High-yield agriculture potentially reduces pressure on forests by requiring less land to increase production. Using satellite and field data, we assessed the area deforested by industrial-scale high-yield oil palm expansion in the Peruvian Amazon from 2000 to 2010, finding that 72% of new plantations expanded into forested areas. In a focus area in the Ucayali region, we assessed deforestation for high- and smallholder low-yield oil palm plantations. Low-yield plantations accounted for most expansion overall (80%), but only 30% of their expansion involved forest conversion, contrasting with 75% for high-yield expansion.High-yield expansion minimized the total area required to achieve production but counter-intuitively at higher expense to forests than low-yield plantations. The results show that high-yield agriculture is an important but insufficient strategy to reduce pressure on forests. We suggest that high-yield agriculture can be effective in sparing forests only if coupled with incentives for agricultural expansion into already cleared lands.
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TI - High-yield oil palm expansion spares land at the expense of forests in the Peruvian Amazon
AU - Gutierrez-Velez, V.H.
AU - DeFries, R.
AU - Pinedo-Vasquez, M.
AU - Uriarte, M.
AU - Padoch, C.
AU - Baethgen, W.
AU - Fernandes, K.
AU - Lim, Y.
AB - High-yield agriculture potentially reduces pressure on forests by requiring less land to increase production. Using satellite and field data, we assessed the area deforested by industrial-scale high-yield oil palm expansion in the Peruvian Amazon from 2000 to 2010, finding that 72% of new plantations expanded into forested areas. In a focus area in the Ucayali region, we assessed deforestation for high- and smallholder low-yield oil palm plantations. Low-yield plantations accounted for most expansion overall (80%), but only 30% of their expansion involved forest conversion, contrasting with 75% for high-yield expansion.High-yield expansion minimized the total area required to achieve production but counter-intuitively at higher expense to forests than low-yield plantations. The results show that high-yield agriculture is an important but insufficient strategy to reduce pressure on forests. We suggest that high-yield agriculture can be effective in sparing forests only if coupled with incentives for agricultural expansion into already cleared lands.
PY - 2011
UR - https://www.cifor-icraf.org/knowledge/publication/3764/
DO - https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/6/4/044029
KW - agriculture, biofuels, conservation, deforestation, farming systems, intensification, intensive cropping, land use change, remote sensing, tropical forests, yield increases
ER -Endnote (.ciw)
%T High-yield oil palm expansion spares land at the expense of forests in the Peruvian Amazon
%A Gutierrez-Velez, V.H.
%A DeFries, R.
%A Pinedo-Vasquez, M.
%A Uriarte, M.
%A Padoch, C.
%A Baethgen, W.
%A Fernandes, K.
%A Lim, Y.
%D 2011
%U https://www.cifor-icraf.org/knowledge/publication/3764/
%R https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/6/4/044029
%X High-yield agriculture potentially reduces pressure on forests by requiring less land to increase production. Using satellite and field data, we assessed the area deforested by industrial-scale high-yield oil palm expansion in the Peruvian Amazon from 2000 to 2010, finding that 72% of new plantations expanded into forested areas. In a focus area in the Ucayali region, we assessed deforestation for high- and smallholder low-yield oil palm plantations. Low-yield plantations accounted for most expansion overall (80%), but only 30% of their expansion involved forest conversion, contrasting with 75% for high-yield expansion.High-yield expansion minimized the total area required to achieve production but counter-intuitively at higher expense to forests than low-yield plantations. The results show that high-yield agriculture is an important but insufficient strategy to reduce pressure on forests. We suggest that high-yield agriculture can be effective in sparing forests only if coupled with incentives for agricultural expansion into already cleared lands.
%K agriculture
%K biofuels
%K conservation
%K deforestation
%K farming systems
%K intensification
%K intensive cropping
%K land use change
%K remote sensing
%K tropical forests
%K yield increases
Publication year
2011
ISSN
1748-9326
Authors
Gutierrez-Velez, V.H.; DeFries, R.; Pinedo-Vasquez, M.; Uriarte, M.; Padoch, C.; Baethgen, W.; Fernandes, K.; Lim, Y.
Language
English
Keywords
agriculture, biofuels, conservation, deforestation, farming systems, intensification, intensive cropping, land use change, remote sensing, tropical forests, yield increases
Source
Environmental Research Letters. 6(4):
