Global impacts of international food trade on biodiversity: Application of the telecoupling framework

International food trade is an important process that facilitates food supply and demand across the world 1. Since food production is a basis for food trade but threatens biodiversity in many ways (e.g., conversion of wildlife habitat to cropland) 2-4, understanding food trade among countries with and without biodiversity hotspots is essential for uncovering the causes of biodiversity loss and for identifying responsible parties. Using a comprehensive dataset from 1992 to 2011, we found that biodiversity hotspot countries accounted for 87% of global food supply and approximately 76% of global food export while living 91% of world population in 82% of terrestrial land areas. The main drivers of food trade are total food production, per capita food production, and income level. The percentage of biodiversity hotspots is positively associated with food export while anthropogenic factors (the percentages of agricultural area and urban population) influence food import. Along with rapidly increasing food productivity and agricultural intensification in hotspot countries, agricultural activities for export in hotspot countries increase possible threats to species. The results suggest that non-hotspot countries share the responsibility of biodiversity loss and emissions of greenhouse gasses from agriculture in biodiversity hotspot countries. New policies for the promotion of global incorporation, feedback embracement, the nurture of poor receiving countries, and food system enhancement in rich sending countries is needed to conserve biodiversity in the telecoupled world.