Revealing land control dynamics in emerging agricultural frontiers

New paper by Olivia del Giorgio and colleagues out in PNAS now!

The expansion of commodity agriculture is the leading driver of deforestation globally, which makes it crucial that we capture it accurately. Yet the way we monitor agricultural commodity frontiers typically overlooks early dynamics of land claiming that precede deforestation. As a result, agricultural frontiers only become apparent when it is too late. Here, we develop an approach to map land claiming and apply it to the Gran Chaco, a global deforestation hotspot. We reveal that land claiming extends well beyond deforestation fronts and into what would appear like intact forests. Our approach can serve as a tool for the targeting of policies to protect dry woodlands and the many people who depend on them.

See the full paper here: del Giorgio, O., Baumann, M., Kuemmerle, T., & le Polain de Waroux, Y. (2025). Revealing land control dynamics in emerging agricultural frontiers. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 122 (23), e2407916122.