What Drives the Erasure of Protected Areas? Evidence from across the Brazilian Amazon

Keles, Derya; Delacote, Philippe; Pfaff, Alexander; Qin, Siyu; Mascia, Michael B.

doi:10.1016/j.ecolecon.2020.106733

Cited by 30 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 60 publications

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“…Deforestation across the Brazilian Amazon and the State of Acre in 2019 was the highest since 2008 [21]. Such tendencies are serving to pressure institutions to dismember protected areas or withdraw their protected status [44,45].…”

Section: Roads and Deforestationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Roads in the Southwestern Amazon, State of Acre, between 2007 and 2019

Nascimento

Silva

Bordignon

et al. 2021

Land

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Over the past 40 years, roads have been the main driver behind the State of Acre’s occupation and development. However, the expansion of roads, has often been associated with the advance of deforestation, habitat fragmentation, and social conflicts. There are no up-to-date data available on the current extent of Acre’s road network nor its environmental and socioenvironmental impacts. In this study, we updated the State of Acre’s road network map for the period 2007 to 2019 through the visual interpretation of 153 Landsat images (5, 7, and 8) at a scale of 1:50,000. To estimate the impact of roads, we measured the distribution of roads in municipalities and in different land tenure categories and calculated the correlation between roads and annual deforestation. Up to 2019, we estimated 19,620 km of roads, of which 92% were unofficial roads, 6% federal roads, and 2% state roads. The roads increased at an average annual rate of 590 km year−1. The most significant advance in road length between 2007 and 2019 was in protected areas (240%), followed by public lands (68%) and settlement projects (66%). We recommend monitoring of the road network to understand the landscape’s evolution and support actions against illicit environmental and socioenvironmental impacts.

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Section: Roads and Deforestationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Roads in the Southwestern Amazon, State of Acre, between 2007 and 2019

Nascimento

Silva

Bordignon

et al. 2021

Land

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“…First, policymakers can promote activities that directly lead to deforestation, including extension of credit and relaxation of permitting requirements for the agriculture, mining, and real‐estate sectors. Second, policymakers can reduce forest protection through the downgrading, downsizing, and degazettement of protected areas (Bernard et al., 2014; Keles et al., 2020). They can also reduce surveillance and defund field efforts by the environmental police, signaling impunity for illegal deforestation.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Election cycles affect deforestation within Brazil's Atlantic Forest

Ruggiero

Pfaff

Nichols

et al. 2021

CONSERVATION LETTERS

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Policymakers' incentives during election campaigns can lead to decisions that significantly affect deforestation. Yet this is rarely studied. For Brazil's Atlantic Forest, a highly biodiverse tropical forest, we link federal-and-state as well as municipal elections to annual deforestation between 1991 and 2014. Across 2253 municipalities, those with higher deforestation see a significant rise in deforestation during federal-and-state election years. Municipal election years raise deforestation for locations with lower deforestation, whereas all of these increases are accentuated when there is party alignment between different levels of government. This effect of election cycles has fallen over time, to date, yet that cannot be assumed to continue. Our results highlight the need to limit opportunistic behaviors that affect natural resources and the environment with implications for biodiversity, carbon storage, and other ecosystem services.

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“…Is PADDD in MPAs related to lack of enforcement, as has been observed in terrestrial PAs [43]? Future research should also explore the biophysical and sociopolitical risk factors associated with higher probabilities of PADDD in MPAs, complementing studies in terrestrial PAs [42,43,48].…”

Section: Implications For Sciencementioning

confidence: 99%

Protected area downgrading, downsizing, and degazettement (PADDD) in marine protected areas

Albrecht¹,

Cook²,

Andrews³

et al. 2020

Preprint

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Marine protected areas (MPAs) are foundational to global marine biodiversity conservation efforts. Recently, countries have rapidly scaled up their MPA networks to meet targets established by the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). While MPA networks are intended to permanently safeguard marine ecosystems, evidence points to widespread legal changes that temper, reduce, or eliminate protected areas, known as protected area downgrading, downsizing, and degazettement (PADDD). Research on PADDD to-date has focused on terrestrial PAs, leaving fundamental questions about PADDD in MPAs unanswered. To address this knowledge gap and provide a foundation for understanding the conservation implications of PADDD in marine ecosystems, we documented patterns, trends, and proximate causes of PADDD in MPAs globally. At least six countries have enacted 44 PADDD events in MPAs, most of which were in Australian MPAs. Globally, PADDD events in MPAs have affected an area of at least 1,198,774 square kilometers, approximately the size of South Africa. Most PADDD events in MPAs (67%) are associated with industrial-scale resource use, extraction, and development, suggesting that PADDD may undermine the conservation objectives of MPAs. Additional research, transparency, and proactive policy responses are needed to address PADDD to better safeguard marine ecosystems.

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What Drives the Erasure of Protected Areas? Evidence from across the Brazilian Amazon

Cited by 30 publications

References 60 publications

Roads in the Southwestern Amazon, State of Acre, between 2007 and 2019

Roads in the Southwestern Amazon, State of Acre, between 2007 and 2019

Election cycles affect deforestation within Brazil's Atlantic Forest

Protected area downgrading, downsizing, and degazettement (PADDD) in marine protected areas

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