Rural Settlements and Deforestation in the Amazon

The paper finds that Rural Settlements were responsible for 30% of total deforestation in the Amazon Biome in 2014. While traditional and colonization settlements showed only a correlation with deforestation due to their location on the agricultural frontier, 'Special Settlements'—those with environmental conditions—had a statistically significant positive impact on deforestation. This is attributed to their placement in remote, high-forest-coverage areas where any clearing for agricultural production represents a significant increase in local deforestation rates.

• Between 2002 and 2014, the area dedicated to Rural Settlements in the Amazon region increased by 71%, growing from 220 thousand square kilometers to 376 thousand square kilometers.
• Rural Settlements are estimated to be responsible for 30% of the total deforestation in the Amazon Biome as of 2014.
• The increase in Rural Settlements was most pronounced in municipalities with high native forest coverage; in those with very high coverage, the area increased by 125% (from 83 thousand to 190 thousand square kilometers) between 2002 and 2014.
• Special Rural Settlements, which are designed for sustainable production or extractive activities, were the only settlement type with a statistically significant positive effect on deforestation, accounting for 15% of the Amazon Biome's total deforestation in 2014.
• The impact of Special Settlements is most significant in remote areas far from the agricultural expansion frontier; in these regions, they are responsible for approximately 20% of deforestation.
• The observed correlation between 'Colonization' and 'Conventional' settlements and deforestation is considered spurious, as these settlements are located in areas that are already part of the agricultural expansion frontier.
• The DETER monitoring system has a technical limitation where it only detects forest clearings exceeding 0.25 square kilometers, making smaller clearings typical of small-scale farmers less likely to be caught by law enforcement.

APA

Assunção, J., & Rocha, R. (2016). Rural Settlements and Deforestation in the Amazon. Climate Policy Initiative. https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Rural_Settlements_and_Deforestation_in_the_Amazon_Working_Paper_CPI.pdf

Chicago

Assunção, Juliano, and Romero Rocha. Rural Settlements and Deforestation in the Amazon. Climate Policy Initiative, 2016. https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Rural_Settlements_and_Deforestation_in_the_Amazon_Working_Paper_CPI.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Assunção |first1=Juliano |last2=Rocha |first2=Romero |title=Rural Settlements and Deforestation in the Amazon |publisher=Climate Policy Initiative |date=December 2016 |url=https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Rural_Settlements_and_Deforestation_in_the_Amazon_Working_Paper_CPI.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{assuno2016rural, author = {Assunção, Juliano and Rocha, Romero}, title = {{Rural Settlements and Deforestation in the Amazon}}, institution = {Climate Policy Initiative}, year = {2016}, month = dec, url = {https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Rural_Settlements_and_Deforestation_in_the_Amazon_Working_Paper_CPI.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }