Abstract: Habitat loss is one of the greatest threats to biodiversity worldwide. As globalization widens the geographic reach of trade connections, countries increasingly drive environmental changes internationally by importing goods produced in other countries. To date, we have little information about how countries cause biodiversity loss outside of their borders through their influence on international land use change. Here, we quantify the global habitat loss to forest vertebrates from 2001-2015 caused by deforestation attributable to economically developed countries via their consumption of products through global supply chains. We show that those countries have driven greatly more biodiversity loss internationally than domestically, and map global hotspots of internationally driven biodiversity loss. International impacts were concentrated geographically, and we identify the fundamental factors that structure this pattern. Impacts were strongly influenced by distance between species ranges and driver countries, as well as by the long-range trade of specific commodities. We identify international linkages that have had the strongest effects on biodiversity as a whole, as well as more specifically on the most vulnerable species. Our study shows that rich countries cause significantly more biodiversity loss from land use change outside of their borders than within, and quantifies the geographic patterns and drivers of their influence on global biodiversity.
