High-resolution maps show that rubber causes substantial deforestation.

Wang, Yunxia; Hollingsworth, Peter M; Zhai, Deli; West, Christopher D; Green, Jonathan M H; Chen, Huafang; Hurni, Kaspar; Su, Yufang; Warren-Thomas, Eleanor; Xu, Jianchu; Ahrends, Antje (2023). High-resolution maps show that rubber causes substantial deforestation. Nature, 623(7986), pp. 340-346. Springer Nature 10.1038/s41586-023-06642-z

Preview

Text s41586-023-06642-z.pdf - Published Version Available under License Creative Commons: Attribution (CC-BY). Download (19MB) | Preview

Understanding the effects of cash crop expansion on natural forest is of fundamental importance. However, for most crops there are no remotely sensed global maps1, and global deforestation impacts are estimated using models and extrapolations. Natural rubber is an example of a principal commodity for which deforestation impacts have been highly uncertain, with estimates differing more than fivefold1-4. Here we harnessed Earth observation satellite data and cloud computing5 to produce high-resolution maps of rubber (10 m pixel size) and associated deforestation (30 m pixel size) for Southeast Asia. Our maps indicate that rubber-related forest loss has been substantially underestimated in policy, by the public and in recent reports6-8. Our direct remotely sensed observations show that deforestation for rubber is at least twofold to threefold higher than suggested by figures now widely used for setting policy4. With more than 4 million hectares of forest loss for rubber since 1993 (at least 2 million hectares since 2000) and more than 1 million hectares of rubber plantations established in Key Biodiversity Areas, the effects of rubber on biodiversity and ecosystem services in Southeast Asia could be extensive. Thus, rubber deserves more attention in domestic policy, within trade agreements and in incoming due-diligence legislation.

Interest & Impact

Downloads

2 since deposited on 20 Oct 2023
2 in the past 12 months

Citations

5 Citations in Web of Science ®
6 Citations in Scopus

Search

in Google Scholar™

Services

Actions (login required)

Edit item

Actions (login required)

Edit item