This is how much different commodities contribute to deforestation
From cattle, to oil palm and soy, these seven agricultural commodities accounted for 71.9 million hectares of deforestation between 2001 and 2015.
Elizabeth (Liz) is a GIS Research Associate for Global Forest Watch (GFW). She conducts geospatial analysis on global forest change data and supports the creation of new GFW data, maps, and research publications. Her research focuses on Central Africa, where she studies forest change dynamics in the Congo Basin using spatial modeling and statistics.
Prior to joining the World Resources Institute, Liz served as the GIS Manager at KaBOOM! and developed their play desert mapping initiative. She worked with cities to use data and maps for the creation of equitable child and play related policies and infrastructure investments. Previously, Liz worked at MDA Information Systems on global GIS and remote sensing projects. She is active in the GISCorps community and volunteers to support GIS needs in disaster stricken areas.
Liz holds a B.S. in Environmental Science from the University of California at Berkeley and a Masters of City Planning from the University of Pennsylvania, where she focused her studies on Environmental Planning and GIS.
From cattle, to oil palm and soy, these seven agricultural commodities accounted for 71.9 million hectares of deforestation between 2001 and 2015.
The tropics lost 11.9 million hectares of tree cover in 2019, according to data from the University of Maryland.
Despite a fall in rainforest loss from 2017 to 2018, the three-year moving average continues to rise.
Tree cover loss and deforestation pose a major risk to tropical forests, with significant impacts on biodiversity and our climate.