Slow-down of deforestation following a Brazilian forest policy was less effective on private lands than in all conservation areas

Ramon Felipe Bicudo da Silva, Daniel de Castro Victoria, Fabio Avila Nossack, Andres Vina, James Millington, Simone Aparecida Vieira, Mateus Batistella, Emilio Moran, Jianguo Liu

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

17 Citations (Scopus)
149 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Private lands are important for conservation worldwide, but knowledge about their effectiveness is still insufficient. To help fill this important knowledge gap, we analyzed the impacts of a national policy for conservation on private lands in Brazil, a global biodiversity hotspot with high potential for nature-based climate solutions. Through the evaluation of over 4 million private rural properties from the Rural Environmental Cadastre, we found that the last policy review in 2012 mainly affected the Amazon Forest. The amnesty granted to 80% of landowners of small properties prevented the restoration of 14.6 million hectares of agricultural land with a carbon sequestration potential of 2.4 gigatonnes. We found that private lands exist within the limits of public conservation areas and that between 2003 and 2020 deforestation rates in these private lands were higher than those across all conservation areas. The Rural Environmental Cadastre can be an effective tool for managing forests within private lands, with potential to integrate governance approaches to control deforestation and mitigate climate change.

Original languageEnglish
Article number111
JournalCommunications Earth and Environment
Volume4
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 11 Apr 2023

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