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Climate change mitigation in developing countries is a growing priority for many governments.
Much of the current research into this area concentrates on emissions from industry and
households. However, in many countries changing land use patterns drives carbon flows into the
atmosphere. This Thematic Paper for the UNDP Human Development Report 2007 focuses on
tropical deforestation as a major source of rising carbon emissions and wider human
development problems in the Brazilian Amazon–the largest area of tropical forests in the world.
Consistently with the Terms of Reference, this paper cover five broad themes: (i) the scale, pace
and location of deforestation; (ii) an analysis of the factors driving deforestation, including
public policies; (iii) how deforestation is contributing to carbon emissions; (iv) the human
development effects of deforestation, and; (v) what can be done to address the problem.
More of the Brazilian Amazonian forest has been destroyed since 1970 than in the previous 450
years since European colonisation. By 2005, deforestation had exceeded 690,000 Km2 – an area
larger than France and Portugal, generating 200 million tons of carbon emissions per year or
even higher, and making Brazil the 4th world larger emitter of greenhouse gases. Extensive cattle
ranching represents the predominant cause of deforestation in the Amazon – accounting for
about 70-80% of the clearing activity– followed by burn-and-slash farming and, over the last few
years, rapid expansion of soybean plantations. Other drivers include illegal logging,
infrastructure projects, and forest fires. Public policies including weak law enforcement,
unsecured land tenure, tax incentives and subsidised credits for cattle ranching and soybean
cultivation are all elements promoting forest conversion. Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon
carries significant direct and indirect consequences on human development, including violence
and life threat to local communities and indigenous people. Deforestation affects negatively
natural resources such as rainfall and freshwater, soil productivity, clean air, and forestry and
biodiversity resources–all fundamental for local livelihoods. This massive transformation results
in severe socio-economic impacts not only on Amazonians –which are robbed of a potentially
sustainable future– but also on areas far beyond the region.
Strategies for reducing and, eventually reverting, deforestation will have to make the cutting of
forest more expensive than the potential economic benefits related to it, while creating
opportunities for sustainable development of the Amazon. This will require first and foremost a
“governance revolution”, whereby existing environmental laws are effectively enforced and land
tenure regimes clearly established. Existing tax incentives, credit and subsidies for cattle
ranching and agriculture expansion need to be reformed and re-directed to support sustainable
forestry and encourage cattle ranching and farming on the area the size of Suriname that has
already been cleared and then abandoned. National and international financial institutions can
play a key role in this “governance revolution” by conditioning their loans/funding to
compliance with minimum socio-environmental criteria aimed at encouraging farmers to obey
the forest law and adopt good land stewardship practices. Finally, additional financial resources
to enhance the value of standing forests will have to be leveraged through the implementation of
schemes for payment of environmental services, including through the international climate
regime. This will require the international community to provide incentives to reduce emissions
from tropical deforestation under the UN Climate Change Convention and/or the Kyoto Protocol,
while Brazil must urgently establish a national quantifiable emissions reduction programme.