Property-level assessment of change in forest clearing patterns: The need for tailoring policy in the Amazon

Assunção, Juliano; Gandour, Clarissa; Pessoa, Pedro; Rocha, Romero

doi:10.1016/j.landusepol.2017.04.022

Cited by 30 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…Dairy production, in contrast, is a much smaller operation: dairy cattle make up only 5% of cattle in the Legal Amazon (IBGE 2015a), and dairy farming is primarily practiced by family farms (see online supplementary appendix, figure A1). Smallholder deforestation is less controlled than deforestation on larger properties because the Brazilian satellite monitoring system cannot detect deforested patches less than 25 hectares in size, and because it is less costeffective to patrol small clearings than large ones (Godar et al 2014;Assunc¸ão et al 2017a). Both these features of enforcement mean that dairy producers may not have perceived a change in the attractiveness of forest clearing.…”

Section: Propositionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Agricultural Productivity and Forest Conservation: Evidence from the Brazilian Amazon

Koch

Ermgassen

Wehkamp

et al. 2019

American J Agri Economics

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A mix of public policy and market interventions in the mid‐2000s led to historic reductions in deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon. The collateral impact of these forest conservation policies on agricultural production is still poorly understood, though evidence is sorely needed given the economic importance of agriculture in Brazil and many other forest‐rich countries. We construct a ten‐year panel dataset for agriculture and deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon (2004–2014), and use two complementary difference‐in‐difference strategies to estimate the causal effect of one of Brazil's flagship anti‐deforestation strategies, the Priority List (Municípios Prioritários), on agricultural production and productivity in three sectors: beef, dairy, and crop production. We find no evidence for trade‐offs between agriculture and forest conservation. Rather, reductions in deforestation in priority municipalities were paired with increases in cattle production and productivity (cattle/hectare), consistent with a model where policy‐induced decreases in the value of clearing new land cause credit‐constrained farmers to shift investments from deforestation to capital investments in farming. The policy had no consistent effect on dairy or crop production. Our results suggest that in regions with large yield gaps and where technologies for increasing yields are readily available, efforts to constrain agricultural expansion through improved forest conservation policies may induce intensification.

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Section: Propositionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Agricultural Productivity and Forest Conservation: Evidence from the Brazilian Amazon

Koch

Ermgassen

Wehkamp

et al. 2019

American J Agri Economics

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“…Civil society and the scientific community have been pushing for an expansion of market barriers to the Cerrado biome, referring to the positive outcome in the Amazon biome (Azevedo et al, 2017;Gibbs et al, 2015;Nepstad et al, 2014). Such an intervention may be effective in reducing land-use-related emissions as ownership of AGC stock in this biome is dominated by large-scale landholders, who are particularly sensitive to trade restrictions and strongly influ- Gandour, Pessoa et al, 2017;Godar et al, 2014;Richards & Vanwey, 2015 contribute positively to local and regional economies, it may result in the displacement of native vegetation, with associated impacts on important ecosystem services and biodiversity (Santos, Leal, Almeida-Cortez, Fernandes, & Tabarelli, 2011). Given the large share of unprotected native vegetation in this biome (Figure 3, Table S8), such impacts could be severe and therefore deserve further investigation.…”

Section: Conservation Policies For Unprotected Agcmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The CAR is a comprehensive nationwide geo-referenced information source on private rural properties, a widely recognized tool for transparency in the monitoring of legal compliance with environmental legislation (Alarcon et al, 2015;Assunc ßão, Gandour, Pessoa et al, 2017;Gibbs et al, 2015;Soares-Filho et al, 2014). CAR and other existing law enforcement tools-such as the DETER system, which provides real-time deforestation detection, and the PRODES project, which monitors deforestation of the Amazon rainforest at a fine resolution-are expected to make public governance of native vegetation on private land more effective .…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In this new scenario of improved law enforcement and increased accountability for illegal deforestation, spatially explicit assessment of the extent of public governance protection is of particular importance to orient public intervention and furnish the formulation of much needed policies aimed to preserve nature beyond the limits of existing public mechanisms of protection (Assunc ßão, Gandour, Pessoa et al, 2017;Azevedo et al, 2017;Barlow et al, 2016;Godar et al, 2014).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Recently, however, this deforestation rate has increased-a 30% increase from 2012 to (INPE, 2017-and Brazil remains the nation with the highest annual losses of native tropical forest, and the largest carbon emitter from gross deforestation (Zarin et al, 2016). The pattern of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon has changed recently, now occurring in small patches, often in remote parts of the Amazon, with increased relative participation of small-scale landholders who have not responded to the existing conservation policies (Assunc ßão, Gandour, Pessoa, & Rocha, 2017;Godar et al, 2014). To reduce deforestation, the scientific community has proposed that conservation policies be based on support and incentive mechanisms and tailored by the parties involved (Assunc ßão, Gandour, Pessoa et al, 2017;Azevedo et al, 2017;Godar et al, 2014).…”

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confidence: 99%

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Who owns the Brazilian carbon?

Freitas

Englund

Sparovek

et al. 2017

Global Change Biology

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Brazil is one of the major contributors to land-use change emissions, mostly driven by agricultural expansion for food, feed, and bioenergy feedstock. Policies to avoid deforestation related to private commitments, economic incentives, and other support schemes are expected to improve the effectiveness of current command and control mechanisms increasingly. However, until recently, land tenure was unknown for much of the Brazilian territory, which has undermined the governance of native vegetation and challenged support and incentive mechanisms for avoiding deforestation. We assess the total extent of public governance mechanisms protecting aboveground carbon (AGC) stocks. We constructed a land tenure dataset for the entire nation and modeled the effects and uncertainties of major land-use acts on protecting AGC stocks. Roughly 70% of the AGC stock in Brazil is estimated to be under legal protection, and an additional 20% is expected to be protected after areas in the Amazon with currently undesignated land undergo a tenure regularization. About 30% of the AGC stock is on private land, of which roughly two-thirds are protected. The Cerrado, Amazon, and Caatinga biomes hold about 40%, 30%, and 20% of the unprotected AGC, respectively. Effective conservation of protected and unprotected carbon will depend on successful implementation of the Forest Act, and regularization of land tenure in the Amazon. Policy development that prioritizes unprotected AGC stocks is warranted to promote conservation of native vegetation beyond the legal requirements. However, different biomes and land tenure structures may require different policy settings considering local and regional specifics. Finally, the fate of current AGC stocks relies upon effective implementation of command and control mechanisms, considering that unprotected AGC in native vegetation on private land only accounts for 6.5% of the total AGC stock.

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Monitoring land use and land cover changes due to extensive gold mining, urban expansion, and agriculture in the Pra River Basin of Ghana, 1986–2025

et al. 2018

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This study used the double cumulative curve and visual image interpretation methods for the selection of spatiotemporal Landsat data to evaluate the land degradation by anthropogenic activities in the Pra River Basin (PRB) of Ghana. Unsupervised and supervised classification procedures were used to map the land use and land cover (LULC) distribution from 1986 to 2016. Assessment of LULC showed that the PRB has been subjected to six different rates of land degradation in the years 1986, 2000, 2004, 2008, 2013, and 2016. This is due to increase in settlement, cropland, and mining activities to about 130%, 198%, and 304%, respectively. The Markov chain and cellular automation integrated model was successful in predicting LULC distribution in 2016 and the outcomes were comparable to the actual LULC for 2016. The projected LULC for 2025 showed that land degradation is significant in the western and the eastern parts where cropland and forest are, respectively, converted to mining activity. The northern, southern, and middle parts of PRB are expected to experience high settlement expansion, sedimentation in the rivers, and cropland expansion, respectively. The results will aid natural resources management, planning, and sustainable development at PRB. In addition, the research method serves as guideline for other related studies in an attempt to investigate, quantify, and project LULC change in forest ecological areas.

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Property-level assessment of change in forest clearing patterns: The need for tailoring policy in the Amazon

Cited by 30 publications

References 28 publications

Agricultural Productivity and Forest Conservation: Evidence from the Brazilian Amazon

Agricultural Productivity and Forest Conservation: Evidence from the Brazilian Amazon

Who owns the Brazilian carbon?

Monitoring land use and land cover changes due to extensive gold mining, urban expansion, and agriculture in the Pra River Basin of Ghana, 1986–2025

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