Does Free Trade Increase Deforestation? The Effects of Regional Trade Agreements

Abman, Ryan; Lundberg, Clark

doi:10.1086/705787

Cited by 50 publications

(45 citation statements)

References 75 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Increases in agricultural exports drive deforestation mainly in countries with large remaining forest areas (i.e., countries in the early stages of the forest transition) and not in forest-scarce countries. That increased agricultural trade drives agricultural expansion and associated forest loss (and not the opposite) is corroborated by Abman and Lundberg, 74 who showed that trade liberalization through regional trade agreements on average increased forest loss in tropical low-income countries by 48% in the 3 years following their enactment.…”

Section: Linking Deforestation To Tradementioning

confidence: 73%

Global agricultural trade and land system sustainability: Implications for ecosystem carbon storage, biodiversity, and human nutrition

et al. 2021

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Global land systems are increasingly shaped by international trade of agricultural products. An increasing number of studies have quantified the implications of agricultural trade for single different aspects of land system sustainability. Bringing together studies across different sustainability dimensions, this review investigates how global agricultural trade flows have affected land systems and resulting impacts on food and nutrient availability, natural habitat conversion, biodiversity loss, and ecosystem carbon storage. We show that the effects of trade on land systems are highly heterogeneous across regions and commodities, revealing both synergies and trade-offs between improved nutrition and environmental conservation. For instance, we find that while the concentration of cereal production in North America has spared land, the increased demand for tropical products induced by trade has negatively impacted tropical ecosystems. Based on the current state of knowledge, we identify six pathways for how future research can contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of how agricultural trade can positively contribute to meeting global sustainability goals.

show abstract

Section: Linking Deforestation To Tradementioning

confidence: 73%

Global agricultural trade and land system sustainability: Implications for ecosystem carbon storage, biodiversity, and human nutrition

et al. 2021

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…While trade can lead to more efficient use of natural resources, raise income levels to thresholds where public support for environmental goals strengthens, enable producers of environmental goods and services to expand and subsequently disperse green technologies worldwide [3][4][5][6], it can also have negative environmental impacts and exacerbate climate change. Trade-induced expansion of human economic activity can consequently increase carbon and other greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, accelerate the depletion of natural resources, threaten eco-systems and drive down environmental standards in the pursuit of international competitiveness [7][8][9][10]. Trade's net balance effects on the environment will depend on the scale of trade-induced economic growth, the composition of this trade and how trade-related improvements in technology can reduce emission levels [11,12].…”

Section: Core Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Trade, Climate and Energy: A New Study on Climate Action through Free Trade Agreements

Dent¹

2021

Energies

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Efforts to tackle climate change are taking place on multiple fronts. This includes trade, an increasingly important defining feature of the global economy. In recent years, free trade agreements (FTAs) have become the primary mechanism of trade policy and diplomacy. This study examines the development of climate action measures in FTAs and discusses what difference they can make to tackling climate change. Its primary source research is based on an in-depth examination of FTAs in force up to 2020. This paper is structured around a number of research questions forming around three main inter-related areas of enquiry. Firstly, to what extent are these provisions in FTAs essentially derivative of energy’s connections with climate change, and thus part of a wider trade–climate–energy nexus? Secondly, what kinds of climate action are FTAs specifically promoting, and how effective a potential positive impact may we expect these to have? Thirdly, are certain climate action norms being promoted by trade partners in FTAs and if so, then who are the norm leaders, what is motivating them, and to what extent are they extending their influence over other trade partners? In addressing these questions, this study offers new insights and analysis regarding a potentially important emerging trend in the trade–climate–energy nexus. Its international political economy approach and latest empirical research also provide a further distinctive contribution to knowledge in this inter-disciplinary area, developing new comprehensions of the relationship between trade, climate action and energy.

show abstract

“…We now assess the potential effects of excise taxes on cattle ranching and crops to promote forest conservation. There are increasing discussions on how market interventions, such as international tariffs (Abman and Lundberg, 2020) or bans on goods produced in areas under deforestation pressure (e.g., Nepstad et al, 2014;Gibbs et al, 2015;Harding et al, 2019). We therefore compute the steady state land use under scenarios where agents are subject to taxes on cattle or on crop goods -i.e.…”

Section: Preserving the Forest Through Taxes On Cattle Ranchingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Efficient Conservation of the Brazilian Amazon: Estimates from a Dynamic Model

Araujo¹,

Costa²,

Sant'Anna³

2020

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This paper estimates the Brazilian Amazon’s efficient forestation level. We propose a dynamic discrete choice model of land use and estimate it using a remote sensing panel with land use and stock of carbon of 5.7 billion pixels, at 30 meters resolution, between 2008 and 2017. We estimate that a business as usual scenario will generate an inefficient loss of 1,075,000 km2 of forest cover in the long run, an area almost two times the size of France, implying the release of 44 billion tons of CO2. We quantify the potential of carbon and cattle production taxes to mitigate inefficient deforestation. We find that relatively small carbon taxes can mitigate a substantial part of the inefficient forest loss and emissions, while only very large taxes on cattle production would achieve a similar effect.

show abstract

Does Free Trade Increase Deforestation? The Effects of Regional Trade Agreements

Cited by 50 publications

References 75 publications

Global agricultural trade and land system sustainability: Implications for ecosystem carbon storage, biodiversity, and human nutrition

Global agricultural trade and land system sustainability: Implications for ecosystem carbon storage, biodiversity, and human nutrition

Trade, Climate and Energy: A New Study on Climate Action through Free Trade Agreements

Efficient Conservation of the Brazilian Amazon: Estimates from a Dynamic Model

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About