Slowing Amazon deforestation through public policy and interventions in beef and soy supply chains
- Daniel Nepstad1,*,
- David McGrath1,2,
- Claudia Stickler1,
- Ane Alencar3,
- Andrea Azevedo3,
- Briana Swette1,
- Tathiana Bezerra1,
- Maria DiGiano1,
- João Shimada1,
- Ronaldo Seroa da Motta4,
- Eric Armijo1,
- Leandro Castello5,
- Paulo Brando3,6,
- Matt C. Hansen7,
- Max McGrath-Horn1,
- Oswaldo Carvalho1,
- Laura Hess8
- 1Earth Innovation Institute, 3180 18th Street, Suite 205, San Francisco, CA 94110, USA.
- 2Universidade Federal do Oeste do Pará, Bairro Fátima CEP 68040-470 Santarém, Pará, Brasil.
- 3Instituto de Pesquisa Ambiental da Amazônia, SHIN CA 5, Bloco J2, Sala 309, Bairro, Lago Norte, Brasília-DF 71503-505.
- 4Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil.
- 5Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA 24061, USA.
- 6Carnegie Institution for Science, 260 Panama Street, Stanford, CA 94305, USA.
- 7University of Maryland Department of Geographical Sciences, College Park, MD 20742, USA.
- 8Earth Research Institute, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106–3060, USA.
- ↵*Corresponding author. E-mail: dnepstad{at}earthinnovation.org
Abstract
The recent 70% decline in deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon suggests that it is possible to manage the advance of a vast agricultural frontier. Enforcement of laws, interventions in soy and beef supply chains, restrictions on access to credit, and expansion of protected areas appear to have contributed to this decline, as did a decline in the demand for new deforestation. The supply chain interventions that fed into this deceleration are precariously dependent on corporate risk management, and public policies have relied excessively on punitive measures. Systems for delivering positive incentives for farmers to forgo deforestation have been designed but not fully implemented. Territorial approaches to deforestation have been effective and could consolidate progress in slowing deforestation while providing a framework for addressing other important dimensions of sustainable development.
