Deforestation policies do not reduce degradation in the Amazon

A research paper by the Stockholm Environment Institute finds that conservation policies in the Brazilian Amazon that successfully reduced deforestation have generally failed to reduce anthropogenic forest degradation, leaving carbon stocks, biodiversity, and ecosystem services at risk.

• Conservation policies in the Brazilian Amazon, including both public policy mixes and private supply chain policies, have effectively reduced deforestation but have failed to reduce anthropogenic forest degradation in most cases.
• Forest degradation continues to cause significant declines in biodiversity, ecosystem services, and carbon stocks, even when some trees remain standing. Because current deforestation control policies are insufficient to address these issues, there is an urgent need for policies that explicitly target degradation drivers such as logging, fire, and fragmentation.
• The authors argue that governments and companies should incorporate forest degradation emissions into their assessments of how effective current policies are in achieving emission reduction goals.

APA

Stockholm Environment Institute (2026). Deforestation policies do not reduce degradation in the Amazon. https://www.sei.org/publications/deforestation-policies-do-not-reduce-degradation-amazon/

Chicago

Stockholm Environment Institute. Deforestation policies do not reduce degradation in the Amazon. 2026. https://www.sei.org/publications/deforestation-policies-do-not-reduce-degradation-amazon/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Stockholm Environment Institute |title=Deforestation policies do not reduce degradation in the Amazon |date=6 May 2026 |url=https://www.sei.org/publications/deforestation-policies-do-not-reduce-degradation-amazon/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{stockholmenvironmentinstitute2026deforestation, author = {{Stockholm Environment Institute}}, title = {{Deforestation policies do not reduce degradation in the Amazon}}, institution = {Stockholm Environment Institute}, year = {2026}, month = may, url = {https://www.sei.org/publications/deforestation-policies-do-not-reduce-degradation-amazon/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }