Environmental Costs of Government-Sponsored Agrarian Settlements in Brazilian Amazonia

Brazil has presided over the most comprehensive agrarian reform frontier colonization program on Earth, in which ~1.2 million settlers have been translocated by successive governments since the 1970's, mostly into forested hinterlands of Brazilian Amazonia. These settlements encompass 5.3% of this ~5 million km2 region, but have contributed with 13.5% of all land conversion into agropastoral land uses. The Brazilian Federal Agrarian Agency (INCRA) has repeatedly claimed that deforestation in these areas largely predates the sanctioned arrival of new settlers. Here, we quantify rates of natural vegetation conversion across 1911 agrarian settlements allocated to 568 Amazonian counties and compare fire incidence and deforestation rates before and after the official occupation of settlements by migrant farmers. The timing and spatial distribution of deforestation and fires in our analysis provides irrefutable chronological and spatially explicit evidence of agropastoral conversion both inside and immediately outside agrarian settlements over the last decade. Deforestation rates are strongly related to local human population density and road access to regional markets. Agrarian settlements consistently accelerated rates of deforestation and fires, compared to neighboring areas outside settlements, but within the same counties. Relocated smallholders allocated to forest areas undoubtedly operate as pivotal agents of deforestation, and most of the forest clearance occurs in the aftermath of government-induced migration

Combining remote sensing and household level data for regional scale analysis of land cover change in the Brazilian Amazon

Land cover change in the Brazilian Amazon depends on the spatial variability of political, socioeconomic and biophysical factors, as well as on the land use history and its actors. A regional scale analysis was made in Rondônia State to identify possible differences in land cover change connected to spatial policies of land occupation, size and year of establishment of properties, accessibility measures and soil fertility. The analysis was made based on remote sensing data and household level data gathered with a questionnaire. Both types of analyses indicate that the highest level of total deforestation is found inside agrarian projects, especially in those established more than 20 years ago. Even though deforestation rates are similar inside and outside official settlements, inside agrarian projects forest depletion can exceed 50% at the property level within 10–14 years after establishment. The data indicate that both small-scale and medium to large-scale farmers contribute to deforestation processes in Rondônia State encouraged by spatial policies of land occupation, which provide better accessibility to forest fringes where soil fertility and forest resources are important determinants of location choic

Pervasive transition of the Brazilian land-use system

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Economic complexity and the environment : Evidence from Brazil

Brazil is a heterogenous country with respect to, among others, economic complexity, economic development and environmental quality. This paper examines the relationship between economic complexity and key environmental variables in Brazil. We deviate from the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) literature by focusing on economic complexity instead of economic development alone to explain cross-section and time-series variation in a range of environmental variables. Our motivation for considering economic complexity as a main explanatory variable lies on the consideration that low economic complexity is associated to products which are peripheral on the product space. These are products which are less connected to other products, limiting the opportunities for other economic activities, and therefore limiting the impact on the environment. As economic complexity increases more opportunities are created, the product space becomes denser, and pollution increases. However, at a high enough level of economic complexity, the structural changes bring knowledge-intensive industries, which demands higher-skilled labour force and wider skills of occupations. At this point, economic complexity is associated to decreasing environmental degradation. Using panel data for Brazil we find that waste generation decreases, but forest fires increase with rising complexity. Complexity is not associated to more deforestation or air pollution