The coupling of South American soybean and cattle production frontiers: new challenges for conservation policy and land change science

Different drivers and places of land use change in South America have often been studied in isolation. Evidence suggests, however, that in many instances, both places and drivers are becoming increasingly interconnected. The growing diversification and internationalization of agricultural commodity chains is creating new linkages across production frontiers and sectors that have important implications for conservation. In this article, we explore the implications of the sectoral and geographical coupling of soybean and cattle production frontiers for forest conservation in South America, with particular attention to the potential for policy-induced deforestation leakage. We conclude that the existence of coupled frontiers creates a need for more actor-centered approaches to conservation policy and research.Fil: Gasparri, Nestor Ignacio. Universidad Nacional de Tucumán. Facultad de Ciencias Naturales e Instituto Miguel Lillo. Instituto de Ecología Regional; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Tucumán; ArgentinaFil: Le Polain de Waroux, Yann. University Of Stanford; Estados Unido

The restructuring of South American soy and beef production and trade under changing environmental regulations

In response to the extensive loss of forests caused by soy and cattle expansion in South America, several countries have increased their legal restrictions on deforestation, and stepped up their enforcement. In addition, in the Brazilian Amazon, new private agreements were initiated in 2006 and 2009 to limit the purchase of soy and cattle linked with deforestation. One concern is that such policies, because they are spatially heterogeneous or focus on a subset of relevant actors, might generate negative spillovers in the form of leakage of agricultural activities and deforestation to less-regulated areas, and/or a redistribution of non-compliant product sales to non-participants. In this study, we use panel data on soy and beef production and trade in agricultural frontiers of South America to examine how changes in deforestation regulations in South America have altered soy and cattle expansion and exports in this region, and to understand how these changes, if they have occurred, influence the overall effectiveness of deforestation regulations. We find no evidence of a change in soy or pasture area expansion patterns due to changes in regulations, except within the Amazon biome where pasture expansion slowed in response to more stringent regulations and coincided with pasture intensification. We do find, however, a decrease in beef imports from biomes with more stringent deforestation regulations. While this decrease may indicate the existence of leakage to countries outside the study area, it is likely offset by pasture intensification, continued opportunities for deforestation, and increasing domestic consumption from these biomes. These results point to the potential role of substitution effects between local and international consumer markets, and between different actors, in diminishing the overall effectiveness of deforestation regulations

Frontier metrics for a process-based understanding of deforestation dynamics

Agricultural expansion into tropical and subtropical forests often leads to major social-ecological trade-offs. Yet, despite ever-more detailed information on where deforestation occurs, how agriculture expands into forests remains unclear, which is hampered by a lack of spatially and temporally detailed reconstruction of agricultural expansion. Here, we developed and mapped a novel set of metrics that quantify agricultural frontier processes at unprecedented spatial and temporal detail. Specifically, we first derived consistent annual time series of land-use/cover to, second, describe archetypical patterns of frontier expansion, pertaining to the speed, the diffusion and activity of deforestation, as well as post-deforestation land use. We exemplify this approach for understanding agricultural frontier expansion across the entire South American Chaco (1.1 million km2), a global deforestation hotspot. Our study provides three major insights. First, agricultural expansion has been rampant in the Chaco, with more than 19.3 million ha of woodlands converted between 1985 and 2020, including a surge in deforestation after 2019. Second, land-use trajectories connected to frontier processes have changed in major ways over the 35 year study period we studied, including substantial regional variations. For instance, while ranching expansion drove most of the deforestation in the 1980s and 1990s, cropland expansion dominated during the mid-2000s in Argentina, but not in Paraguay. Similarly, 40% of all areas deforested were initially used for ranching, but later on converted to cropping. Accounting for post-deforestation land-use change is thus needed to properly attribute deforestation and associated environmental impacts, such as carbon emissions or biodiversity loss, to commodities. Finally, we identified major, recurrent frontier types that may be a useful spatial template for land governance to match policies to specific frontier situations. Collectively, our study reveals the diversity of frontier processes and how frontier metrics can capture and structure this diversity to uncover major patterns of human–nature interactions, which can be used to guide spatially-targeted policies.H2020 European Research Councilhttp://dx.doi.org/10.13039/100010663Belgian Federal Science Policy Officehttp://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100002749Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschunghttp://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100002347Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschafthttp://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100001659Peer Reviewe

Explaining the emergence of land-use frontiers

Land use expansion is linked to major sustainability concerns including climate change, food security and biodiversity loss. This expansion is largely concentrated in so-called frontiers, defined here as places experiencing marked transformations due to rapid resource exploitation. Understanding the mechanisms shaping these frontiers is crucial for sustainability. Previous work focused mainly on explaining how active frontiers advance, in particular into tropical forests. Comparatively, our understanding of how frontiers emerge in territories considered marginal in terms of agricultural productivity and global market integration remains weak. We synthesize conceptual tools explaining resource and land-use frontiers, including theories of land rent and agglomeration economies, of frontiers as successive waves, spaces of territorialization, friction, and opportunities, anticipation and expectation. We then propose a new theory of frontier emergence, which identifies exogenous pushes, legacies of past waves, and actors anticipations as key mechanisms by which frontiers emerge. Processes of abnormal rent creation and capture and the built-up of agglomeration economies then constitute key mechanisms sustaining active frontiers. Finally, we discuss five implications for the governance of frontiers for sustainability. Our theory focuses on agriculture and deforestation frontiers in the tropics, but can be inspirational for other frontier processes including for extractive resources, such as minerals

Criteria for effective zero-deforestation commitments

Zero-deforestation commitments are a type of voluntary sustainability initiative that companies adopt to signal their intention to reduce or eliminate deforestation associated with commodities that they produce, trade, and/or sell. Because each company defines its own zero-deforestation commitment goals and implementation mechanisms, commitment content varies widely. This creates challenges for the assessment of commitment implementation or effectiveness. Here, we develop criteria to assess the potential effectiveness of zero-deforestation commitments at reducing deforestation within a company supply chain, regionally, and globally. We apply these criteria to evaluate 52 zero-deforestation commitments made by companies identified by Forest 500 as having high deforestation risk. While our assessment indicates that existing commitments converge with several criteria for effectiveness, they fall short in a few key ways. First, they cover just a small share of the global market for deforestation-risk commodities, which means that their global impact is likely to be small. Second, biome-wide implementation is only achieved in the Brazilian Amazon. Outside this region, implementation occurs mainly through certification programs, which are not adopted by all producers and lack third-party near-real time deforestation monitoring. Additionally, around half of all commitments include zero-net deforestation targets and future implementation deadlines, both of which are design elements that may reduce effectiveness. Zero-net targets allow promises of future reforestation to compensate for current forest loss, while future implementation deadlines allow for preemptive clearing. To increase the likelihood that commitments will lead to reduced deforestation across all scales, more companies should adopt zero-gross deforestation targets with immediate implementation deadlines and clear sanction-based implementation mechanisms in biomes with high risk of forest to commodity conversion.ISSN:0959-3780ISSN:1872-949

Social and ecological change in the argan woodlands, Morocco

The argan (Argania spinosa) woodlands cover about 950,000 ha in South-West Morocco. Despite their social and ecological importance, they are said to have receded strongly during the last decades, among other things due to the expansion of irrigated crops, logging, and overgrazing. Empirical evidence and analyses of this decline, however, are still largely absent. This thesis contributes to the understanding of ecological and social change and their interrelations in dryland environments, with particular reference to the argan woodlands. By examining both social and ecological changes over the last half century, and linking these changes to dynamics at various scales, it tries to overcome disciplinary boundaries and build a comprehensive understanding of social and ecological change in the region, so as to inform policy and science. The thesis is organized in three parts. Part 1 focuses on the extent and proximate causes of the degradation of the argan woodlands, using remote sensing and field data. Part 2 looks at one aspect of globalization, the rise of niche products worldwide, including argan oil, and assesses its potential for poverty alleviation based on household interviews. Finally, part 3 examines the long-term development and conservation trends in the study area in a context of market integration. Beyond its regional implications, the case study thus provides important insights into three global processes: the degradation of dry woodlands; the rise of niche commodities; and livelihood transitions in ecologically marginal areas.(GEOG 3) -- UCL, 201

Dégradation environnementale et développement économique dans l'arganeraie d'Aoulouz (Maroc)

L’arganeraie du Sud-Ouest marocain a connu durant les dernières décennies un déclin important, dont l’étendue et les causes restent cependant encore insuffisamment connues. Cet article mesure la diminution de densité de l’arganeraie dans sa partie orientale, en analyse les causes et retrace ses liens à long terme avec le développement local. Il démontre qu’il est important de tenir compte de la multiplicité des facteurs de changements écologiques et sociaux afin de disposer d’une base de connaissances solides pour la prise de décision

Market Integration, Livelihood Transitions and Environmental Change in Areas of Low Agricultural Productivity: A Case Study from Morocco

Rural areas of the developing world have become increasingly integrated into the world economy through both production and consumption during the last decades. This growing integration shapes the development of communities and influences their relationship to the natural environment. Where livelihoods are constrained by resource limitations and the productivity of labor in farm activities is low, it may result in a shift to nonfarm activities, which may under some conditions improve wellbeing and relieve pressure on natural resources. The possibility of such a "win-win" development pathway has important implications for development and environmental policy. In this article we use original qualitative and quantitative data to examine environmental and social changes during the last half century in a rural area of Morocco, seeking evidence of such a pathway. While our case study supports the hypothesis that nonfarm diversification in a context of resource scarcity allowed people to improve their material living conditions, the effects of economic integration and nonfarm diversification on the environment were mixed. © 2013 Springer Science+Business Media New York

Niche Commodities and Rural Poverty Alleviation:Contextualizing t he Contribution of A rgan Oil to Rural Livelihoods in Morocco

Integration of many remote regions into the global economy has brought an increasing array of exotic products from rural areas in the developing world t o t he plates and cupboards of wealthy consumers. This article contributes to the growing literature t hat looks at the r ole of global consumers i n s ocial and environmental governance. We examine a set of global commodities that, due to their high value, retail at prices well beyond usual agricultural products, giving wealthy consumers great influence over livelihood and land use choices in producer regions. Proponents assert this kind of commercialization will alleviate r ural poverty. W e i dentify necessary conditions for t his t o happen in general and consider the s pecific case of argan oil, produced in Morocco and sold abroad for prices above US$400 per liter. Using a livelihood approach drawing on geography and related fields, we t est t he claim t hat niche commodity trade alleviates poverty in this specific setting. We find that argan oil commercialization has played a r elatively minor role in household budgets and asset accumulation, whereas nonfarm work and remittances play a greater role. Our results s how the i mportance of a livelihood approach in contextualizing commodity chains. W e conclude that the poverty alleviation effects of niche commodity marketing are context dependent and influenced by agro-ecological conditions, r esource scarcity, resource ownership regime, and characteristics of the value chains. Key W ords: argan, livelihood analysis, Morocco, niche products, r ural development

Monitoring degradation in arid and semi-arid forests and woodlands: The case of the argan woodlands (Morocco)

Arid and semi-arid forests and woodlands (hereafter called «dryland forests»), in spite of their ecological and social importance, have received little attention in land change studies. Growing evidence shows that these forests have been receding at very high rates in many places, suggesting a need for a better understanding of the processes and causes of dryland forest degradation. Changes in the extent of dryland forests are debated in part because estimates of forest and woodland areas in drylands are uncertain. Causal explanations of the degradation tend to draw on the literature on desertification and tropical deforestation, and to emphasize either local or remote, and either social or biophysical drivers. This study contributes to a better understanding of dryland forest degradation as a basis for conservation policies. Firstly, we argue that monitoring arid and semi-arid forests and woodlands using area estimates may lead to an underestimation of the severity of change because tree density change often exceeds area change. Secondly, we argue that the analysis of degradation processes in these multifunctional land- scapes should integrate both local and remote, and both social and biophysical factors. We use a case study of degradation in the argania woodlands in semi-arid to arid Southwest Morocco to test these two claims.We used gridded tree counts on aerial photographs and satellite images to estimate forest change between 1970 and 2007, and we tested several possible causes of change on the basis of original socio- economic field surveys and climatic and topographic data. We found that forest density declined by 44.5% during this period, a figure that is significantly underestimated if forest area change is used as a measure of degradation. Increasing aridity and, to a lesser extent, fuelwood extraction were related to forest decline. No effect of grazing by local livestock was found