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Cited by 131Conservation, Biodiversity, and Resource ManagementLand Use and Ecosystem ServicesAgriculture, Land Use, Rural Development

Who is responsible for deforestation in the Amazon? A spatially explicit analysis along the Transamazon Highway in Brazil

Godar, Javier, Tizado, Emilio Jorge, Pokorny, Benno·2012·Forest Ecology and Management
DOI 10.1016/j.foreco.2011.11.046
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Abstract

Understanding actor-specific responsibility for deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon is key in adjusting policy and resource allocation in the face of current forest destruction. However, previous research shows that there is great variability in such assessments. To contribute to the ongoing discussions on forest conservation and rural development policies in the Amazon, this paper studies actor-specific deforestation and its environmental effects in four municipalities situated along the Transamazon Highway. We used spatially explicit methods that integrate a database of 8281 georeferenced properties with a time series of remote-sensing data covering four periods between 1986 and 2007. We also included landscape ecology metrics as improved indicators of the complex environmental effects of forest fragmentation. The analysis demonstrates that smallholders (defined as colonists who own less than 100ha of land) were responsible for 23% of total deforestation in the study region while accounting for 55% of the total properties. We also explored the relationship between property size and deforestation at the property level, finding that it closely follows a power distribution. Property deforestation increased with property size, while the percentage of property deforestation decreased. In spite of this, compliance with current legal requirements to maintain 50% of property forest cover was not statistically different between smallholders and largeholders. In comparison to munic…

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  • While the role of cattle in deforestation is subject to increased public scrutiny, the leather commodity chain has remained less visible until recently.

    “While the role of cattle in deforestation is subject to increased public scrutiny (Nepstad et al., 2006;Godar et al., 2012;Gibbs et al., 2016), the leather commodity chain has remained less visible until recently.”

    From Making deforestation risk visible. Discourses on bovine leather supply chain in Brazil (2020) · cites this paper as Godar et al., 2012

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Authors
Godar, J., Tizado, E. J., & Pokorny, B.
Affiliations
  • Universidad de León (ES)
  • University of Freiburg (DE)
Corresponding author
Godar, Javier
ORCID
Venue
Forest Ecology and Management
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2012-03
Volume
267
Pages
58-73
ISSN
0378-1127 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1016/j.foreco.2011.11.046
OpenAlex
W1995243739
Cited by
131
References
75
Citations by year
2026: 4 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 7 · 2023: 10 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 7 · 2020: 20 · 2019: 20 · 2018: 12 · 2017: 5 · 2016: 17 · 2015: 10 · 2014: 7 · 2013: 3 · 2012: 3
FWCI
3.56
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Licence
Locations
Forest Ecology and Management (publishedVersion)
Funders
Universidad de León
Topics
  • Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Global and Planetary Change › Conservation, Biodiversity, and Resource Management
  • Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Global and Planetary Change › Land Use and Ecosystem Services
  • Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › General Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Agriculture, Land Use, Rural Development
Keywords
deforestation, Amazon, Transamazon Highway, smallholder farmers, land tenure, property size, forest fragmentation, landscape metrics, ecosystem services, ranching, forest conservation policy, agricultural frontier, land use change

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