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This report by the Climate Policy Initiative/PUC-Rio uses an atmospheric transport model to analyze how deforestation in the Amazon, specifically within the Xingu River Basin, impacts rainfall in the state of Mato Grosso. The study demonstrates that forest areas are critical for maintaining air humidity and that their removal leads to a measurable decrease in precipitation, affecting agriculture, energy production, and urban water supplies.

This policy brief by the Climate Policy Initiative (CPI/PUC-Rio) evaluates the effectiveness of landscape protection—specifically protected areas and indigenous lands—in reducing deforestation within the Brazilian Amazon. While the analysis finds that these territories are effective at shielding the specific forests they cover, they have a negligible impact on aggregate deforestation levels because they tend to deflect forest clearing to unprotected regions.

This research paper evaluates the effectiveness of the Brazilian government's 'Priority Municipalities' (MPs) policy, implemented in 2008 to combat illegal deforestation in the Amazon. The authors find that blacklisting municipalities significantly reduced deforestation, primarily through intensified monitoring and law enforcement rather than economic sanctions. Crucially, the study concludes that this reduction in deforestation did not negatively impact agricultural production or credit concessions in the affected areas.