Most deforestation studies have focused on characterizing net changes in the area of “forest" and “non-forest" over time and neglect many important land use dynamics.

However, tropical landscapes are highly dynamic and complex: they experience cycles of clearing, cultivation, grazing and secondary forest re-growth, resulting in a complex mosaic of intact rainforest, agricultural lands under varying management regimes, and recovering secondary forests.

Understanding the geographic and temporal differences in the pathways and patterns of tropical land use following deforestation is critical to quantifying the impacts on tropical forest ecosystems and has important implications for predicting future deforestation dynamics. We have tracked the changing fate of deforested land across the tropics using a large library of classified Landsat imagery.

The land use following deforestation varies across the seven major tropical regions and between the 1980s and 1990s. Preliminary analysis indicates that patterns of agricultural intensification in South America are reducing forest regrowth and fallow while simultaneously increasing the amount of mature forest cleared for permanent agriculture.

About Holly Gibbs
Holly Gibbs is a Ph.D. candidate in the Center for Sustainability and the Global Environment (SAGE) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Holly´sstudiesinterdisciplinary science questions focused on tropical land use and carbon emissions.

She is currently serving as a science advisor on climate science issues related to tropical deforestation for the Coalition for Rainforest Nations and climate negotiators from developing countries.