SpringerLink
Log in

International trade causes large net economic losses in tropical countries via the destruction of ecosystem services

  • Report
  • Published:
Ambio Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Despite the large implications of the use of tropical land for exports (“land absorption”) on ecosystem services (ES) and global biodiversity conservation, the magnitude of these externalities is not known. We quantify the net value of ES lost in tropical countries as a result of cropland, forestland and pastureland absorption for exports after deducting ES gains through imports (“land displacement”). We find that net ES gains occur only in 7 out of the 41 countries and regions considered. We estimate global annual net losses of over 1.7 x 1012 international dollars (I$) (I$1.1 x 1012 if carbon-related services are not considered). After deducting the benefits from agricultural, forest and livestock rents in land replacing tropical forests, the net annual losses are I$1.3 and I$0.7 x 1012, respectively. The results highlight the large magnitude of tropical ES losses through international trade that are not compensated by the rents of land uses in absorbed land.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Subscribe and save

Springer+ Basic
EUR 32.99 /Month
  • Get 10 units per month
  • Download Article/Chapter or Ebook
  • 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
  • Cancel anytime
Subscribe now

Buy Now

Price includes VAT (France)

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3

References

  • Abood, S.A., J.S.H. Lee, Z. Burivalova, J. Garcia-Ulloa, and L.P. Koh. 2014. Relative contributions of the logging, fiber, oil palm, and mining industries to forest loss in Indonesia. Conservation Letters 8: 58–67.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Andersson, J.O., and M. Lindroth. 2001. Ecologically unsustainable trade. Ecological Economics 37: 113–122.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bateman, I.J., B. Fisher, E. Fitzherbert, D. Glew, and R. Naidoo. 2010. Tigers, markets and palm oil: Market potential for conservation. Oryx 44: 230–234.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bartholomé, E., and A. Belward. 2005. GLC2000: A new approach to global land cover map** from Earth observation data. International Journal of Remote Sensing 26: 1959–1977.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Boyd, J., and S. Banzhaf. 2007. What are ecosystem services? The need for standardized environmental accounting units. Ecological Economics 63: 616–626.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brown, K., and D.W. Pearce. 1994. The causes of tropical deforestation: The economic and statistical analysis of factors giving rise to the loss of the tropical forests. Canada: UBC Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bureau of Labor Statistics. 2010. CPI Inflation Calculator. United States Department of Labor. http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl.

  • Carrasco, L., T. Nghiem, T. Sunderland, and L. Koh. 2014. Economic valuation of ecosystem services fails to capture biodiversity value of tropical forests. Biological Conservation 178: 163–170.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chomitz, K., and T. Thomas. 2001. Geographic patterns of land use and land intensity in the Brazilian Amazon. World Bank Policy Research Working Paper No. 2687.

  • Costanza, R., R. de Groot, P. Sutton, S. van der Ploeg, S.J. Anderson, I. Kubiszewski, S. Farber, and R.K. Turner. 2014. Changes in the global value of ecosystem services. Global Environmental Change 26: 152–158.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dasgupta, P.S., and P.R. Ehrlich. 2013. Pervasive externalities at the population, consumption, and environment nexus. Science 340: 324–328.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • de Groot, R., L. Brander, S. van der Ploeg, R. Costanza, F. Bernard, L. Braat, M. Christie, N. Crossman, A. Ghermandi, and L. Hein. 2012. Global estimates of the value of ecosystems and their services in monetary units. Ecosystem Services 1: 50–61.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • de Groot, R.S., R. Alkemade, L. Braat, L. Hein, and L. Willemen. 2010. Challenges in integrating the concept of ecosystem services and values in landscape planning, management and decision making. Ecological Complexity 7: 260–272.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • European Commission. 2013. The impact of EU consumption on deforestation: Comprehensive analysis of the impact of EU consumption on deforestation, 1–98. Belgium: European Commission.

  • Ewing, B., A. Reed, S. Rizk, A. Galli, M. Wackernagel, and J. Kitzes. 2008. Calculation Methodology for the National Footprints Accounts, Version 1.1. Global Footprint: Oakland, CA.

  • FAO. 2010a. FAOSTAT. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. http://faostat.fao.org/site/342/default.aspx.

  • FAO. 2010b. Global Forest Resources Assessment 2010. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. http://www.fao.org/forestry/fra/fra2010/en/.

  • FAO. 2014. Livestock densities. Gridded Livestock of the World (GLW). Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Animal Production and Health. Accessed from http://www.fao.org/ag/againfo/resources/en/glw/glw_dens.html.

  • Giam, X., L. Mani, L.P. Koh, and H.T.W. Tan. 2015. Saving tropical forests by knowing what we consume. Conservation Letters. doi:10.1111/conl.12209.

  • Gibson, L., T.M. Lee, L.P. Koh, B.W. Brook, T.A. Gardner, J. Barlow, C.A. Peres, C.J. Bradshaw, W.F. Laurance, and T.E. Lovejoy. 2011. Primary forests are irreplaceable for sustaining tropical biodiversity. Nature 478: 378–381.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Godar, J., T.A. Gardner, E.J. Tizado, and P. Pacheco. 2014. Actor-specific contributions to the deforestation slowdown in the Brazilian Amazon. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 111: 15591–15596.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Hansen, M., P. Potapov, R. Moore, M. Hancher, S. Turubanova, A. Tyukavina, D. Thau, S. Stehman, S. Goetz, and T. Loveland. 2013. High-resolution global maps of 21st-century forest cover change. Science 342: 850–853.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Hertel, T.W. 1997. Global trade analysis: Modeling and applications. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hertel, T.W., N. Ramankutty, and U.L.C. Baldos. 2014. Global market integration increases likelihood that a future African Green Revolution could increase crop land use and CO2 emissions. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 111: 13799–13804.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Karstensen, J., G.P. Peters, and R.M. Andrew. 2013. Attribution of CO2 emissions from Brazilian deforestation to consumers between 1990 and 2010. Environmental Research Letters 8: 024005.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lambin, E.F., and P. Meyfroidt. 2011. Global land use change, economic globalization, and the looming land scarcity. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 108: 3465–3472.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Lenzen, M., D. Moran, K. Kanemoto, B. Foran, L. Lobefaro, and A. Geschke. 2012. International trade drives biodiversity threats in develo** nations. Nature 486: 109–112.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Meyfroidt, P., E.F. Lambin, K.-H. Erb, and T.W. Hertel. 2013. Globalization of land use: Distant drivers of land change and geographic displacement of land use. Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability 5: 438–444.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Meyfroidt, P., T.K. Rudel, and E.F. Lambin. 2010. Forest transitions, trade, and the global displacement of land use. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 107: 20917–20922.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Monfreda, C., N. Ramankutty, and J.A. Foley. 2008. Farming the planet: 2. Geographic distribution of crop areas, yields, physiological types, and net primary production in the year 2000. Global Biogeochemical Cycles 22: GB1022.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Naidoo, R., and T. Iwamura. 2007. Global-scale map** of economic benefits from agricultural lands: Implications for conservation priorities. Biological Conservation 140: 40–49.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Paoli, G.D., B. Yaap, P.L. Wells, and A. Sileuw. 2010. CSR, oil palm and the RSPO: Translating boardroom philosophy into conservation action on the ground. Tropical Conservation Science 3: 438–446.

    Google Scholar 

  • Polasky, S., and K. Segerson. 2009. Integrating ecology and economics in the study of ecosystem services: Some lessons learned. Annual Review of Resource Economics 1: 409–434.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ramankutty, N. 2012. Global cropland and pasture data from 1700–2007. Accessed from http://www.geog.mcgill.ca/~nramankutty/Datasets/Datasets.html.

  • Ramankutty, N., A.T. Evan, C. Monfreda, and J.A. Foley. 2008. Farming the planet: 1. Geographic distribution of global agricultural lands in the year 2000. Global Biogeochemical Cycles 22: GB1003.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ramankutty, N., and J.A. Foley. 1999. Estimating historical changes in global land cover: Croplands from 1700 to 1992. Global Biogeochemical Cycles 13: 997–1027.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Ricardo, D. 1817. On the principles of political economy and taxation. London: John Murray.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sandker, M., A. Suwarno, and B.M. Campbell. 2007. Will forests remain in the face of oil palm expansion? Simulating change in Malinau, Indonesia. Ecology and Society 12: 37.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith, A. 1976. The wealth of nations. New York: The Modern Library.

    Google Scholar 

  • Steen-Olsen, K., J. Weinzettel, G. Cranston, A.E. Ercin, and E.G. Hertwich. 2012. Carbon, land, and water footprint accounts for the European Union: Consumption, production, and displacements through international trade. Environmental Science and Technology 46: 10883–10891.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Turner, R.K., W.N. Adger, and R. Brouwer. 1998. Ecosystem services value, research needs, and policy relevance: A commentary. Ecological Economics 25: 61–65.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. 2012. Development and Globalization 2012: Facts and figures. New York: United Nations Publications.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wackernagel, M., and W. Rees. 1995. Our ecological footprint. Philadelphia: New Society.

    Google Scholar 

  • Weinzettel, J., E.G. Hertwich, G.P. Peters, K. Steen-Olsen, and A. Galli. 2013. Affluence drives the global displacement of land use. Global Environmental Change 23: 433–438.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • WHO. 2010. Purchasing Power Parity 2005. World Health Organization. CHOosing Interventions that are Cost Effective (WHO-CHOICE). Accessed May 2010, from http://www.who.int/choice/costs/ppp/en/index.html.

Download references

Acknowledgments

We are thankful for research funding from a Tier 2 grant from the Ministry of Education of Singapore, WBS R154000574112.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biological Sciences, National University of Singapore, 14 Science Drive 4, Singapore, 117543, Republic of Singapore

    Junning Chang, William S. Symes, Felix Lim & L. Roman Carrasco

Authors
  1. Junning Chang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. William S. Symes
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Felix Lim
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. L. Roman Carrasco
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to L. Roman Carrasco.

Electronic supplementary material

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

Supplementary material 1 (PDF 579 kb)

Supplementary material 2 (XLSX 120 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Chang, J., Symes, W.S., Lim, F. et al. International trade causes large net economic losses in tropical countries via the destruction of ecosystem services. Ambio 45, 387–397 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-016-0768-7

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-016-0768-7

Keywords

Search

Navigation