TROPICAL DEFORESTATION AND CLIMATE-CHANGE

This article reviews the physical links between tropical rain forests and the atmosphere, and considers the results of studies which address the climatic impacts of deforestation. Tropical deforestation is wide ly believed to influence local, regional and possibly global climates. Although the relationship between deforestation and climate change is complex, there is a growing consensus that deforestation leads to war mer, drier climates. The consensus is based on experimental studies at the microscale and modelling studies at the global scale, supplemente d by a small number of observational studies at the local and regional scale. However, none of the local and regional studies examine both d eforestation and climate change in a rigorous manner, or consider the results in the context of synoptic-scale phenomena. Consequently, ther e is considerable uncertainty associated with the local and regional i mpacts of deforestation on the climate.