Land cover dynamics following a deforestation ban in northern Costa Rica

M E Fagan; R S Defries; S E Sesnie; J P Arroyo; W Walker; C Soto; Robin L Chazdon; A Sanchun

doi:10.1088/1748-9326/8/3/034017

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Land cover dynamics following a deforestation ban in northern Costa Rica

Journal article

Open access

Peer reviewed

Land cover dynamics following a deforestation ban in northern Costa Rica

M E Fagan, R S Defries, S E Sesnie, J P Arroyo, W Walker, C Soto, Robin L Chazdon and A Sanchun

Environmental Research Letters, Vol.8(3)

2013

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/8/3/034017

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Abstract

Costa Rica

deforestation

agricultural intensification

land sparing

protected areas

payments for environmental services (PES)

tree plantations

remote sensing

Forest protection policies potentially reduce deforestation and re-direct agricultural expansion to already-cleared areas. Using satellite imagery, we assessed whether deforestation for conversion to pasture and cropland decreased in the lowlands of northern Costa Rica following the 1996 ban on forest clearing, despite a tripling of area under pineapple cultivation in the last decade. We observed that following the ban, mature forest loss decreased from 2.2% to 1.2% per year, and the proportion of pineapple and other export-oriented cropland derived from mature forest declined from 16.4% to 1.9%. The post-ban expansion of pineapples and other crops largely replaced pasture, exotic and native tree plantations, and secondary forests. Overall, there was a small net gain in forest cover due to a shifting mosaic of regrowth and clearing in pastures, but cropland expansion decreased reforestation rates. We conclude that forest protection efforts in northern Costa Rica have likely slowed mature forest loss and succeeded in re-directing expansion of cropland to areas outside mature forest. Our results suggest that deforestation bans may protect mature forests better than older forest regrowth and may restrict clearing for large-scale crops more effectively than clearing for pasture. © 2013 IOP Publishing Ltd.

Details

Title: Land cover dynamics following a deforestation ban in northern Costa Rica
Authors: M E Fagan (Author) - Columbia University, United States
R S Defries (Author) - Columbia University, United States
S E Sesnie (Author) - Southwest Region, United States
J P Arroyo (Author) - McGill University, United States
W Walker (Author) - Woods Hole Research Centre, United States
C Soto (Author) - McGill University, United States
Robin L Chazdon (Author) - University of Connecticut, United States
A Sanchun (Author) - EARTH University, Costa Rica
Publication details: Environmental Research Letters, Vol.8(3); 9
Publisher: Institute of Physics Publishing Ltd.
Date published: 2013
DOI: 10.1088/1748-9326/8/3/034017
ISSN: 1748-9326
Copyright note: Copyright © 2013 IOP Publishing Ltd. Content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 licence. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI.
Organisation Unit: Tropical Forests and People Research Centre; University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland; Forest Research Institute
Language: English
Record Identifier: 99451055302621
Output Type: Journal article

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