environmental damages accrued. First of all, many regions cleared foragriculture in the tropics have low yields compared with their temperatecounterparts. The authors of ref. 21 considered crop production andcarbon emissions resulting from deforestation and demonstrated thatthe balance of production gains to carbon losses was often poor intropical landscapes (Supplementary Fig. 3). Regions of tropical agricul-ture that do have high yields—particularly areas of sugarcane, oil palmand soybeans—typically do not contribute much to the world’s totalcalorie or protein supplies, especially when crops are used for feed orbiofuels. Nevertheless, such crops do provide income, and thereby con-tribute to poverty alleviation and food security to some sectors of thepopulation.Although ceasing the expansion of agriculture into tropical forestsmight have a negative—but probably small—impact on global crop pro-duction, losses can be offset elsewhere in the food system. Agriculturalproduction potential that is ‘lost’ by halting deforestation could be offsetby reducinglosses of productive farmland and improving yields on exist-ingcroplands.Thoughthe‘indirectlanduse’effectsofbiofuelproductionare thought to increase pressure on tropical forests52, it may also be truethat increasing food production in non-tropical zones might reducepressures on tropical forests.Economic drivers hold great sway over deforestation53–55. Ecologicallyfriendly economic incentives could play an important part in slowingforest loss: the proposed Reducing Emissions from Deforestation andDegradation (REDD) programme, market certification, and ecotourismall provideopportunities tobenefit economically fromforest protection5