International Trade Agreements, Globalization, Land Change, and Agricultural Food Networks

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This project will assess the impact of trade reform and globalization on forest biomes in tropical locales that have experienced profound economic changes over the past several decades. The investigators will analyze how maize (corn) and beef production chains have evolved as a consequence of changing trade policies and global economic forces and will link these factors to changes in the spatial distribution of forest cover across different regions. This project will provide new insights into the processes through which some forests experience deforestation while other areas exhibit forest recovery in response to evolving geographies of maize and beef production that have been strongly influenced by changing international trade patterns. The project will enhance basic understanding of the complex forest dynamics in which both deforestation and forest recovery occur simultaneously, and it will demonstrate the impact of trade reform and globalization on forest cover at a national scale, thereby offering an analysis of natural system dynamics during a time of global market integration. The project will provide education and training opportunities for graduate students, and project results will make available valuable information for policy makers seeking to maintain and enhance environmental quality during times of significant economic change.International trade agreement, globalization, and policy reform have reconfigured production systems for important commodities by opening national and international markets. These changes impact land-use systems, with implications for natural landscapes. Mexico has experienced trade liberalization and globalization following the General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs and the North American Free Trade Agreement. Other policy initiatives, such as the privatization of communal lands, have intensified environmental and social impacts. The investigators will examine how these kinds of reforms have refigured Mexico's land-change regime, which play a critical role as factors influencing the deforestation and forest recovery processes. Key questions to be pursued by the investigators are (1) How have trade reform and other economic policies affected the territoriality of maize and beef production chains? (2) To what extent does evolving chain territoriality explain the simultaneous loss and gain exhibited by forest biomes over recent decades? The investigators will gather data using a range of approaches, including statistical analyses of data on feedlots, spatial land-cover data for different forest biomes, and government census information. Although the research project will focus on economic and environmental system dynamics in Mexico, project findings will provide new insights for examination of comparable issues in the U.S. and elsewhere, and it will help enhance U.S. domestic and foreign policy.