Getting Greener by Going Black: The Priority Municipalities in Brazil

The Priority Municipalities (MPs) policy in Brazil significantly reduced deforestation in the Amazon between 2008 and 2011, avoiding the clearing of 11,359 km2 of forest. The reduction was primarily driven by increased monitoring and law enforcement, such as fines, rather than economic measures. The study found that this environmental protection did not negatively impact agricultural GDP or production, suggesting that economic growth and preservation can coexist in the region.

• The Priority Municipalities (MPs) policy, which blacklisted municipalities with high deforestation rates to target law enforcement, significantly reduced deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon. Between 2008 and 2011, the policy avoided the clearing of 11,359 km2 of forest, making the total observed deforestation of 20,689 km2 approximately 35% lower than it would have been without the policy.
• The primary driver for the reduction in deforestation was increased monitoring and law enforcement activities, such as the issuance of fines. Between 2008 and 2011, there were 13,548 observed fines, which was 1,206 more than the estimated 12,342 fines that would have occurred without the policy.
• The MPs policy had no impact on economic variables, including agricultural GDP, crop production, or credit concessions. This suggests that environmental preservation and economic growth in the Amazon can occur simultaneously and that blacklisting alone is insufficient to change economic behavior.
• The policy's implementation involved a phased blacklisting process starting in 2008 with 36 municipalities, followed by the addition of seven more in 2009 and another seven in 2011. In Paragominas, a municipality in the State of Pará, a local pact for zero deforestation helped reduce PRODES-computed deforestation rates from 64.1 km2 in 2007/2008 to 18.2 km2 in 2011/2012, leading to its removal from the list in 2013.

APA

Assunção, J., & Rocha, R. (2014). Getting Greener by Going Black: The Priority Municipalities in Brazil. Climate Policy Initiative. https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Getting-Greener-by-Going-Black-Executive-Summary-English.pdf

Chicago

Assunção, Juliano, and Romero Rocha. Getting Greener by Going Black: The Priority Municipalities in Brazil. Climate Policy Initiative, 2014. https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Getting-Greener-by-Going-Black-Executive-Summary-English.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Assunção |first1=Juliano |last2=Rocha |first2=Romero |title=Getting Greener by Going Black: The Priority Municipalities in Brazil |publisher=Climate Policy Initiative |date=August 2014 |url=https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Getting-Greener-by-Going-Black-Executive-Summary-English.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{assuno2014getting, author = {Assunção, Juliano and Rocha, Romero}, title = {{Getting Greener by Going Black: The Priority Municipalities in Brazil}}, institution = {Climate Policy Initiative}, year = {2014}, month = aug, url = {https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Getting-Greener-by-Going-Black-Executive-Summary-English.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }