Forest conversion for agriculture expansion is the most salient signature of human occupation of the earth's land surface. Although population growth and deforestation are significantly associated at the global and regional scales, evidence for population links to deforestation at micro-scales-where people are actually clearing0020forests-is scant. Much of the planet's forest elimination is pro...

To quantify the effects of land cover changes in the Amazon on local and global climate, numerical simulation experiments using the Goddard Institute for Space Studies Model II global climate model are conducted. An ensemble approach is adopted, in which a group of six control simulations is compared to a group of six deforested simulations. The deforestation effect in the Amazon is strong, wit...

This paper presents an approach in extracting multi-temporal land-cover information (years 1976-2001) from cloud-contaminated remotely-sensed images acquired by the Landsat Multi-Spectral Scanner (MSS) and Enhanced Thematic Mapper plus (ETM+) sensors in order to detect and analyze deforestation and other types of land-cover change (LCC) in two forest resource-rich provinces of Agusan del Norte ...

Annual forest loss in the Brazilian Amazon had in 2012 declined to less than 5,000 sqkm, from over 27,000 in 2004. Mounting empirical evidence suggests that changes in Brazilian law enforcement strategy and the related governance system may account for a large share of the overall success in curbing deforestation rates. At the same time, Brazil is experimenting with alternative approaches to co...

Land degradation in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria has been aggravated by deforestation with resultant losses of vital biodiversity. In this paper, we provided an assessment of land degradation with drivers of deforestation in selected states in the Niger Delta. Data were collected with multi-stage sampling procedure and analyzed using descriptive and Tobit regression methods. Results show t...

Local political authority (formal or informal) over natural resources may create rents for politicians. The political decision to use or allocate resources involves balancing private rents with reelection prospects. I examine the case of deforestation in Brazil and a presidential decree granting the federal government the authority to punish counties that failed to limit total deforestation wit...

Phenology-based multi-index with the random forest (RF) algorithm can be used to overcome the shortcomings of traditional deforestation mapping that involves pixel-based classification, such as ISODATA or decision trees, and single images. The purpose of this study was to investigate methods to identify specific types of deforestation in North Korea, and to increase the accuracy of classificati...

New plantations can either cause deforestation by replacing natural forests or avoid this by using previously cleared areas. The extent of these two situations is contested in tropical biodiversity hotspots where objective data are limited. Here, we explore delays between deforestation and the establishment of industrial tree plantations on Borneo using satellite imagery. Between 1973 and 2015 ...

Reducing atmospheric carbon emissions from tropical deforestation is at present considered a cost-effective option for mitigating climate change. However, the forces associated with tropical forest loss are uncertain1. Here we use satellite-based estimates of forest loss for 2000 to 2005 (ref. 2) to assess economic, agricultural and demographic correlates across 41 countries in the humid tropic...

We estimate deforestation and the carbon stock in 2740 (82 %) of the 3325 settlements in Brazil's Legal Amazonia region. Estimates are made both using available satellite data and a carbon map for the "pre-modern" period (prior to 1970). We used data from Brazil's Project for Monitoring Deforestation in Amazonia updated through 2013 and from the Brazilian Biomes Deforestation Monitoring Project...