Betts, Matthew G.; Yang, Zhiqiang; Hadley, Adam S.; Hightower, Jessica; Hua, Fangyuan; Lindenmayer, David; Seo, Eugene; Healey, Sean P. 2024. Quantifying forest degradation requires a long-term, landscape-scale approach. Nature Ecology & Evolution. doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-024-02409-5
Forests are spatially and temporally dynamic, such that forest degradation is best quantified across whole landscapes and over the long term. The European Union’s forest degradation policy, which focuses on contemporary primary forest conversion to plantations, ignores other globally prevalent forestry practices that can flip forests into a degraded state.