High-resolution maps show that rubber causes substantial deforestation

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  • Yunxia Wang
    Royal Botanical Garden Edinburgh
  • P.M. Hollingsworth
    Royal Botanical Garden Edinburgh
  • Deli Zhai
    Key Laboratory of Tropical Forest Ecology, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences
  • Christopher West
    Stockholm Environment Institute
  • Jonathan M.H. Green
    Stockholm Environment Institute
  • Huafang Chen
    Centre for Mountain Futures, Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences
  • Kaspar Hurni
    Centre for Development and Environment, University of Bern
  • Yufang Su
    Yunnan Academy of Social Sciences
  • Eleanor Warren-Thomas
  • Jianchu Xu
    Centre for Mountain Futures, Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences
  • Antje Ahrends
    Royal Botanical Garden Edinburgh
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 fivefold1,2,3,4. 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 reports6,7,8. 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.
Original languageEnglish
JournalNature
Volume623
Publication statusPublished - 18 Oct 2023

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