Public policies for the protection of the Amazon Forest: what works and how to improve

This report by the Climate Policy Initiative evaluates the effectiveness of public policies used to combat deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon, consolidating academic evidence to propose a strengthened policy framework for forest protection and sustainable development.

• Public policy efforts led to a significant decrease in deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon between 2004 and 2012, with the rate of forest clearing dropping by more than 80%, from 27,800 square kilometers to 4,600 square kilometers.
• The reduction in deforestation was primarily driven by strengthened environmental command and control, specifically through the use of near-real-time remote monitoring technology to identify forest loss and enable law enforcement to apply costly penalties to offenders. This approach was found to be cost-effective and did not harm local agricultural production.
• Other effective policy instruments included the use of territorial protection via indigenous lands and protected areas to shield forests from clearing pressure, as well as conditioning subsidized rural credit on compliance with land tenure and environmental regulations.
• Following the 2004-2012 decline, deforestation trends began to rise and showed signs of acceleration by 2019, indicating that previous policies are no longer sufficient.
• The report proposes three priority areas for strengthening forest protection: eliminating impunity for illegal clearing through effective sanctioning and penalties, deepening the understanding of forest degradation and its relation to economic activity, and implementing systematic monitoring of secondary vegetation to support large-scale restoration.

APA

Climate Policy Initiative (2021). Public policies for the protection of the Amazon Forest: what works and how to improve. https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/publication/public-policies-for-the-protection-of-the-amazon-forest-what-works-and-how-to-improve/

Chicago

Climate Policy Initiative. Public policies for the protection of the Amazon Forest: what works and how to improve. 2021. https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/publication/public-policies-for-the-protection-of-the-amazon-forest-what-works-and-how-to-improve/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Climate Policy Initiative |title=Public policies for the protection of the Amazon Forest: what works and how to improve |date=7 October 2021 |url=https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/publication/public-policies-for-the-protection-of-the-amazon-forest-what-works-and-how-to-improve/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{climatepolicyinitiative2021public, author = {{Climate Policy Initiative}}, title = {{Public policies for the protection of the Amazon Forest: what works and how to improve}}, institution = {Climate Policy Initiative}, year = {2021}, month = oct, url = {https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/publication/public-policies-for-the-protection-of-the-amazon-forest-what-works-and-how-to-improve/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }