Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) forest cover reduced by 9% from 1990 to 2015, affecting biodiversity, climate change mitigation and ecosystem service functionality. These losses are caused by a myriad of interconnected, interdependent and often socio-economic processes, which forest vulnerability metrics largely ignore in their assessments. To address this, we develop the Deforestation Vulnerability Index (DVI) to identify spatial and temporal patterns of forest vulnerability from socio-economic processes. Composed of 13 socio-economic indicators, the DVI was applied to 24 LAC countries, and three provincial (sub-national) examples for the period 2000–2010. The DVI showed that vulnerability declined in more than 60% of countries, due to governance improvements and reductions in agricultural expansion. Provincial application of the index showed provinces to be more vulnerable than countries, due largely to higher economic dependence upon agriculture. Observed vulnerability reductions, whilst deforestation continues, may demonstrate a lag between socio-economic improvements and subsequent deforestation reductions, or the effects of omitted or unidentified vulnerability indicators. The DVI represents a simple, yet effective tool whose outputs could be used by policy-makers and stakeholders to source vulnerability at the scale of application, whilst assisting in directing reactive and responsive sustainable forest management strategies and decision-making.

从1990年到2015年，拉丁美洲和加勒比（LAC）森林覆盖率减少了9％，影响了生物多样性，减缓气候变化和生态系统服务功能。这些损失是由无数的相互联系，相互依存且往往是社会经济过程造成的，森林脆弱性指标在评估中很大程度上被忽略。为了解决这个问题，我们开发了毁林脆弱性指数（DVI），以从社会经济过程中识别森林脆弱性的时空格局。DVI由13个社会经济指标组成，已应用于24个拉丁美洲和加勒比国家和三个2000-2010年省级（地方以下）示例。DVI显示，由于治理的改进和农业扩张的减少，脆弱性在60％以上的国家有所下降。该指数的省级应用表明，省份比国家更脆弱，这主要是由于经济对农业的依赖性更高。在继续进行毁林的同时，观察到的减少脆弱性可能表明社会经济改善与随后减少毁林之间存在时滞，或者遗漏或不确定的脆弱性指标产生了影响。DVI是一种简单而有效的工具，决策者和利益相关者可以使用其输出来在应用规模上发现脆弱性，同时协助指导反应性和响应性的可持续森林管理策略和决策。可能会显示出社会经济改善与随后的森林砍伐减少之间的滞后，或遗漏或不确定的脆弱性指标的影响。DVI是一种简单而有效的工具，决策者和利益相关者可以使用其输出来在应用规模上发现脆弱性，同时协助指导反应性和响应性的可持续森林管理策略和决策。可能会显示出社会经济改善与随后的森林砍伐减少之间的滞后，或遗漏或不确定的脆弱性指标的影响。DVI是一种简单而有效的工具，决策者和利益相关者可以使用其输出来在应用规模上发现脆弱性，同时协助指导反应性和响应性的可持续森林管理策略和决策。