Does Land Tenure Insecurity Drive Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon?

Pascale Combes Motel (), Jean-Louis Combes, Catherine Araujo Bonjean (), Claudio Araujo and Eustaquio J. Reis ()
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Pascale Combes Motel: Centre d'Etudes et de Recherches sur le Développement International(CERDI)
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Pascale Motel Combes ()

No 201013, Working Papers from CERDI

Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to highlight the detrimental impact of land tenure insecurity on deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon. It is related to recent controversies about the detrimental impact of land laws on deforestation, which seem to legitimize land encroachments. The latter is mainly the result of land tenure insecurity which is a key characteristic of this region and results from a long history of interactions between rural social unrest and land reforms or land laws. A simple model is developed where strategic interactions between farmers lead to excessive deforestation. One of the empirical implications of the model is a positive relationship between land tenure insecurity and the extent of deforestation. The latter is tested on data from a panel of Brazilian Amazon municipalities. The negative effect of land tenure insecurity proxied by the number of squatters on deforestation is not rejected when estimations are controlled for the possible endogeneity of squatters. One of the main policy implications is that ex post legalizations of settlements must be accompanied by the enforcement of environmental obligations.

Keywords: Deforestation; Land tenure insecurity; Squatters; Panel Data Analysis; Brazil (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q23 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 34
Date: 2010
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr and nep-env
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Does Land Tenure Insecurity Drive Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon? (2011)
Working Paper: Does Land Tenure Insecurity Drive Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon? (2011)
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