Matt Fagan and Ruth DeFries are lead authors on a paper in Environmental Research Letters
Matt Fagan and Ruth DeFries are lead authors on a paper in Environmental Research Letters “Land cover dynamics following a deforestation ban in northern Costa Rica”. The work assessed whether deforestation for conversion to pasture and cropland decreased in the lowlands of northern Costa Rica following the 1996 ban on forest clearing, despite a tripling of area under pineapple cultivation in the last decade. Results suggest that deforestation bans may protect mature forests better than older forest regrowth and may restrict clearing for large-scale crops more effectively than clearing for pasture. See the paper here.
