Agriculture

Picture of soybean monoculture which often occurs in a deforested area by Machine Finder

The primary driver of land use change resulting in habitat loss in Latin America is agricultural expansion. Deforestation is occurring in order to make land available for cattle grazing and soybean cultivation, which is commonly exported to Asia and North America (Aide, 2004, Grau and Aide, 2008). The underlying factors that have driven agricultural expansion in the past include increased market demand for agricultural products, revaluation of exchange rates to support exports, and support programs for agricultural development (Diaz-Bonilla,2000). Below, novel figures show millions of hectares lost to deforestation each year between 1990 and 2000, and it's correlation with annual growth of gross domestic product (GDP).

Despite a growing yet destructive industry, the relationship between GDP growth and deforestation is not apparent between 1990 and 2000. Below, outliers Brazil and Argentina were omitted from the graph, though the relationship is still weak. Data from the World Bank and Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Average GDP growth per year shown with deforestation rate between 1990 and 2000. Data from the World Bank and Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Agriculture and agricultural based industries account for about 25% of the regional GDP in Latin America, and thus are incredibly important for regional economies and therefore future development (Diaz-Bonilla, 2000). In terms of recourses, the region is globally important, as it has 8% of the world’s population with 23% of the world’s arable land, 46% of the world’s tropical forest, and 31% of accessible freshwater (Diaz-Bonilla, 2000).

The novel figure above shows how little percentage of the world's population Latin America has, but how much of the natural resources it also has, including arable land, tropical forest, and accessible freshwater.

Preserving these resources is of paramount importance in the conservation realm, though this is difficult, as rural poverty in the region is supporting existence of small farms. 92% of farmer’s in Latin America cultivate parcels of less than 3 hectares (Diaz-Bonilla, 2000). Therin, farms lack investment in both infrastructure and human capital, and thus, there is a perpetual problem with developing more land to achieve increased harvest, which leads to more deforestation, and thus, the problem of agricultural expansion occurs.