Foreign demand for agricultural commodities drives virtual carbon exports from Cambodia
Rapid deforestation is a major sustainability challenge, partly as the loss of carbon sinks exacerbates global climate change. In Cambodia, more than 13% of the total land area has been contracted out to foreign and domestic agribusinesses in the form of economic land concessions, causing rapid larg...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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IOP Publishing
2020-01-01
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| Series: | Environmental Research Letters |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ab8157 |
| _version_ | 1827869995318640640 |
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| author | Emma Johansson Stefan Olin Jonathan Seaquist |
| author_facet | Emma Johansson Stefan Olin Jonathan Seaquist |
| author_sort | Emma Johansson |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Rapid deforestation is a major sustainability challenge, partly as the loss of carbon sinks exacerbates global climate change. In Cambodia, more than 13% of the total land area has been contracted out to foreign and domestic agribusinesses in the form of economic land concessions, causing rapid large-scale land use change and deforestation. Additionally, the distant drivers of local and global environmental change often remain invisible. Here, we identify hotspots of carbon loss between 1987–2017 using the dynamic global vegetation model LPJ-GUESS and by comparing past and present land use and land cover. We also link global consumption and production patterns to their environmental effects in Cambodia by mapping the countries to which land-use embedded carbon are exported. We find that natural forests have decreased from 54%–21% between 1987 and 2017, mainly for the expansion of farmland and orchards, translating into 300 million tons of carbon lost, with loss rates over twice as high within economic land concessions. China is the largest importer of embedded carbon, mainly for rubber and sugarcane from Chinese agribusinesses. Cambodian investors have also negatively affected carbon pools through export-oriented products like rubber. The combined understanding of environmental change and trade flows makes it possible to identify distant drivers of deforestation, which is important for crafting more environmentally and socially responsible policies on national and transnational scales. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-12T15:52:29Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-1547f6566cba4970b3bb89ac8aa0c2b0 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1748-9326 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-12T15:52:29Z |
| publishDate | 2020-01-01 |
| publisher | IOP Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Environmental Research Letters |
| spelling | doaj.art-1547f6566cba4970b3bb89ac8aa0c2b02023-08-09T15:05:22ZengIOP PublishingEnvironmental Research Letters1748-93262020-01-0115606403410.1088/1748-9326/ab8157Foreign demand for agricultural commodities drives virtual carbon exports from CambodiaEmma Johansson0Stefan Olin1Jonathan Seaquist2Lund University Centre for Sustainability Studies, Lund University , SE-221 00, Lund, SwedenDepartment of Physical Geography and Ecosystam Science, Lund University , SE-221 00, Lund, SwedenDepartment of Physical Geography and Ecosystam Science, Lund University , SE-221 00, Lund, SwedenRapid deforestation is a major sustainability challenge, partly as the loss of carbon sinks exacerbates global climate change. In Cambodia, more than 13% of the total land area has been contracted out to foreign and domestic agribusinesses in the form of economic land concessions, causing rapid large-scale land use change and deforestation. Additionally, the distant drivers of local and global environmental change often remain invisible. Here, we identify hotspots of carbon loss between 1987–2017 using the dynamic global vegetation model LPJ-GUESS and by comparing past and present land use and land cover. We also link global consumption and production patterns to their environmental effects in Cambodia by mapping the countries to which land-use embedded carbon are exported. We find that natural forests have decreased from 54%–21% between 1987 and 2017, mainly for the expansion of farmland and orchards, translating into 300 million tons of carbon lost, with loss rates over twice as high within economic land concessions. China is the largest importer of embedded carbon, mainly for rubber and sugarcane from Chinese agribusinesses. Cambodian investors have also negatively affected carbon pools through export-oriented products like rubber. The combined understanding of environmental change and trade flows makes it possible to identify distant drivers of deforestation, which is important for crafting more environmentally and socially responsible policies on national and transnational scales.https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ab8157deforestationeconomic land concessionsLPJ-GUESSvirtual carbon exportland grabbing |
| spellingShingle | Emma Johansson Stefan Olin Jonathan Seaquist Foreign demand for agricultural commodities drives virtual carbon exports from Cambodia Environmental Research Letters deforestation economic land concessions LPJ-GUESS virtual carbon export land grabbing |
| title | Foreign demand for agricultural commodities drives virtual carbon exports from Cambodia |
| title_full | Foreign demand for agricultural commodities drives virtual carbon exports from Cambodia |
| title_fullStr | Foreign demand for agricultural commodities drives virtual carbon exports from Cambodia |
| title_full_unstemmed | Foreign demand for agricultural commodities drives virtual carbon exports from Cambodia |
| title_short | Foreign demand for agricultural commodities drives virtual carbon exports from Cambodia |
| title_sort | foreign demand for agricultural commodities drives virtual carbon exports from cambodia |
| topic | deforestation economic land concessions LPJ-GUESS virtual carbon export land grabbing |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ab8157 |
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