STATE OF THE RAINFOREST 2014
72
When tropical forests disappear, there is rarely a single cause – a
combination of closely related direct and indirect factors bring about
deforestation and forest degradation. Complicating the picture further
is the fact that the drivers behind forest destruction vary significantly
from one continent to the other. While cattle and soy production are
responsible for the deforestation of large areas of rainforest in the
southern and eastern Amazon, the palm oil industry and logging are
key drivers in Indonesia and Malaysia. In the Central Africa region,
small scale agriculture has long been an important deforestation factor,
while commercial logging is a major driver behind forest degradation.
The global demand for commodities, mainly agricultural products,
including food, animal fodder, and biofuel, but also timber products,
minerals, oil and gas, is the key underlying driving force for
deforestation and forest degradation today. It fuels forest conversion
for permanent cultivation, cattle ranching and the establishment
of plantations. It has become increasingly clear that commercial
and export-oriented agriculture is rapidly replacing smallholder
agriculture as a key driver of deforestation.
1
In recent decades, more than 80% of new agricultural land has
come from forested areas.
2
Conversion of forests into agricultural
land accounts for over 50% of the deforestation in tropical and
subtropical countries over the past decade.
3
Other sectors, such as
logging, road construction or mineral extraction often play a major
role in forest degradation, opening up new forest areas which are
later turned into agricultural land.
Changes in the global diets, or food consumption, is a main
reason why agriculture is a major direct cause of deforestation.
4
Higher consumption of animal products, like meat, eggs and dairy
products, which are more resource-intensive to produce, requires
a larger amount of land and resources to feed the same number of
people.
5
The growing export of food products, including beef, soy
and palm oil, to industrialized countries with meat-oriented diets
requires more and more land for cultivation.
Economic factors like rising market prices for cash crops encourage
the conversion of forests to agriculture. As an example, persistently
high prices for palm oil globally have led to a quadrupling of the area
covered by palm oil plantations over the past decade in Indonesia.
6
Low domestic costs for land and labour, as well as ‘deforestation-
friendly’ agricultural subsidies or tax breaks are often significant
underlying deforestation drivers.
Logging in tropical forests often starts with extraction of a few,
highly valuable species. Once the most valuable lumber has been
removed, the area may be clear-felled, sometimes burned, and
converted to agriculture or monoculture timber plantations.
7
This
way, logging is often the first step in a deforestation process. Even
selective logging where only a few valuable trees are cut down
can cause serious forest degradation and, after some years, end
in complete forest loss. Extractive industries and infrastructure
development, such as transportation networks, hydroelectric dams,
oil and gas, and mining projects, are both direct and indirect drivers
Why are tropical forests disappearing?
Deforestation drivers
Germany
Canada
France
Russian
Federation
Mexico
Australia
Argentina
China
Brazil
United
States
Cameroon
Ecuador
Honduras
Côte
d’Ivoire
Papua New
Guinea
Nigeria
Colombia
Thailand
Malaysia
Indonesia
Production, thousand tonnes
12 000
5 000
2 500
1 000
Production, thousand tonnes
23 000
10 000
1 000
300
Palm oil
Beef
