Strengthening Brazil’s Forest Protection in a Changing Landscape

Between 2004 and 2012, annual deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon fell from 27,000 km2 to 4,500 km2, largely due to conservation policies and remote sensing monitoring. However, these systems cannot detect clearings of 25 hectares or less, leading to a shift where small-scale deforestation grew from a quarter to more than half of overall annual clearings. Research in Mato Grosso and Pará shows that medium- and large-scale property holders adapted to enforcement by shifting to smaller clearings, while smallholders in Pará emerged as the primary agents of forest clearing. The brief recommends enhancing monitoring technology and tailoring policies to regional differences to address these evolving patterns.

• While conservation policies introduced in 2004 reduced overall deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon from 27,000 km2 in 2004 to 4,500 km2 in 2012, a technical limitation in remote sensing monitoring means clearings of 25 hectares or less go mostly undetected. Consequently, small-scale deforestation has increased as a percentage of overall clearing, rising from a quarter to more than a half.
• In the state of Pará, small-size property holders (smallholders) were the primary drivers of forest clearing and were more likely to evade monitoring systems because they were less visible to law enforcers compared to those in Mato Grosso.
• Medium- and large-size property holders in both Mato Grosso and Pará appear to have responded to the effectiveness of remote-enforcement programs by shifting their land clearing activities to smaller tracts of land to avoid detection.
• Regional differences in deforestation behavior existed at the start of the 2000s: smallholders in Mato Grosso typically cleared land in medium- and large-scale tracts, whereas smallholders in Pará were more frequently engaged in small-scale deforestation.

APA

Assunção, J., Gandour, C., Pessoa, P., & Rocha, R. (2015). Strengthening Brazil’s Forest Protection in a Changing Landscape. Climate Policy Initiative. http://climatepolicyinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/POLICY-BRIEF-%E2%80%93-Strengthening-Brazil%E2%80%99s-Forest-Protection-in-a-Changing-Landscape.pdf

Chicago

Assunção, Juliano, Clarissa Gandour, Pedro Pessoa, and Romero Rocha. Strengthening Brazil’s Forest Protection in a Changing Landscape. Climate Policy Initiative, 2015. http://climatepolicyinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/POLICY-BRIEF-%E2%80%93-Strengthening-Brazil%E2%80%99s-Forest-Protection-in-a-Changing-Landscape.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Assunção |first1=Juliano |last2=Gandour |first2=Clarissa |last3=Pessoa |first3=Pedro |last4=Rocha |first4=Romero |title=Strengthening Brazil’s Forest Protection in a Changing Landscape |publisher=Climate Policy Initiative |date=August 2015 |url=http://climatepolicyinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/POLICY-BRIEF-%E2%80%93-Strengthening-Brazil%E2%80%99s-Forest-Protection-in-a-Changing-Landscape.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{assuno2015strengthening, author = {Assunção, Juliano and Gandour, Clarissa and Pessoa, Pedro and Rocha, Romero}, title = {{Strengthening Brazil’s Forest Protection in a Changing Landscape}}, institution = {Climate Policy Initiative}, year = {2015}, month = aug, url = {http://climatepolicyinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/POLICY-BRIEF-%E2%80%93-Strengthening-Brazil%E2%80%99s-Forest-Protection-in-a-Changing-Landscape.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }