Foreign direct investments may fuel tropical deforestation

Foreign direct investment (FDI) in food systems are a major contributor to deforestation in tropical countries, an advanced machine learning model shows
Laws requiring deforestation-free exports are welcome but likely address only a fraction of forest loss potentially linked to FDI in food systems in domestic markets
Better regulation of FDI in domestic food production is needed to save more forest cover
FDI’s contribution to the “supermarketization” of diets in tropical regions is strongly linked to deforestation, pointing to the need for a food-systems-wide approach