Journal Article

Contemporary Assessment of Change in Humid Tropical Forests

AIDE, T. MITCHELL, DEFRIES, RUTH, EMERSON, RUTH, ASNER, GREGORY P., RUDEL, THOMAS K.

2009

Overview

In recent decades the rate and geographic extent of land-use and land-cover change has increased throughout the world's humid tropical forests. The pan-tropical geography of forest change is a challenge to assess, and improved estimates of the human footprint in the tropics are critical to understanding potential changes in biodiversity. We combined recently published and new satellite observations, along with images from Google Earth and a literature review, to estimate the contemporary global extent of deforestation, selective logging, and secondary regrowth in humid tropical forests. Roughly 1.4% of the biome was deforested between 2000 and 2005. As of 2005, about half of the humid tropical forest biome contained 50% or less tree cover. Although not directly comparable to deforestation, geographic estimates of selective logging indicate that at least 20% of the humid tropical forest biome was undergoing some level of timber harvesting between 2000 and 2005. Forest recovery estimates are even less certain, but a compilation of available reports suggests that at least 1.2% of the humid tropical forest biome was in some stage of long-term secondary regrowth in 2000. Nearly 70% of the regrowth reports indicate forest regeneration in hilly, upland, and mountainous environments considered marginal for large-scale agriculture and ranching. Our estimates of the human footprint are conservative because they do not resolve very small-scale deforestation, low-intensity logging, and unreported secondary regrowth, nor do they incorporate other impacts on tropical forest ecosystems, such as fire and hunting. Our results highlight the enormous geographic extent of forest change throughout the humid tropics and the considerable limitations of the science and technology available for such a synthesis.

• Publisher: Blackwell Publishing Inc,Wiley-Blackwell,Blackwell Publishing Ltd
• Subject: Agriculture / Biodiversity / Biogeography / Biomes / bosque secundario / Brazil / Changes / Conservation biology / Conservation of Natural Resources / deforestación / Deforestation / degradación del bosque / Earth / explotación de madera / Forest cover / forest degradation / forest disturbance / Forest ecosystems / Forest regeneration / forest regrowth / Forest restoration / Geography / Harvesting / highlands / humans / humid tropics / Humidity / Internet / land cover / Land use / Literature reviews / Logging / Mountains / Ranching / recuperación del bosque / Regrowth / satellites / secondary forest / selective logging / Special Section: New Insights into the Tropical Biodiversity Crisis / tala selectiva / timber harvesting / Timber industry / Trees / Tropical Climate / Tropical environments / Tropical forests / Tropical regions