A new report on Crop Expansion and Conservation Priorities in Tropical Countries, published in the journal PLoS One and involving scientists from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), analyzes crop distribution and expansion in 128 tropical countries and maps overlaps between conservation priorities and cultivation potential.
The paper highlights the threat to biodiversity from the expansion of agricultural lands.
16 January 2013: A new report on Crop Expansion and Conservation Priorities in Tropical Countries, published in the journal PLoS One and involving scientists from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), analyzes crop distribution and expansion in 128 tropical countries and maps overlaps between conservation priorities and cultivation potential. The paper highlights the threat to biodiversity from the expansion of agricultural lands.
The publication points to cropland expansion in tropical countries as a principal cause of biodiversity loss. It notes that this expansion threatens to undermine progress towards the Aichi Biodiversity Targets, which UNEP describes as “a set of 20, time-bound measurable targets aimed at halting global biodiversity loss by the middle of the century.”
Among the report’s findings were: cropland in tropical countries expanded by around 48,000 km² per year from 1999-2008; the crop grown over the largest area was rice, especially in tropical forest habitats; soybeans and maize expanded most in absolute area; and Brazil, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Nigeria and Sudan and had the greatest area of new cropland. The study reported that land with high cultivation potential may be vulnerable to conversion in the future, and that these spaces include some priority areas for biodiversity conservation in tropical countries that were previously seen to have “low vulnerability,” including Frontier Forests and High Biodiversity Wilderness Areas.
The authors highlight the “urgent need for more effective sustainability standards and policies” to address the production and consumption of tropical commodities, and list, among other things, robust land-use planning in agricultural frontiers and establishment of new protected areas or Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) projects in places not yet touched by agriculture.
The paper was published in the lead-up to the first plenary meeting of the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), from 21 to 26 January 2013 in Bonn, Germany. The IPBES serves as an interface between the scientific community and policymakers and is meant to strengthen the use of science in policy-making as it relates to biodiversity and ecosystem services. [Publication: Crop Expansion and Conservation Priorities in Tropical Countries] [UNEP Press Release] [First Meeting of the IPBES Plenary]