Deforestation, Land Use and Climate Change: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Sustainability

The last few decades have seen global economies develop, with extreme poverty halving and average lifespans increasing by 6 years. However, the global economic growth pathways fail to adequately recognize or incorporate the impacts and dependencies of economic activity and human wellbeing on the environment. Global deforestation continues at about 10 million ha per year (FAO 2020), and natural ecosystems have declined by 47% (IPBES 2019), with land use change as the main driver for terrestrial habitats. However, this trend cannot persist as irreversible impacts have been triggered and important global ecosystems (e.g. rainforests) altered.

The Global North is still extracting and altering tropical environments to fuel their growing economies and fulfil consumer demand. But now that the planetary boundaries, resource limits and responsibilities of developed economies are increasingly recognized by governmental and non-governmental actors, an holistic approach that effectively changes global economic trends and impacts is necessary. A combination of agriculture innovation and development, consumers and producers’ responsibility and behavioral change, government policy interventions and international agreements can help tackle developmental challenges, and ensure a sustainable future.

This Research Topic will build on interdisciplinary research by social scientists, economists, ecologists, biologists and natural scientists to present the opportunities and research activities to tackle deforestation, climate change and sustainable land use management in forested landscapes. We invite papers on the following topics:
• Agriculture development and genetic diversification
• Forest management arrangements
• Land management and climate change
• Consumers’ behavior and influence on global supply chain
• Private sectors initiatives towards sustainable trade

Keywords: Deforestation, Land Use, Climate Change, Global North, sustainability

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.