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Owner: /C=DK/ST=NA/L=NA/O=IGN/OU=NA/CN=Alexander Prishchepov/emailAddress=alpr@ign.ku.dkName: Presentation of Florian Schierhorn given 2nd International Conference on Global Food Security 2015
Description:
The contribution of the collapse of the Soviet Union to deforestation and carbon emissions in Brazil
Presentation given during the International Conference on Global Food Security, Ithaca, NY, October 11-14, 2015
Authors & affiliations:
Florian Schierhorn1
Alexander Prishchepov1,2,3
Daniel Müller1,3,4
1 Leibniz Institute of Agricultural Development in Transition Economies (IAMO), Halle (Saale), Germany
2Department of Geosciences and Natural Resources Management, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
3 Geography Department, Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany
4 Integrative Research Institute on Transformations of Human-Environment Systems (IRI THESys), Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany
For any further information please contact: Dr. Florian Schierhorn Schierhorn@iamo.de
Abstract:
The collapse of the Russian livestock sector triggered widespread agricultural land abandonment in post-Soviet Russia. The beef industry declined in particular and, consequently, Russia became heavily dependent on beef imports, from Europe in the 1990s and from Brazil after 2002. Therefore, Russia substantially contributed to the growth of the Brazilian beef sector and fostered widespread agricultural land expansion and deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon. The beef trade from Brazil to Russia was associated with substantial environmental costs in terms of carbon emission and loss of biodiversity. While the abandoned agricultural land in Russia has become an important terrestrial carbon sink that would be largely diminished by re-cultivation, we argue that increasing agricultural output through re-cultivation or the expansion of grazing within Russia may be desirable from a global perspective, if the high environmental cost of production elsewhere are taken into account.
Date: 2015-10-21 19:29:33.611747
