A study conducted in Colombia reveals that the destruction of tropical forests to create pastureland for cattle is having a negative impact on biodiversity far greater than previously thought.
Combining more than a decade of land-use data in the country with information on how sensitive each species is to habitat alteration, the researchers conclude that biodiversity loss caused by tropical forest clearing is, on average, 60% greater than earlier estimates.
They say that, until now, most studies on how biodiversity is affected by changes in land use have been limited by small-scale scopes that do not allow a clearer picture of the real impacts.
When forests fall, some species manage to thrive, perhaps even more than before, but others do not, and may even disappear from that location. Scientists say that “local snapshots,” though important, do not reveal that the large-scale picture is much worse in terms of biodiversity losses.
“This is a truly surprising result,” confesses David Edwards, from the University of Cambridge and one of the lead authors of the article detailing the discovery, published in the journal Ecology & Evolution.
“We found that biodiversity loss caused by clearing tropical forests to create pasture is being enormously underestimated,” he warns.
“When people want to understand the overall impact of deforestation on biodiversity, they tend to perform a local survey and extrapolate the results. But the problem is that tree removal is occurring at massive spatial scales, across all habitat types and elevations,” Edwards explains.
And he adds that “when we looked at the impact of deforestation on biodiversity across thirteen different eco-regions in Colombia, we found a biodiversity loss 62% greater than what local surveys indicate.”
