Elsevier

Land Use Policy

Volume 73, April 2018, Pages 125-127
Land Use Policy

No man’s land in the Brazilian Amazon: Could undesignated public forests slow Amazon deforestation?

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2018.01.005Get rights and content

Highlights

  • 70 million hectares of Brazilian Amazon public forests have no formal legal designation, increasing their vulnerability.

  • One quarter of deforestation has occurred in these forests, resulting in emissions of at least 200 million tons of CO2.

  • The immediate designation of these forestlands would improve governance and reduce deforestation and carbon emissions.

Abstract

Here we argue that a faster and more cost-effective way to reduce deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon would be the immediate allocation of ca. 70 million hectares of still undesignated public forestlands to conservation and social use. Currently, this massive block of forests is not under effective supervision by a designated public agency, increasing the risk of continued land grabbing and predatory use. These undesignated public lands accounted for 25% of recent deforestation, emitting 200 million tons of CO2. Under the current scenario of deforestation growth in the region, the immediate allocation of undesignated forestlands to conservation or social use by the government will reduce the availability of unsupervised public land, increase forest protection and, therefore, decrease deforestation and carbon emissions. Additionally, the action would send an unmistakable sign to the international community of Brazil's will to increase governance of its large share of the Amazon forest.

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Declarations of interest

none

Acknowledgments

We thank Michael Coe and Marcia Macedo for comments on a previous version of the manuscript and Isabel Castro for the layout of Fig. 1. We also thank our Institutions for the time and resources to develop the study. PM is also grateful to Climate and Land Use Alliance (CLUA – Grant: #G1605-55242) and to Betty and Gordon Moore Foundation (Grant: #6316).

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