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How Much Will Feeding More and Wealthier People Encroach on Forests?
Author(s) -
Waggoner Paul E.,
Ausubel Jesse H.
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
population and development review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.836
H-Index - 96
eISSN - 1728-4457
pISSN - 0098-7921
DOI - 10.1111/j.1728-4457.2001.00239.x
Subject(s) - hectare , per capita , geography , yield (engineering) , distribution (mathematics) , agroforestry , agricultural economics , population , agriculture , per capita income , population growth , natural resource economics , environmental protection , economics , environmental science , demography , mathematics , mathematical analysis , materials science , archaeology , sociology , metallurgy
Forests have recently expanded in many countries. The success of the world, including both rich and poor, in following this trend depends on future changes in population, income per capita, appetite, and crop yields. Extended to the year 2050, the strengths of these forces, estimated from experience, project cropland shrinking by nearly 200 million hectares, more than three times the land area of France. Changes in some of the forces, with crop yield the most manageable, could double the shrinkage. Reasonable assumptions about the forces can also make the distribution of spared land between rich and poor countries roughly equal. Although the encroachment factor translating cropland change into forest land change varies greatly, one‐third or more of the cropland spared could become forest.