Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7fkt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-20T16:49:14.576Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Deforestation slowdown in the Brazilian Amazon: prices or policies?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 February 2015

Juliano Assunção ,
Clarissa Gandour  and
Rudi Rocha
Juliano Assunção
Affiliation:
Climate Policy Initiative & Núcleo de Avaliação de Políticas Climáticas da PUC-Rio; and Department of Economics, PUC-Rio, Brazil. E-mail: juliano@cpirio.org
Clarissa Gandour
Affiliation:
Climate Policy Initiative & Núcleo de Avaliação de Políticas Climáticas da PUC-Rio; Estrada da Gávea 50, 4° andar, Gávea, Rio de Janeiro, RJ 22451–263, Brazil. Tel: +55 (21) 3527 2520. E-mail: clarissa@cpirio.org
Rudi Rocha
Affiliation:
Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. E-mail: rudi.rocha@ie.ufrj.br
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This paper investigates the contribution of agricultural output prices and policies to the reduction in Amazon deforestation in the 2000s. Based on a panel of Amazon municipalities from 2002 through 2009, we first show that deforestation responded to agricultural output prices. After controlling for price effects, we find that conservation policies implemented beginning in 2004 and 2008 significantly contributed to the curbing of deforestation. Counterfactual simulations suggest that conservation policies avoided approximately 73,000 km2 of deforestation, or 56 per cent of total forest clearings that would have occurred from 2005 through 2009 had the policies adopted beginning in 2004 and 2008 not been introduced. This is equivalent to an avoided loss of 2.7 billion tonnes of stored carbon dioxide.

Type
Research Article
Information
Environment and Development Economics , Volume 20 , Issue 6 , December 2015 , pp. 697 - 722
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Alston, L.J. and Andersson, K., (2011), ‘Reducing greenhouse gas emissions by forest protection: the transaction costs of implementing REDD. Climate Law 3:1–9.Google Scholar
Andam, K.S., Ferraro, P.J., Pfaff, A., Sanchez-Azofeifa, G.A., and Robalino, J.A., (2008), ‘Measuring the effectiveness of protected area networks in reducing deforestation’, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 105(42): 16089–16094.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Andersen, L.E. (1996), The causes of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon. Journal of Environment & Development 5(3): 309–328.Google Scholar
Angelsen, A. (2010), ‘Policies for reduced deforestation and their impact on agricultural production’, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 107(46): 19639.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Angelsen, A. and Kaimowitz, D., (1999), ‘Rethinking the causes of deforestation: lessons from economic models’, World Bank Research Observer 14(1): 73–98.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Angelsen, A. and Wertz-Kanounnikoff, S., (2008), Moving Ahead with REDD: Issues, Options and Implications’, Bogor: Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR).Google Scholar
Antle, J.M. and Heidebrink, G., (1995), ‘Environment and development: theory and international evidence’, Economic Development and Cultural Change 43: 604–625.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Araujo, C., Bonjean, C.A., Combes, J.-L., Motel, P.C., and Reis, E.J., (2009), ‘Property rights and deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon’, Ecological Economics 68(8–9): 2461–2468.Google Scholar
Arcand, J.-L., Guillaumont, P., and Jeanneney, S.G., (2008), ‘Deforestation and the real exchange rate’, Journal of Development Economics 86(2): 242–262.Google Scholar
Arima, E.Y., Simmons, C.S., Walker, R.T., and Cochrane, M.A., (2007), ‘Fire in the Brazilian Amazon: a spatially explicit model for policy impact analysis’, Journal of Regional Science 47(3): 541–567.Google Scholar
Arrow, K., Bolin, B., Costanza, R., et al. (1996), ‘Economic growth, carrying capacity, and the environment’, Ecological Applications 6: 13–15.Google Scholar
Barbier, E.B. and Burgess, J.C., (1996), ‘Economic analysis of deforestation in Mexico’, Environment and Development Economics 1(2).Google Scholar
Barbier, E.B. and Burgess, J.C., (2001), ‘The economics of tropical deforestation’, Journal of Economic Surveys 15(3): 413–433.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barreto, P., Pereira, R., and Arima, E., (2008), A pecuária e o desmatamento na Amazônia na era das mudanças climáticas. Pará: Instituto do Homem e Meio Ambiente da Amazônia (Imazon).Google Scholar
Chomitz, K.M. and Gray, D.A., (1996), ‘Roads, land use, and deforestation: a spatial model applied to Belize’, World Bank Economic Review 10(3): 487–512.Google Scholar
Chomitz, K. and Thomas, T., (2003), ‘Determinants of land use in Amazônia: a fine-scale spatial analysis’, American Journal of Agricultural Economics 85(4): 1016–1028.Google Scholar
Cropper, M. and Griffiths, C., (1994), ‘The interaction of population growth and environmental quality’, American Economic Review 84(2): 250–254. Papers and Proceedings of the 106th Annual Meeting of the American Economic Association.Google Scholar
Cropper, M.L., Griffiths, C.W., and Mani, M., (1997), ‘Roads, population pressures, and deforestation in Thailand, 1976–89’, World Bank Policy Research Working Paper No. 1726, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Ewers, R.M., Laurance, W.F., and Souza, C.M. Jr (2008), ‘Temporal fluctuations in amazonian deforestation rates’, Environmental Conservation 35(4): 303–310.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
FAO (2006), ‘Global Forest Resources Assessment 2005: progress towards sustainable forest management’, Technical Report, FAO Forestry Paper No. 147, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Rome.Google Scholar
Ferraro, P.J., Hanauer, M.M., Miteva, D.A., Canavire-Bacarreza, G.J., Pattanayak, S.K., and Sims, K.R., (2013), ‘More strictly protected areas are not necessarily more protective: evidence from Bolivia, Costa Rica, Indonesia, and Thailand’, Environmental Research Letters 8(2): 025011.Google Scholar
Ferraz, C. (2001), ‘Explaining agriculture expansion and deforestation: evidence from the Brazilian Amazon 1980/98’, Ipea Working Paper No. 828, IPEA, Riode Janeiro.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Foster, A. and Rosenzweig, M., (2003), ‘Economic growth and the rise of forests’, Quarterly Journal of Economics 118(2): 601–637.Google Scholar
Grossman, G.M. and Krueger, A.B., (1995), Economic growth and the environment. Quarterly Journal of Economics 110: 353–377.Google Scholar
Hargrave, J. and Kis-Katos, K., (2013), ‘Economic causes of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon: a panel data analysis for 2000s’, Environmental and Resource Economics 54(4): 471–494.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
INPE (2012), Projeto prodes–monitoramento da floresta amazônica brasileira por satélite. Database, INPE, Brazil.Google Scholar
Joppa, L.N. and Pfaff, A., (2011), ‘Global protected area impacts’, Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 278(1712): 1633–1638.Google Scholar
Mendonça, M.J.C., Loureiro, P.R.A., and Sachsida, A., (2012), ‘The dynamics of land-use in Brazilian Amazon’, Ecological Economics 84: 23–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MMA (2011), ‘Ratificação da Estimativa de Redução de Emissões de CO2 pelo Desflorestamento na Amazônia Legal com Base no PRODES 2010’, Technical Report, Ministério do Meio Ambiente, Rio de Janeiro.Google Scholar
Nelson, A. and Chomitz, K.M., (2011), ‘Effectiveness of strict vs. multiple use protected areas in reducing tropical forest fires: a global analysis using matching methods’, PLoS ONE 6(8): e22722.Google Scholar
Nolte, C., Agrawal, A., Silvius, K.M., and Soares-Filho, B.S. (2013), ‘Governance regime and location influence avoided deforestation success of protected areas in the Brazilian Amazon’, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 110(13): 4956–4961.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Panayotou, T. (1995), Environmental degradation at different stages of economic development. In Ahmed, I. and Doeleman, J.A., (eds), Beyond Rio: The Environmental Crisis and Sustainable livelihoods in the Third World, London: Macmillan Press, (pp. 13–36).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Panayotou, T. and Sungsuwan, S., (1994), An econometric analysis of the causes of tropical deforestation: the case of Northeast Thailand, in: Brown, K. and Pearce, D.W. (eds), The Causes of Tropical Deforestation: The Economic and Statistical Analysis of Factors Giving Rise to the Loss of the Tropical Forests, London: UCL Press (pp. 192–210).Google Scholar
Pfaff, A. (1999), ‘What drives deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon? Evidence from satellite and socioeconomic data’, Journal of Environmental Economics and Management 37(1): 26–43.Google Scholar
Pfaff, A. and Robalino, J., (2012), ‘Protecting forests, biodiversity, and the climate: predicting policy impact to improve policy choice’, Oxford Review of Economic Policy 28(1): 164–179.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pfaff, A., Robalino, J., Walker, R., et al. (2007), ‘Road investments, spatial spillovers, and deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon’, Journal of Regional Science 47(1): 109–123.Google Scholar
Pfaff, A., Robalino, J., Sanchez-Azofeifa, G.A., Andam, K.S., and Ferraro, P.J., (2009), ‘Park location affects forest protection: land characteristics cause differences in park impacts across Costa Rica’, BE Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy 9(2).Google Scholar
Pfaff, A., Amacher, G.S., and Sills, E.O., (2013), ‘Realistic REDD: improving the forest impacts of domestic policies in different settings’, Review of Environmental Economics and Policy 7(1): 114–135.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pfaff, A., Robalino, J., Lima, E., Sandoval, C., and Herrera, L.D., (2014), ‘Governance, location and avoided deforestation from protected areas: greater restrictions can have lower impact, due to differences in location’, World Development 55: 7–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reddy, S.M., Wentz, A., Aburto-Oropeza, O., Maxey, M., Nagavarapu, S., and Leslie, H.M., (2013), ‘Evidence of market-driven size-selective fishing and the mediating effects of biological and institutional factors’, Ecological Applications 23(4): 726–741.Google Scholar
Reis, E. and Guzmán, R., (1994), ‘An econometric model of amazon deforestation’, in Brown, K. and Pearce, D., (eds), The Causes of Tropical Deforestation, London: UCL Press, (pp. 172–191).Google Scholar
Reis, E. and Margulis, S., (1991), ‘Options for slowing amazon jungle clearing’, in Dornbusch, R. and Poterba, J.M., (eds). Global Warming: Economic Policy Responses, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, (pp. 335–375).Google Scholar
Robalino, J. and Pfaff, A., (2013), ‘Ecopayments and deforestation in Costa Rica: a nationwide analysis of PSA's initial years’, Land Economics 89(3): 432–448.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sims, K.R. (2010), ‘Conservation and development: evidence from Thai protected areas’, Journal of Environmental Economics and Management 60(2): 94–114.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Soares-Filho, B., Moutinho, P., Nepstad, D., et al. (2010), ‘Role of Brazilian Amazon protected areas in climate change mitigation’, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 107(24): 10821–10826.Google Scholar
Weinhold, D. and Reis, E., (2008), ‘Transportation costs and the spatial distribution of land use in the Brazilian Amazon’, Global Environmental Change 18(1): 54–68.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: PDF

Assunção supplementary material

Appendix

Download Assunção supplementary material(PDF)
PDF 796.5 KB