Tropical forests are vital for global biodiversity, carbon storage and local livelihoods, yet they are increasingly under threat from human activities. Large-scale land acquisitions have emerged as an important mechanism linking global resource demands to forests in the Global South, yet their influence on tropical deforestation remains unclear. Here we perform a multicountry assessment of the links between large-scale land acquisitions and tropical forest loss by combining a new georeferenced database of 82,403 individual land deals—covering 15 countries in Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia—with data on annual forest cover and loss between 2000 and 2018. We find that land acquisitions cover between 6% and 59% of study-country land area and between 2% and 79% of their forests. Compared with non-investment areas, large-scale land acquisitions were granted in areas of higher forest cover in 11 countries and had higher forest loss in 52% of cases. Oil palm, wood fibre and tree plantations were consistently linked with enhanced forest loss while logging and mining concessions showed a mix of outcomes. Our findings demonstrate that large-scale land acquisitions can lead to elevated deforestation of tropical forests, highlighting the role of local policies in the sustainable management of these ecosystems.

热带森林对全球生物多样性，碳储存和当地生计至关重要，但它们正日益受到人类活动的威胁。大规模征地已成为将全球资源需求与全球南部森林联系起来的重要机制，但其对热带森林砍伐的影响尚不清楚。在这里，我们通过结合新的地理参考数据库，对82,403份土地交易（涵盖拉丁美洲，撒哈拉以南非洲和东南亚的15个国家）与年度数据进行了结合，从而对大规模土地收购与热带森林流失之间的联系进行了多国评估2000年至2018年之间的森林覆盖率和损失。我们发现，土地收购覆盖了研究国家土地面积的6％至59％，森林面积的2％至79％。与非投资领域相比，在11个国家的森林覆盖率较高的地区批准了大规模土地收购，在52％的案例中森林损失率更高。油棕，木纤维和树木的种植与森林流失的增加始终保持联系，而伐木和采矿特许权则显示出多种结果。我们的研究结果表明，大规模征地可能导致热带森林的滥砍滥伐，突出了地方政策在这些生态系统的可持续管理中的作用。