Agriculture Is Taking Over Grasslands, Wetlands and Other Overlooked Ecosystems

Across the world, farmland is replacing some of our most important ecosystems.

We’ve known for years that agriculture is rapidly consuming forests — an issue the world urgently needs to tackle. Yet this problem doesn’t stop at the forest’s edge.

New research from WRI, Land & Carbon Lab, Rainforest Alliance, and the Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre indicates that the world lost as much as 95 million hectares of non-forest natural ecosystems, including grasslands, savannas and wetlands, to annual crops between 2005 and 2020. A comparable area (95 million hectares more) was likely converted to pasture. Together, this is an area nearly as large as Indonesia — and roughly 4 times the amount of forest that was lost to annual crops and pasture over the same period.

Though sometimes overlooked in conservation efforts, non-forest ecosystems are vital to people and the planet. Grasslands are estimated to hold between 20% and 35% of land-based carbon stores. Wetlands (with and without trees) hold another 20%-30%, despite covering much less area. Non-forest ecosystems provide crucial wildlife habitat, protect soil, sustain fresh water supplies, and underpin food security and livelihoods for over a billion people around the world.

Companies and governments alike have begun taking important steps to address deforestation driven by agriculture. But these policies and commitments often don't extend to non-forest ecosystems. Having a clearer picture of conversion across all ecosystems is critical to truly understanding and preventing further loss of grasslands, savannas and wetlands as well as forests.

This research offers a starting point, providing the first global look at which commodities are associated with ecosystem conversion outside of forests and where the impacts may be greatest.