May 15, 2024 | Nature Sustainability | Source |
Introduction: Agroforestry, which integrates trees into agricultural landscapes, offers numerous ecological and socioeconomic benefits, including carbon sequestration, which makes it a key natural climate solution. In India, these trees are crucial, but there is a lack of robust monitoring to understand their distribution and vulnerability. Using satellite imagery, a research team based in University of Copenhagen in Denmark collaborates with researchers from UK and France in mapping 0.6 billion trees on Indian farmlands over the past decade. The study used high-resolution satellite imagery to track individual large trees, focusing on those with crown sizes greater than 10m².
Key findings: The analysis reveals that 11% of large trees from 2010/2011 disappeared by 2018. Additionally, over 5 million large trees vanished between 2018 and 2022, mainly due to changing agricultural practices where trees are viewed as obstacles to crop yields. Substantial losses occurred in certain regions, particularly central India, where up to 50% of large trees were removed. Interviews confirmed that many trees were cut down as farmers expanded paddy rice cultivation, aided by new water sources. Also, while tree plantations are increasing, these are often less ecologically valuable than mature trees.
The findings raise concerns about the loss of mature farmland trees, which play a critical role in biodiversity and agricultural sustainability. Despite efforts to plant more trees, the loss of mature ones could negatively impact ecosystems and livelihoods. The study highlights the need for ongoing monitoring and deeper investigation into the effects of agroforestry dynamics on India's landscapes.
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Figure | Disappearance of farmland trees 2018–2022. a, We estimate that 5.6 million trees have disappeared between 2018/2019 and 2020–2022, here shown per square kilometre. b, Zoom to a hotspot area in northwestern India where a substantial part of large farmland trees have disappeared over recent years. The arrow shows the location of the area within India. c, A PlanetScope scene captured in 2019, where trees classified as disappeared are still alive. The scene is shown as a false colour composite with near infrared as red colour, causing tree crowns to appear in reddish colours. The rectangle in b marks the location. d, A considerable number of the trees detected in 2019 are not present anymore in 2022, visualized here with a Google Earth basemap. The crown sizes of the disappeared trees here are >150 m2 (manually measured on the screen), which means trees were mature. Basemap in a from Natural Earth. Credit: b,d, Google Earth; c, Planet Labs PBC.