Environmental Costs of Government-Sponsored Agrarian Settlements in Brazilian Amazonia

Abstract

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.

Are Brazil's Deforesters Avoiding Detection?

“…Small farming areas are less likely to be subject to environmental enforcement, despite higher rates of forest loss (Godar et al . ; Schneider & Peres ; Richards & VanWey ).…”

Adaptive Forest Governance in Northwestern Mato Grosso, Brazil: Pilot project outcomes across agrarian reform landscapes

“…We plead for a focus on institutional and policy mix enablers and pathways toward sustainable landscapes in the Brazilian Amazon. Deforestation is essentially a governance problem in agrarian reform settlements (Schneider and Peres ), but long duration interventions focused on local policy integration and relevance to livelihoods can enable alternative economic relationships with the environment to emerge.…”

“…However, this may be due to the fact that the latter is a remarkably well protected forest area, itself an enduring governance intervention (Fearnside ). In contrast to situations in protected areas in which ICDPs may have limited additional impact, we have focused on ICDPs in ARS territories associated with significant deforestation pressures and governance challenges (Schneider and Peres, ).…”

The context of REDD+ in Brazil: drivers, agents, and institutions - 3rd edition

“…Data from the National Institute for Space Research (INPE) indicated that the share of annual area deforested by settlements in relation to the total jumped from 18% in 2004 to 31% in 2010 (Schneider and Peres 2015). The main causes of this increase are the absence of environmental licensing and of the Rural Environmental Registry (CAR) (see Box 2: Forest Legislation), access to land ownership and subsidized credit for relocated families, in addition to the absence of technical advice and support for alternative land uses.…”