Accelerated cropland expansion into high integrity forests and protected areas globally in the 21st century
Wang, Lanhui LU
; Wei, Fangli
and Svenning, Jens Christian
(2023)
In iScience
26(4).
- Abstract
Intact forests and protected areas (PAs) are central to global biodiversity conservation and nature-based climate change mitigation. However, cropland encroachment threatens the ecological integrity and resilience of their functioning. Using satellite observations, we find that a large proportion of croplands in the remaining forests globally have been gained during 2003–2019, especially for high-integrity forests (62%) and non-forest biomes (60%) and tropical forests (47%). Cropland expansion during 2011–2019 in forests globally has even doubled (130% relative increase) than 2003–2011, with high medium-integrity (190%) and high-integrity (165%) categories and non-forest (182%) and tropical forest biomes (136%) showing higher... (More)
Intact forests and protected areas (PAs) are central to global biodiversity conservation and nature-based climate change mitigation. However, cropland encroachment threatens the ecological integrity and resilience of their functioning. Using satellite observations, we find that a large proportion of croplands in the remaining forests globally have been gained during 2003–2019, especially for high-integrity forests (62%) and non-forest biomes (60%) and tropical forests (47%). Cropland expansion during 2011–2019 in forests globally has even doubled (130% relative increase) than 2003–2011, with high medium-integrity (190%) and high-integrity (165%) categories and non-forest (182%) and tropical forest biomes (136%) showing higher acceleration. Unexpectedly, a quarter of croplands in PAs globally were gained during 2003–2019, again with a recent accelerated expansion (48%). These results suggest insufficient protection of these irreplaceable landscapes and a major challenge to global conservation. More effective local, national, and international coordination among sustainable development goals 15, 13, and 2 is urgently needed.
(Less)
- author
- Wang, Lanhui
LU
; Wei, Fangli
and Svenning, Jens Christian
- organization
- publishing date
- 2023
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- Economic geology, Global change, Nature conservation
- in
- iScience
- volume
- 26
- issue
- 4
- article number
- 106450
- publisher
- Elsevier
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:85151086733
- pmid:37034983
- ISSN
- 2589-0042
- DOI
- 10.1016/j.isci.2023.106450
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- b2651c5f-d7da-481e-a03f-b54d16c21d25
- date added to LUP
- 2023-05-22 11:49:56
- date last changed
- 2025-11-03 01:15:18
@article{b2651c5f-d7da-481e-a03f-b54d16c21d25,
abstract = {{<p>Intact forests and protected areas (PAs) are central to global biodiversity conservation and nature-based climate change mitigation. However, cropland encroachment threatens the ecological integrity and resilience of their functioning. Using satellite observations, we find that a large proportion of croplands in the remaining forests globally have been gained during 2003–2019, especially for high-integrity forests (62%) and non-forest biomes (60%) and tropical forests (47%). Cropland expansion during 2011–2019 in forests globally has even doubled (130% relative increase) than 2003–2011, with high medium-integrity (190%) and high-integrity (165%) categories and non-forest (182%) and tropical forest biomes (136%) showing higher acceleration. Unexpectedly, a quarter of croplands in PAs globally were gained during 2003–2019, again with a recent accelerated expansion (48%). These results suggest insufficient protection of these irreplaceable landscapes and a major challenge to global conservation. More effective local, national, and international coordination among sustainable development goals 15, 13, and 2 is urgently needed.</p>}},
author = {{Wang, Lanhui and Wei, Fangli and Svenning, Jens Christian}},
issn = {{2589-0042}},
keywords = {{Economic geology; Global change; Nature conservation}},
language = {{eng}},
number = {{4}},
publisher = {{Elsevier}},
series = {{iScience}},
title = {{Accelerated cropland expansion into high integrity forests and protected areas globally in the 21st century}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2023.106450}},
doi = {{10.1016/j.isci.2023.106450}},
volume = {{26}},
year = {{2023}},
}