Tropical dry forests disappearing rapidly around the globe

social problems, including biodiversity loss, carbon emissions, the spread of zoonotic diseases, or the marginalization of millions of local people that depend on these forests for their livelihoods. Unfortunately, the fate of dry forest and savannas is frequently overlooked by research, by policymakers and by the public. Ana Buchadas, researcher at the Geography Department of Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin says, “This is problematic because these ecosystems are really exceptional and equally threatened as rainforests in many parts of the world.”

Improved deforestation monitoring and better land-use and sustainability planning is needed, according to the authors. “Our work allowed us to identify re-occurring patterns of deforestation processes across different continents. This can be a good starting point for developing policy tools that are more adapted to local conditions,” Ana Buchadas says. According to the researchers, the results also are a huge opportunity to learn from one situation, for example policy interventions that have worked in South America, for other situations, such as where deforestation is starting like in Africa.

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Provided by
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin