Green Daily

According a report from the Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI), population growth and the increasing scarcity of food and fuel are going to wreak havoc in the world's tropical forests.

The report estimates that by the year 2030, 515 million hectares (1.27 billion acres) of extra land will be needed to grow food, wood and biofuels and roughly 315 million hectares (778 million acres) of that will have to come from existing tropical rainforests.

There are so many downsides to this scenario that it's hard to decide what order to list them in – more deforestation means more carbon emissions, less carbon storage, more climate change, more conflict over land, more use of water and other resources etc etc.

After 2030, the outlook gets downright gloomy. The report estimates that based on current trends, by 2050 the planet will require another 3 billion hectares (7.4 billion acres) of land to grow enough food for the human population. To put that into perspective, there are currently only 1.4 billion hectares (3.6 billion acres) of land currently under cultivation around the world.

The RRI is an organization dedicated principally to promoting improved forest management and advancing the rights of indigenous peoples who live in forested areas.

via [BBC News]