Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Matters Arising
  • Published:

Overestimating outsourced biodiversity loss may misguide policy

Nature volume 652, pages E11–E13 (2026) Cite this article

Subjects

Matters Arising to this article was published on 29 April 2026

The Original Article was published on 12 February 2025

arising from: R. A. Wiebe & D. S. Wilcove. Nature https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-08569-5 (2025).

Wiebe and Wilcove1 provide an important and timely analysis on how outsourced deforestation causes biodiversity loss. Yet, we are concerned that their analysis wrongly attributes forest loss through shifting cultivation to international commodity trade, leading to erroneous conclusions on where developed countries inflict harm on vertebrates in distant countries. We illustrate this using their own key example, vanilla exports from Madagascar, which we show is not responsible for species’ range losses, building on substantial evidence on shifting cultivation and commodity cropping in Madagascar. We further argue that a closer engagement with place-based research and local scientists could have avoided overestimating and mislocating the outsourced share of biodiversity loss, reducing the risk of misguided policies.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on SpringerLink
  • Instant access to the full article PDF.

USD 39.95

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: Maps illustrating the overestimation of the outsourced share of biodiversity loss in eastern Madagascar.
The alternative text for this image may have been generated using AI.

References

  1. Wiebe, R. A. & Wilcove, D. S. Global biodiversity loss from outsourced deforestation. Nature 639, 389–394 (2025).

    Article  ADS  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Zaehringer, J. G., Eckert, S. & Messerli, P. Revealing regional deforestation dynamics in north-eastern Madagascar—insights from multi-temporal land cover change analysis. Land 4, 454–474 (2015).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Martin, D. A. et al. Land-use trajectories for sustainable land system transformations: Identifying leverage points in a global biodiversity hotspot. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 119, e2107747119 (2022).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  4. Llopis, J. C. et al. Effects of protected area establishment and cash crop price dynamics on land use transitions 1990–2017 in north-eastern Madagascar. J. Land Use Sci. 14, 52–80 (2019).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Sims, M. J. et al. Global drivers of forest loss at 1 km resolution. Environ. Res. Lett. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/add606 (2025).

  6. Andriatsitohaina, R. N. N., Laby, P., Llopis, J. C. & Martin, D. A. Agroforestry in Madagascar: past, present, and future. Agrofor. Syst. 98, 1659–1680 (2024).

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  7. Hoang, N. T. & Kanemoto, K. Mapping the deforestation footprint of nations reveals growing threat to tropical forests. Nat. Ecol. Evol. 5, 845–853 (2021).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Wurz, A. et al. Win-win opportunities combining high yields with high multi-taxa biodiversity in tropical agroforestry. Nat. Commun. 13, 4127 (2022).

    Article  ADS  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  9. Martin, D. A. et al. Shade-tree rehabilitation in vanilla agroforests is yield neutral and may translate into landscape-scale canopy cover gains. Ecosystems 24, 1253–1267 (2021).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Martin, D. A. et al. Land-use history determines ecosystem services and conservation value in tropical agroforestry. Conserv. Lett. 13, e12740 (2020).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Vieilledent, G. et al. Combining global tree cover loss data with historical national forest cover maps to look at six decades of deforestation and forest fragmentation in Madagascar. Biol. Conserv. 222, 189–197 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Curtis, P. G., Slay, C. M., Harris, N. L., Tyukavina, A. & Hansen, M. C. Classifying drivers of global forest loss. Science 361, 1108–1111 (2018).

    Article  ADS  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  13. Renier, C. et al. Direct and indirect deforestation for cocoa in the tropical moist forests of Ghana. Environ. Res. Food Syst. 2, 025006 (2025).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Nath, A. J., Reang, D. & Sileshi, G. W. The Shifting Cultivation Juggernaut: An Attribution Problem. Glob. Chall. 6, 2200051 (2022).

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  15. Rakotonarivo, O. S. & Andriamihaja, O. R. Global North–Global South research partnerships are still inequitable. Nat. Hum. Behav. 7, 2042–2043 (2023).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Environmental Sciences, Wageningen University, Wageningen, Netherlands

    Dominic A. Martin

  2. École Supérieure des Sciences Agronomiques, University of Antananarivo, Antananarivo, Madagascar

    R. Ntsiva N. Andriatsitohaina & O. Sarobidy Rakotonarivo

  3. Wyss Academy for Nature, Bern, Switzerland

    R. Ntsiva N. Andriatsitohaina & Julie G. Zaehringer

  4. Department of Geography, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

    Estelle Raveloaritiana

  5. Department of Biology, University of Marburg, Marburg, Germany

    Annemarie Wurz

  6. Institute of Geography, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland

    Julie G. Zaehringer

  7. Centre for Development and Environment, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland

    Julie G. Zaehringer

Authors
  1. Dominic A. Martin
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

  2. R. Ntsiva N. Andriatsitohaina
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

  3. O. Sarobidy Rakotonarivo
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Estelle Raveloaritiana
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Annemarie Wurz
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Julie G. Zaehringer
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

Conceptualization: D.A.M., R.N.N.A., O.S.R., E.R., A.W. and J.G.Z. Investigation and visualization: D.A.M. Validation: D.A.M., R.N.N.A., O.S.R., E.R., A.W. and J.G.Z. Writing—original draft: D.A.M. Writing—review and editing: R.N.N.A., O.S.R., E.R., A.W. and J.G.Z.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Dominic A. Martin.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Additional information

Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Martin, D.A., Andriatsitohaina, R.N.N., Rakotonarivo, O.S. et al. Overestimating outsourced biodiversity loss may misguide policy. Nature 652, E11–E13 (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-026-10370-5

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Version of record:

  • Issue date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-026-10370-5

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing