explicit analysis” by Marieke Sandker, Yelena Finegold, Remi d'Annunzio, and Erik Lindquist was recently published by International Forestry Review.
The study compares several global FAO products to assess drivers of historical and contemporary deforestation. The technique identifies forests under pressure, creating a deforestation risk map for Africa.