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Warning from tropical deforestation reduces worker productivity in rural communities

Environmental Studies and Forestry

Warning from tropical deforestation reduces worker productivity in rural communities

Y. J. Masuda, T. Garg, et al.

This groundbreaking study by Yuta J. Masuda and colleagues reveals that tropical deforestation significantly diminishes worker productivity in rural Indonesia, with deforested areas showing an 8.22% drop in productivity. This is linked to increased heat exposure, affecting workers’ efficiency and highlighting the vital role of forests in regulating local climates.

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~3 min • Beginner • English
Abstract
The accelerating loss of tropical forests in the 21st century has eliminated cooling services provided by trees in low latitude countries. Cooling services can protect rural communities and outdoor workers with little adaptive capacity from adverse heat exposure, which is expected to increase with climate change. Yet little is still known about whether cooling services can mitigate negative impacts of heat on labor productivity among rural outdoor workers. Through a field experiment in Indonesia, we show that worker productivity was 8.22% lower in deforested relative to forested settings, where wet bulb globe temperatures were, on average, 2.84 °C higher in deforested settings. We demonstrate that productivity losses are driven by behavioral adaptations in the form of increased number of work breaks, and provide evidence that suggests breaks are in part driven by awareness of heat effects on work. Our results indicate that the cooling services from forests have the potential for increasing resilience and adaptive capacity to local warming.
Publisher
Nature Communications
Published On
Mar 01, 2021
Authors
Yuta J. Masuda, Teevrat Garg, Ike Anggraeni, Kristie Ebi, Jennifer Krenz, Edward T. Game, Nicholas H. Wolff, June T. Spector
Tags
deforestation
worker productivity
tropical regions
heat exposure
field experiment
forest services
climate resilience
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