Is global deforestation under lockdown?

Santiago Saavedra

No 18300, Documentos de Trabajo from Universidad del Rosario

Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic and the associated responses by governments have halted economic activity abruptly across the world. The environment has benefited with reductions in pollution in urban areas, but what has happened in rural areas to deforestation has not been studied yet. A priori the effect is unclear: deforestation might decrease with the restrictions on economic activity. But it might have increased given the reductions in monitoring. I combine bi-weekly data from 70 countries covering the entire world’s tropical forest with the dates each country started lockdown restrictions. Using difference-in-differences I find that, although deforestation is higher in 2020 compared to 2019, it is not driven by the lockdowns but rather by higher deforestation that precedes them. There is heterogeneity by the level of government effectiveness of the country: countries with effective governance experience a reduction in deforestation, probably because they can enforce the lockdown restrictions

Keywords: COVID-19; Deforestation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q23 Q58 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 21
Date: 2020-08-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-env and nep-res
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Journal Article: Was global deforestation under lockdown? (2024)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:col:000092:018300

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