Work

What Drives Indirect Land Use Change? How Brazil's Agriculture Sector Influences Frontier Deforestation

Year: 2015

Type: article

Abstract: From 2000-2005 high returns to soybeans set off an unprecedented expansion of agricultural production across Brazil. The expansion occurred concurrently to a sharp rise in deforestation, leading academics and policy makers to question the extent and means by which the growing agricultural sector was driving regional forest loss. In this article we consider and question the underlying drivers of indirect land use change, namely the potential impact of soybean expansion on beef prices and of land use displacement, via migration. We then present field level results documenting the displacement process in northern Mato Grosso and western Pará States of the Amazon. Our results question the extent to which tropical Amazon deforestation is attributable to land use displacement; however, we argue that the agricultural sector may drive deforestation through other channels, namely through regional land markets.

Source: Annals of the Association of American Geographers

DOI: 10.1080/00045608.2015.1060924

Author: Peter Richards

Institution: Brown University

Language: English

Topic: Conservation, Biodiversity, and Resource Management

Subfield: Global and Planetary Change

Field: Environmental Science

Domain: Physical Sciences

SDGs: Life on land, Zero hunger, Climate action

Open Access status: green

Funder: Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development