Spatial spillover effects from agriculture drive deforestation in Mato Grosso, Brazil

Abstract

Deforestation of the Amazon rainforest is a threat to global climate, biodiversity, and many other ecosystem services. In order to address this threat, an understanding of the drivers of deforestation processes is required. Spillover effects and factors that differ across locations and over time play important roles in these processes. They are largely disregarded in applied research and thus in the design of evidence-based policies. In this study, we model connectivity between regions and consider heterogeneous effects to gain more accurate quantitative insights into the inherent complexity of deforestation. We investigate the impacts of agriculture in Mato Grosso, Brazil, for the period 2006–2017 considering spatial spillovers and varying impacts over time and space. Spillovers between municipalities that emanate from croplands in the Amazon appear as the major driver of deforestation, with no direct effects from agriculture in recent years. This suggests a moderate success of the Soy Moratorium and Cattle Agreements, but highlights their inability to address indirect effects. We find that the neglect of the spatial dimension and the assumption of homogeneous impacts lead to distorted inference. Researchers need to be aware of the complex and dynamic processes behind deforestation, in order to facilitate effective policy design.

Gaps in adoption and implementation limit the current and potential effectiveness of zero-deforestation supply chain policies for soy

“…The 57% reduction translated to an avoided 26 666 ha yr −1 , or just 1.6% of overall Amazon deforestation over the study period. Moreover, while we found no evidence of cross-municipality leakage in our sample municipalities in the Amazon (table S2, figure S8(e)), leakage may have occurred to municipalities that did not produce soy in 2005, other Brazilian biomes, or other countries (Villoria et al 2022, Gibbs et al 2015, Noojipady et al 2017, Dou et al 2018, Kuschnig et al 2021. Thus, our findings serve as an upper-bound estimate of the SoyM's contribution to reducing (soy-)deforestation in Brazil.…”

Sustainable Refining of Vegetable Oil Made Easy with a Designer Phospholipase C Enzyme

“…Techno-economic analysis Direct xed capital cost considers: (i) equipment purchasing cost, (ii) other direct costs including piping, installation, insulation, and electrical facility, and (iii) indirect costs: design and construction, and was calculated using a Lang factor of 3.0, the standard value for re neries techno-economic analysis multiplied by the equipment purchasing cost (Kuschnig et al, 2021). The total investment was calculated by adding the startup cost and the working capital to the direct xed capital cost.…”

“…South America concentrates 57 % of the world's soybean production, and the cultivated area doubled in the last two decades. The majority of this expansion occurred in the Brazilian Amazon, where the soybean area increased more than tenfold, from 0.4 to 4.6 million ha (Kuschnig et al, 2021;Song et al, 2021).…”

Sustainable refining of vegetable oil made easy with a designer phospholipase C enzyme

“…Techno-economic analysis Direct xed capital cost considers: (i) equipment purchasing cost, (ii) other direct costs including piping, installation, insulation, electrical facility, and (iii) indirect costs: design and construction, and was calculated using a Lang factor of 3.0, the standard value for re neries techno-economic analysis multiplied by the equipment purchasing cost (Kuschnig et al, 2021). The total investment was calculated by adding the startup cost and the working capital to the direct xed capital cost.…”

“…South America concentrates 57 % of the world's soybean production, and the cultivated area doubled in the last two decades. Most of this expansion occurred in the Brazilian Amazon, where soybean area increased more than tenfold, from 0.4 to 4.6 million ha (Kuschnig et al, 2021;Song et al, 2021).…”