Carr, JA, Spracklen, DV orcid.org/0000-0002-7551-4597, Brasington, D et al. (4 more authors) (2023) Assessing risks and opportunities for tropical forests in the face of sustainable development. PLOS Sustainability and Transformation, 2 (5). e0000060. ISSN 2767-3197
Abstract
Understanding how countries’ future development pathways could affect forests can help to avoid negative impacts and instead promote positive ones. Exploring this topic requires knowledge of which areas of the development agenda are likely to show the greatest progress, and how these expected changes relate to the drivers of deforestation and forest degradation that are currently affecting forests, or which may emerge as result of development-related changes. Based on this information, researchers, stakeholders and decisionmakers can engage in discussions to inform further research and interventions. We present an assessment framework that draws upon a range of data types to identify specific components of the development agenda that are likely to be of greatest relevance to forest conservation at the national level. We then assess the potential magnitude and likelihood of imminent changes in these areas over the short- to medium-term. We use this framework to assess 48 tropical countries, providing insights into the areas of sustainable development that are most likely to provide risks, opportunities or enabling conditions for forest conservation across much of the tropics. Our findings suggest that, across much of the tropics, ongoing risks to forests associated with agriculture, transport infrastructure and urban infrastructure could worsen, and that new risks from energy infrastructure could emerge. Opportunities relating to poverty reduction, tourism, and industry, among others, will require care to ensure that associated progress results in positive rather than negative forest impacts. Enabling conditions associated with, inter alia, improved education, inclusive decision-making, and effective governance, still have much room for improvement, and the anticipated likelihood of imminent progress in these areas varies between countries and regions. We discuss the implications of our findings for policymakers and development agencies, and consider potential future applications of our assessment protocol.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2023 Carr et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Environment (Leeds) > School of Earth and Environment (Leeds) > Inst for Climate & Atmos Science (ICAS) (Leeds) The University of Leeds > Faculty of Environment (Leeds) > School of Earth and Environment (Leeds) > Sustainability Research Institute (SRI) (Leeds) The University of Leeds > Faculty of Environment (Leeds) > School of Geography (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 04 May 2023 11:39 |
Last Modified: | 04 May 2023 11:39 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Public Library of Science |
Identification Number: | 10.1371/journal.pstr.0000060 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:198890 |