[en] The expansion of cattle in central western Brazil has been under scrutiny because of the region’s historic reliance on Amazon and Cerrado deforestation for cropland and pastureland expansion. In this study, we determined the volumetric water footprint (VWF) and the land footprint (LF) of cattle in Mato Grosso state for the years 2000, 2005, 2010 and 2014 using official statistics and remote sensing imagery. We found the average VWF of cattle for the time period to be 265–270 l kg⁻¹ LW⁻¹ (LW as live weight of cattle) and a LF which decreased from 71 to 47 m² kg⁻¹ LW⁻¹. The largest contribution to VWF came from farm impoundments whose total area increased from roughly 46 000 to 51 000 ha between 2000 and 2014, leading to a total evaporation as high as 7.31 × 10¹¹ l yr⁻¹ in 2014. Analysis at the municipality level showed a tendency towards greater density of cattle with respect to both pasture area and impoundments. While cattle intensification on current pastureland is commonly viewed as a means to prevent further deforestation and greenhouse gas emissions, we stress the need to also consider the increasing demand for water associated with a growing cattle herd and the potential appropriation of additional resources for feed for feedlot finishing. Land and water resource management need to be considered together for future planning of cattle intensification at the Brazilian agricultural frontier as illustrated by the footprints reported here. (letter)

[en] Commodity crop expansion, for both global and domestic urban markets, follows multiple land change pathways entailing direct and indirect deforestation, and results in various social and environmental impacts. Here we compare six published case studies of rapid commodity crop expansion within forested tropical regions. Across cases, between 1.7% and 89.5% of new commodity cropland was sourced from forestlands. Four main factors controlled pathways of commodity crop expansion: (i) the availability of suitable forestland, which is determined by forest area, agroecological or accessibility constraints, and land use policies, (ii) economic and technical characteristics of agricultural systems, (iii) differences in constraints and strategies between small-scale and large-scale actors, and (iv) variable costs and benefits of forest clearing. When remaining forests were unsuitable for agriculture and/or policies restricted forest encroachment, a larger share of commodity crop expansion occurred by conversion of existing agricultural lands, and land use displacement was smaller. Expansion strategies of large-scale actors emerge from context-specific balances between the search for suitable lands; transaction costs or conflicts associated with expanding into forests or other state-owned lands versus smallholder lands; net benefits of forest clearing; and greater access to infrastructure in already-cleared lands. We propose five hypotheses to be tested in further studies: (i) land availability mediates expansion pathways and the likelihood that land use is displaced to distant, rather than to local places; (ii) use of already-cleared lands is favored when commodity crops require access to infrastructure; (iii) in proportion to total agricultural expansion, large-scale actors generate more clearing of mature forests than smallholders; (iv) property rights and land tenure security influence the actors participating in commodity crop expansion, the form of land use displacement, and livelihood outcomes; (v) intensive commodity crops may fail to spare land when inducing displacement. We conclude that understanding pathways of commodity crop expansion is essential to improve land use governance. (letter)