Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-t5pn6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-18T07:39:13.765Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Impacts of internal and external policies on land change in Uruguay, 2001–2009

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 February 2012

DANIEL J. REDO ,
T. MITCHELL AIDE ,
MATTHEW L. CLARK  and
MARÍA JOSÉ ANDRADE-NÚÑEZ
DANIEL J. REDO*
Affiliation:
Department of Biology, University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras, PO Box 23360, San Juan 00931-3360, Puerto Rico
T. MITCHELL AIDE
Affiliation:
Department of Biology, University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras, PO Box 23360, San Juan 00931-3360, Puerto Rico
MATTHEW L. CLARK
Affiliation:
Center for Interdisciplinary Geospatial Analysis, Department of Geography and Global Studies, Sonoma State University, Rohnert Park, California 94928, USA
MARÍA JOSÉ ANDRADE-NÚÑEZ
Affiliation:
Department of Biology, University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras, PO Box 23360, San Juan 00931-3360, Puerto Rico
*
*Correspondence: Dr Daniel Redo Tel: +1 601 434 6006 e-mail: dredo81@yahoo.com
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

Policies play a pivotal role in determining land change. Uruguay has been subject to first a rise and then decline in plantations of exotic trees as a result of internal Uruguayan government policies, and a recent substantial increase in soybean cultivation that may be attributed to Argentinean policies. To properly assess the relationship between land change and changes in land-use policies, vegetation change for Uruguay from 2001 to 2009 was mapped using MODIS imagery. Between 2001 and 2009, the area covered by exotic tree plantations declined by 1435 km2, and 34 681 km2 of herbaceous cover was converted to agricultural cover, mainly soybean cultivation. Uruguay and Argentina implemented land-use policy changes following the 2002 economic collapse. Rapid increase in exotic tree plantations, mainly in the 1990s, may have been stimulated by Uruguayan government incentives, while their recent decline coincides with the subsequent elimination of these incentives. The rapid increase in soybean production may be largely attributed to recent tax regimes in Argentina and lack of export tax in Uruguay combining to provide a favourable financial climate for Uruguayan soybean cultivation. Soybean cultivation is predicted to continue to expand in Uruguay, while exotic tree plantations should also increase in importance owing to the recent establishment of the world's largest pulp mill.

Keywords

agricultureArgentinaexotic treesforestryland-cover changeland-use changesoybeanUruguay
Type
Papers
Information
Environmental Conservation , Volume 39 , Issue 2 , June 2012 , pp. 122 - 131
Copyright
Copyright © Foundation for Environmental Conservation 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Achard, F., Mollicone, D., Stibig, H.J., Aksenov, D., Laestadius, L., Li, Z.Y., Popatov, P. & Yaroshenko, A. (2006) Areas of rapid forest-cover change in Boreal Eurasia. Forest Ecology and Management 237 (1–3): 322–334.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Andrade-Núñez, M.J. & Aide, T.M. (2010) Effects of habitat and landscape characteristics on medium and large mammal species richness and composition in northern Uruguay. Zoologia 27 (6): 909–917.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baldi, G. & Paruelo, J.M. (2008) Land-use and land cover dynamics in South American temperate grasslands. Ecology and Society 13 (2): 6 [www document] URL http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol13/iss2/art6/CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barrios, J.J., Gandelman, N. & Michelin, G. (2010) Analysis of several productive development policies in Uruguay. IDB (Inter-American Development Bank) Working Paper Series No. IDB-WP-130. Universidad ORT Uruguay, Montevideo, Uruguay.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brannstrom, C.B., Jepson, W., Filippi, A.M., Redo, D., Xu, Z. & Ganesh, S. (2008) Land change in the Brazilian savanna (Cerrado), 1986–2002, comparative analysis and implications for land-use policy. Land Use Policy 25: 579–595.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Breiman, L. (2001) Random forests. Machine Learning 45: 5–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clark, M.L. & Aide, T.M. (2011) Virtual interpretation of Earth Web-Interface Tool (VIEW-IT) for collecting land-use/land-cover reference data. Remote Sensing 3: 601–620.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clark, M.L., Aide, T.M., Grau, H.R. & Riner, G. (2010) A scalable approach to mapping annual land-cover at 250-m using MODIS time-series data: a case study in the Dry Chaco ecoregion of South America. Remote Sensing of the Environment 114: 2816–2832.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clement, F., Orange, D., Williams, M., Mulley, C. & Epprecht, M. (2009) Drivers of afforestation in Northern Vietnam: assessing local variations using geographically weighted regression. Applied Geography 29 (4): 561–576.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Craze, M. & Rebella, J. (2008) Uruguay land prices double as farm policies lure Soros, Marfrig. Bloomberg [www document]. URL http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aq2Pp9RWiPy0&refer=exclusiveGoogle Scholar
Dirección General Forestal (2010) Boletín Estadístico. Ministerio de Ganadería, Agricultura y Pesca, Uruguay [www document]. URL http://www.mgap.gub.uy/Google Scholar
EcoMetrix (2006) Cumulative impact study of Uruguay's pulp mills, Annex B: plantations. International Finance Corporation, World Bank Group, Washington, DC, USA [www document]. URL http://www.docstoc.com/docs/50721191/Cumulative-Impact-Study-Uruguay-Pulp-MillsGoogle Scholar
FAO (2010) Global Forest Resources Assessment 2010. Rome, Italy: Forestry Department.Google Scholar
FAOSTAT (2010) Crop production [www document]. URL http://faostat.fao.org/site/567/default.aspx#ancorGoogle Scholar
Geary, T.F. (2001) Afforestation in Uruguay: study of a changing landscape. Journal of Forestry 99 (7): 35–39.Google Scholar
Geist, H.J. & Lambin, E.F. (2002) Proximate causes and underlying driving forces of tropical deforestation. BioScience 52 (2): 143–150.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huete, A., Didan, K., Miura, T., Rodriguez, E.P., Gao, X. & Ferreira, L.G. (2002) Overview of the radiometric and biophysical performance of the MODIS vegetation indices. Remote Sensing of Environment 83: 195–213.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
INE (2011) Proyecciones de la población [www document]. URL http://www.ine.gub.uy/socio-demograficos/proyecciones2008.aspGoogle Scholar
ISRIC (2005) Soil and Terrain Database for Latin America and Caribbean (SOTERLAC). ISRIC, World Soil Information, Wageningen, The Netherlands [www document]. URL http://www.isric.org/projects/soter-latin-america-and-caribbean-soterlacGoogle Scholar
Jensen, J.R. (2007) Remote Sensing of the Environment: An Earth Resource Perspective. Upper Saddle River, NJ, USA: Prentice-Hall, Inc.Google Scholar
Kuemmerle, T., Kozak, J., Radeloff, V.C. & Hostert, P. (2009) Differences in forest disturbance among land ownership types in Poland during and after socialism. Journal of Land Use Science 4 (1–2): 73–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lambin, E.F., Geist, H.J. & Lepers, E. (2003) Dynamics of land-use and land-cover change in tropical regions. Annual Review of Environmental Resources 28: 205–241.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mendell, B., Morales, V., Bennadji, Z., Moreno, A. & Siry, J. (2007) Financing Uruguay's forestry sector: survey and case study. Journal of Forestry 105 (3): 125–130.Google Scholar
Olmos, V.M. & Siry, J.P. (2009) Economic impact evaluation of Uruguay forest sector development policy. Journal of Forestry 107 (2): 63–68.Google Scholar
Olson, D.M., Dinerstein, E., Wikramanaya, E.D., Neil, K.E., Burgess, D., Powell, G.V.N., Underwood, E.C., D'Amico, J.A., Itoua, I., Strand, H.E., Morrison, J.C., Loucks, C.J., Allnutt, T.F., Ricketts, T.H., Kura, Y., Lamoreux, J.F., Wettengel, W.W., Hedao, P. & Kassem, K.R. (2001) Terrestrial ecoregions of the world: a new map of life on earth. BioScience 51 (11): 933–938.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Patterson, M.W. & Hoalst-Pullen, N. (2011) Dynamic equifinality: the case of south-central Chile's evolving forest landscape. Applied Geography 31 (2): 641–649.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Psetizki, V. (2011) Labour shortages threaten Uruguay's prosperity. BBC News Business [www document]. URL http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12277806Google Scholar
Redo, D., Millington, A.C. & Hindery, D. (2011) Deforestation dynamics and policy changes in Bolivia's post-neoliberal era. Land Use Policy 28: 227–241.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Snoeck, M., Casacuberta, C., Domingo, R., Pastori, H. & Pittaluga, L. (2007) The emergence of new successful export activities in Uruguay. Report. IADB Project: Latin American Research Network, Universidad de la República, Montevideo, Uruguay.Google Scholar
Torres, J.M. & Fossati, A. (2004) Estudio de tendencias y perspectivas del sector forestal en América Latina. Documento de Trabajo. Informe Nacional Uruguay. FAO, Rome, Italy [www document]. URL http://www.fao.org/docrep/007/j2807s/j2807s00.htmGoogle Scholar
USDA (2009) Uruguay, Oilseeds, Annual 2009. GAIN Report Number UY 9003 [www document]. URL http://gain.fas.usda.gov/Recent%20GAIN%20Publications/Commodity%20Report_OILSEEDS%20_Buenos%20Aires_Uruguay_4–30-2009.pdfGoogle Scholar
USDA (2010) Uruguay, Oilseeds and Products Annual, 2010. GAIN Report [www document]. URL http://gain.fas.usda.gov/Recent%20GAIN%20Publications/Oilseeds%20and%20Products%20Annual_Buenos%20Aires_Uruguay_4-15-2010.pdfGoogle Scholar
van Meijl, H., van Rheenen, T., Tabeau, A. & Eickhout, B. (2006) The impact of different policy environments on agricultural land use in Europe. Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment 114 (1): 21–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
WDPA (2011) The World Database on Protected Areas (WDPA): January 2011. IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) and UNEP-WCMC (United Nations Environment Programme-World Conservation Monitoring Centre), Cambridge, UK [www document]. URL http://www.wdpa.org/Google Scholar
Zibechi, R. (2008) The soybean crop in Uruguay: the creation of a power block. Americas Program [www document]. URL http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1378/1/Google Scholar