Papers by Patrick Meyfroidt
Ecological Economics, 2015
The consumption of internationally traded goods causes multiple socio-environmental impacts. Curr... more The consumption of internationally traded goods causes multiple socio-environmental impacts. Current methods linking production impacts to final consumption typically trace the origin of products back to the country level, lacking fine-scale spatial resolution. This hampers accurate calculation of trade and consumption footprints, masking and distorting the causal links between consumers' choices and their environmental impacts, especially in countries with large spatial variability in socio-environmental conditions and production impacts. Here we present the SEI-PCS model (Spatially Explicit Information on Production to Consumption Systems), which allows for fine-scale sub-national assessments of the origin of, and socio-environmental impacts embedded in, traded commodities. The method connects detailed production data at sub-national scales (e.g., municipalities or provinces), information on domestic flows of goods and in international trade. The model permits the downscaling of country-to-country trade analyses based on either physical allocation from bilateral trade matrices or MRIO models. The importance of producing more spatially-explicit trade analyses is illustrated by identifying the municipalities of Brazil from which different countries source the Brazilian soy they consume. Applications for improving consumption accounting and policy assessment are discussed, including quantification of externalities of consumption, consumer labeling, trade leakages, sustainable resource supply and traceability. (J. Godar), [email protected] (U.M. Persson), [email protected] (E.J. Tizado), [email protected] (P. Meyfroidt).
PloS one, 2014
The ecosystem services (ES) concept has emerged and spread widely recently, to enhance the import... more The ecosystem services (ES) concept has emerged and spread widely recently, to enhance the importance of preserving ecosystems through global change in order to maintain their benefits for human well-being. Numerous studies consider various dimensions of the interactions between ecosystems and land use via ES, but integrated research addressing the complete feedback loop between biodiversity, ES and land use has remained mostly theoretical. Few studies consider feedbacks from ecosystems to land use systems through ES, exploring how ES are taken into account in land management decisions. To fill this gap, we carried out a role-playing game to explore how ES cognition mediates feedbacks from environmental change on farmers' behaviors in a mountain grassland system. On a close to real landscape game board, farmers were faced with changes in ES under climatic and socio-economic scenarios and prompted to plan for the future and to take land management decisions as they deemed necessa...
Land Use Policy, 2015
ABSTRACT In 1994, Cameroon enacted a national forest law redefining the legal framework of forest... more ABSTRACT In 1994, Cameroon enacted a national forest law redefining the legal framework of forest use, thereby pioneering forest-related institutional reforms in Central Africa. This law provided the legal basis for the implementation of a land use zoning separating forested areas in a permanent (PFE) and non-permanent forest estate (NPFE). The PFE includes forests dedicated to protection but also to production. Although conversion to other land uses is legally prohibited, non-forest activities are sometimes present inside this estate. The NPFE comprises remaining forestlands that may be cleared, or managed by local communities through community forests. The objective of this study was to assess the effectiveness of this land use zoning for reducing deforestation and forest degradation. We used Landsat ETM+ images to analyze land cover changes between 2002 and 2010 by combining seven change detection methods. The analysis was focused on forests within and around zoning units, to evaluate possible leakage effects. We used matching to control for the effects of other variables that may influence forest cover dynamics, and thus to obtain unbiased estimates of the effectiveness of land zoning. We separated units that were only legally prescribed from those actually managed during the study period. Community surveys were conducted to assess the local perceptions of the efficacy of the land zoning. Comparison of matched samples of points showed that the land use zoning in Cameroon has effectively curtailed deforestation in the PFE. Deforestation and forest degradation were lower in units aiming primarily at forestry production compared to a rigorous counterfactual. Community forests exhibited similar rates of deforestation and forest degradation than the control groups. These results were confirmed by the community surveys. No leakage was detected. This study shows that forest production units as implemented through a land use zoning policy can be an effective tool to control deforestation in Central Africa.
Nature Climate Change, 2014
Anthropogenic changes to land cover (LCC) remain common, but continuing land scarcity promotes th... more Anthropogenic changes to land cover (LCC) remain common, but continuing land scarcity promotes the widespread intensification of land management changes (LMC) to better satisfy societal demand for food, fibre, fuel and shelter 1 . The biophysical e ects of LCC on surface climate are largely understood 2-5 , particularly for the boreal 6 and tropical zones 7 , but fewer studies have investigated the biophysical consequences of LMC; that is, anthropogenic modification without a change in land cover type. Harmonized analysis of ground measurements and remote sensing observations of both LCC and LMC revealed that, in the temperate zone, potential surface cooling from increased albedo is typically o set by warming from decreased sensible heat fluxes, with the net e ect being a warming of the surface. Temperature changes from LMC and LCC were of the same magnitude, and averaged 2 K at the vegetation surface and were estimated at 1.7 K in the planetary boundary layer. Given the spatial extent of land management (42-58% of the land surface) this calls for increasing the e orts to integrate land management in Earth System Science to better take into account the human impact on the climate 8 .
Uploads
Papers by Patrick Meyfroidt