The expansion of tree plantations across tropical biomes
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Author/Creator ORCID
Date
2022-06-06
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Citation of Original Publication
Fagan, M.E., Kim, DH., Settle, W. et al. The expansion of tree plantations across tropical biomes. Nat Sustain 5, 681–688 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-022-00904-w
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Abstract
Across the tropics, recent agricultural shifts have led to a rapid expansion of tree plantations, often into
intact forest and grassland habitats. However, this expansion is poorly characterized. Here we report
tropical tree plantation expansion between 2000 and 2012, based on classifying nearly 7 million unique
patches of observed tree cover gain using optical and radar satellite imagery. Most observed gain
patches (69.2%) consisted of small patches of natural regrowth (5.9 ± 0.2 Mha). However, expansion of
tree plantations dominated observed increases in tree cover across the tropics (11.8 ± 0.2 Mha) with 92%
of plantation expansion occurring in biodiversity hotspots and 14% in arid biomes. We estimate that tree
plantations expanded into 9.2% of accessible protected areas across the humid tropics, most frequently
in southeast Asia, west Africa, and Brazil. Given international tree planting commitments, it is critical to
understand how future tree plantation expansion will affect remaining natural ecosystems.
One Sentence Summary: Tree plantations dominated recent expansions of tropical tree cover, including
into 9% of accessible parks in the humid tropics.