Towards Efficient Land Use in Brazil

This report by the Climate Policy Initiative analyzes land use efficiency in Brazil, arguing that agricultural productivity can be increased and greenhouse gas emissions reduced without further deforestation. It highlights the potential of converting degraded pasturelands into croplands and examines successful historical examples of land use change, such as the soybean revolution and the implementation of the PPCDAm to combat Amazon deforestation. The document identifies key barriers to efficiency, including poor infrastructure, insecure land rights, and the need for better technology dissemination, while emphasizing the importance of enforcing the Brazilian Forest Code on private lands.

• Brazil possesses significant potential to increase agricultural production and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by converting degraded pasturelands into crops. Specifically, there are over 40 million hectares of degraded pastureland outside the Amazon suitable for sugarcane production, which represented more than 65% of total Brazilian cropland in 2006.
• Historical land use in Brazil has been characterized by a 'massive misallocation problem' driven by policies and institutions based on land abundance, including the emergence of rentier landowners and land-intensive modernization models. This has resulted in large variations in agricultural productivity across and within regions.
• The 'Brazilian soybean revolution' demonstrates that technological innovation and skilled migration can reconcile economic growth with environmental protection. R&D in the 1970s and 1980s adapted soy to Central Brazil, which increased yields and reduced the demand for land, thereby decreasing forest clearing rates in that region.
• The Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Deforestation in the Legal Amazon (PPCDAm), launched in 2004, significantly reduced deforestation rates from 2.7 million hectares in 2004 to approximately 460 thousand hectares in 2012. This was largely achieved through the DETER system, which uses georeferenced imagery in 15-day intervals to target law enforcement.
• Agricultural productivity in Brazil is hindered by several systemic barriers: poor technology dissemination, inefficient land rental markets due to insecure property rights, and inadequate infrastructure. The World Economic Forum ranked Brazil 77th out of 148 countries in 2014 regarding infrastructure, with poor road networks significantly increasing export costs.
• Recent Amazon deforestation patterns have shifted toward smaller clearings (under 25 hectares) to evade the DETER satellite monitoring system, which cannot detect clearings of that size. Additionally, deforestation is increasingly occurring on the periphery of protected areas; the share of annual Amazon deforestation within 10km of protected areas rose from 15% to 24% between 2002 and 2011.
• Enforcing environmental regulations on private land is critical, as native vegetation occupies approximately 100 million hectares within small-scale private properties. The 2012 Federal Law nº 12,651 (the new Forest Code) and the Rural Environmental Registry (CAR) provide the framework for this, though implementation remains challenged by legal uncertainties.

APA

Climate Policy Initiative (2015). Towards Efficient Land Use in Brazil. https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/publication/towards-efficient-land-use-in-brazil/

Chicago

Climate Policy Initiative. Towards Efficient Land Use in Brazil. 2015. https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/publication/towards-efficient-land-use-in-brazil/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Climate Policy Initiative |title=Towards Efficient Land Use in Brazil |date=1 September 2015 |url=https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/publication/towards-efficient-land-use-in-brazil/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{climatepolicyinitiative2015towards, author = {{Climate Policy Initiative}}, title = {{Towards Efficient Land Use in Brazil}}, institution = {Climate Policy Initiative}, year = {2015}, month = sep, url = {https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/publication/towards-efficient-land-use-in-brazil/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }