The impact of near-real-time deforestation alerts across the tropics

ABSTRACT Reducing deforestation to mitigate climate change necessitates monitoring of deforestation activity. However, while freely available deforestation alerts on forest loss are

available, the effect of these alerts and the presence of subscribers in a particular area is unclear. Here, we show that subscriptions to alerts in 22 tropical countries decrease the

probability of deforestation in Africa by 18% relative to the average 2011–2016 levels. There is no effect on other continents, and the availability of alerts does not significantly change

deforestation outcomes. This decrease in Africa is higher in protected areas and concessions, suggesting that alerts either increased capacity to enforce existing deforestation policy or

induced the development of more effective anti-deforestation policies. Calculated using the social cost of carbon for avoided deforestation in Africa, we estimate the alert system’s value to

be between US$149 million and US$696 million. Access through your institution Buy or subscribe This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution ACCESS OPTIONS Access

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support SIMILAR CONTENT BEING VIEWED BY OTHERS DEFORESTATION REDUCES RAINFALL AND AGRICULTURAL REVENUES IN THE BRAZILIAN AMAZON Article Open access 10 May 2021 EVALUATING THE IMPACTS OF A

LARGE-SCALE VOLUNTARY REDD+ PROJECT IN SIERRA LEONE Article Open access 04 January 2024 RAPID REMOTE MONITORING REVEALS SPATIAL AND TEMPORAL HOTSPOTS OF CARBON LOSS IN AFRICA’S RAINFORESTS

Article Open access 04 March 2022 DATA AVAILABILITY Datasets analysed for this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request. CODE AVAILABILITY The codes used to

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of Near-real-time Deforestation Alerts Across the Tropics_ (Zenodo, 2020); https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4054099 Download references ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS We thank S. Jamilla, E. Goldman and I.

Collins for creating the database. We thank K. Chomitz, T. Coger, J. Engelmann, N. Harris, H. Nembhard, F. Stolle and N. Ullery and participants at the Environmental and Resources Seminar of

the University of Wisconsin-Madison and at the Applied Economics Seminar at Oregon State University for comments. We acknowledge funding from the World Resources Institute; the organization

had no input into the study design nor impact on the presentation of the results. AUTHOR INFORMATION AUTHORS AND AFFILIATIONS * Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, Center for

Sustainability and the Global Environment (SAGE), University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA Fanny Moffette * Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics, University of

Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA Fanny Moffette * Department of Applied Economics, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, USA Jennifer Alix-Garcia * Forests Team, World Resources

Institute, Washington, DC, USA Katherine Shea * Department of Geographical Sciences, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA Amy H. Pickens Authors * Fanny Moffette View author

publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Jennifer Alix-Garcia View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar *

Katherine Shea View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Amy H. Pickens View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed 

Google Scholar CONTRIBUTIONS F.M. and J.A.-G designed research, performed econometric analyses and led the writing. K.S. managed the data compilation and contributed to the writing. A.H.P

contributed to the database. CORRESPONDING AUTHOR Correspondence to Fanny Moffette. ETHICS DECLARATIONS COMPETING INTERESTS The authors declare no competing interests. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

PEER REVIEW INFORMATION _Nature Climate Change_ thanks Juliano Assunção, Johannes Reiche and Juan Robalino for their contribution to the peer review of this work. PUBLISHER’S NOTE Springer

Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION Supplement A GLAD

availability (including summary statistics, supplementary estimation results, Tables A1–A11 and Figs. A1 and A2), Supplement B Subscriptions (including description of subscription

classification, supplementary estimation results, and Tables B1–B22 and Figs. B1–B3) and Supplement C Review of other alert systems. REPORTING SUMMARY RIGHTS AND PERMISSIONS Reprints and

permissions ABOUT THIS ARTICLE CITE THIS ARTICLE Moffette, F., Alix-Garcia, J., Shea, K. _et al._ The impact of near-real-time deforestation alerts across the tropics. _Nat. Clim. Chang._

11, 172–178 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-020-00956-w Download citation * Received: 16 March 2020 * Accepted: 26 October 2020 * Published: 04 January 2021 * Issue Date: February

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