This paper examines the relationship between deforestation and economic performance in the Brazilian Legal Amazon, where resource extraction is linked to short-term economic gains, primarily through logging and ranching. The study proposes a transformed interpretation of the environmental Kuznets curve to illustrate a critical pattern. Whereas municipalities with lower levels of deforestation are associated with higher gross domestic products, beyond a certain threshold, areas experiencing greater forest loss are linked to reduced economic output. The analysis employs propensity score weighting on the complete dataset and linear regression models on a trimmed dataset, focusing on municipalities with active deforestation and excluding outliers to ensure robust results. The findings support the transformed hypothesis, indicating a nonlinear relationship between deforestation intensity and economic performance. These results highlight the importance of development strategies that integrate environmental conservation with economic benefits in regions facing land use pressures.

Current guidelines for legal timber harvests are not sustainable. Timber yields can be substantially enhanced by the application of cost-effective silvicultural treatments that increase stocking and growth of timber trees. Growing interest in tropical forest restoration offers opportunities to promote the management of secondary and degraded forests for timber, and mixed plantations with native species. Timber yields from these restored areas would reduce pressure on natural forests – allowing larger areas to be set aside for protection and reducing harvesting intensity in natural forests.

Las directrices actuales para el aprovechamiento legal de madera de bosques naturales en la Amazonía (alrededor de 20 m3 ha-1 de madera aprovechada cada 15-35 años) no son sostenibles. El creciente interés por la restauración de bosques tropicales ofrece oportunidades para promover la producción de madera a través de la gestión de bosques secundarios, bosques degradados y plantaciones mixtas con especies nativas.

Diretrizes atuais para extrações legais de madeira das florestas naturais na Amazônia (em torno de 20 m3 ha-1 de madeira extraída a cada 15-35 anos) não são sustentáveis. O crescente interesse na restauração de florestas tropicais oferece oportunidades para promover o manejo de florestas secundárias e degradadas para madeira, e plantações mistas com espécies nativas.

In 2006, the Brazilian Forest Service (SFB) started an ambitious program to establish forest concessions so as to provide a legal framework for long-term sustainable timber production in Amazonian forests. Forest concessions in the Brazilian Amazon currently cover only 1.6 million ha (Mha) but we estimate the area of all potential concessions as 35 Mha. This paper assessed the conditions under which the present and potential concession system can ensure an annual production of 11 Mm(3). yr(-1) to meet the estimated present timber demand. For this we used the volume dynamics with differential equations model (VDDE) calibrated for the Amazon Basin with a Bayesian framework with data from 3500 ha of forest plots monitored for as long as 30 years after selective logging. Predictions of commercial volume recovery rates vary with location. We tested 27 different scenarios by using combinations of initial proportion of commercial volume, logging intensity and cutting cycle length. These scenarios were then applied to the current area of concessions and to the area of all potential concessions (35 Mha). Under current logging regulations and the current concession area (mean logging intensity of 15-20 m(3).ha(-1), a harvest cycle of 35 years and an initial commercial timber volume proportion of 20%), timber production can be maintained only for a single cutting cycle (35 years). Only the scenario with a logging intensity of 10 m(3)ha(-1) every 60 years with a 90% initial proportion of commercial timber species can be considered as sustainable. Under this scenario, the maximum annual production with the present concession areas is 159,000 m(3) (157-159), or less than 2% of the present annual production of 11 Mm(3). When considering all potential concession areas (35 Mha), under current rules, the total annual production is 10 Mm(3)yr(-1) (2-17 Mm(3)yr(-1), 95% credibility interval) but is not maintained after the first logging cycle. Under the most sustainable scenario (see above) and a concession area of 35 Mha, the long-term sustainable annual production of timber reaches only 3.4 Mm(3)yr(-1). Based on these results we argue that the concession system will not be able to supply the timber demand without substantial reforms in natural forest management practices and in the wood industry sector. We argue that alternative sources of timber, including plantations linked with forest restoration initiatives, must be promoted.

Under the Amazon Third Way paradigm and its implementation strategy Amazon 4.0 the Amazon Creative Labs (ACL) were conceived, as a tool for training and for testing proposed concepts. Amazon 4.0 is an attempt to show that it is possible to achieve a stage of high human development combined with valuing of tropical forest through knowledge. This study demonstrates how to add value to value chains of the immense Amazon biodiversity and how to enable Amazonian populations to master bio-industrialization technologies of forest assets. The following example deals with the potential to develop bio-industries in the value chain of two forest products with high potential: cupuaçu and cocoa through the development of the so-called ACL. This will serve as an important experiment to guide several proposals being elaborated by the Scientific Panel for the Amazon.

World Bank lending was held at least partly responsible when there were reports of accelerated rates of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon in the 1980s, and those reports significantly influenced the design of the Bank's new forest strategy in 1991. However, the possibility of "guilt by association" with any deforestation in Brazil's Amazon basin since that time continues to hobble the Bank's involvement in the Brazilian forest sector. With obvious tradeoffs between short-term benefits to a variety of stakeholders and the long-term global and national benefits, whether the government would effectively be able to protect these areas of the Amazon without substantial transfer of resources to compensate the losers, is questionable. A policy of completely protecting all of the Amazon while neglecting Brazil's other forests— a stance that the international environmental community persuaded the Bank to adopt in 1991—was not the right policy.

Frontier expansion in the Brazilian Amazon is often described as “boom-bust” development. We critically assess this characterization by mapping and estimating statistical models of welfare as a function of deforestation at the municipal level. After controlling for potential confounding variables and spatial autocorrelation, estimation results are consistent with a frontier “boom” generated by exploitation of natural resources, followed by a “bust” during which forests continue to fall but there is no compensating gain in welfare. However, average per capita welfare increases again with deforestation at very high levels. This second turning point in average welfare, along with the strong bivariate correlation between deforestation and municipal GDP/km2, may encourage local leaders to equate deforestation with development. This confirms the need for international incentive payments for global public goods, such as biodiversity and carbon sequestration, that are provided by the Amazon forest.

Recognizing the importance of preserving biodiversity and ecosystem services, human society has established extensive protected area networks to conserve these resources in recent decades. Are protected areas working as expected? Empirical coarse-scale assessments of this question across large regions, or even globally, tend to answer "yes", while fine-scale studies of individual protected areas often and repeatedly answer "no". We conducted a first fine-scale analysis of Brazil's extensive Amazonian protected area network (1.8 million km(2)) and have quantitatively estimated conservation effectiveness in light of changing human development pressures in the surrounding landscape. The overall network maintained intact forest cover for 98.6% of protected forest lands, largely agreeing with previous coarse-scale studies. However, detailed examination of 474 individual protected areas unveils a broad range of efficacy. Many protected areas (544,800 km(2)) experience default protection simply due to their remoteness. Many others (396,100 km(2)) have provided highly effective protection in the face of substantial human development pressure. Conversely, 12% (38) of protected areas have failed to protect the 27,300 km(2) that they encompass, and another 7% (23) provide only marginal protection of 37,500 km(2). Comprehensive landscape assessments of protected area networks, with frequent monitoring at scales matching the patterns of human-caused disturbances, are necessary to ensure the conservation effectiveness and long term survival of protected areas in rapidly changing landscapes. The methods presented here are globally adaptable to all forested protected areas. (c) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Cattle, Deforestation, and Development in the Amazon: An Economic, Agronomic, and Environmental Perspective by Merle D. Faminow; Brazil, Forests in the Balance: Challenges of Conservation with Development by Uma Lele; Virgilio Viana; Adalberto Verissimo; Stephen Vosti; Karin Perkins; Syed Arif Husain; Estilos de Desarrollo, Deforestacion y Degradacion de los Bosques de las Tierras Bajas de Bolivia by Pablo Pacheco Balanza ... Review by: David Kaimowitz Latin American Research Review, Vol. 37, No. 2 (2002), pp. 221-235 Published by: The Latin American Studies Association Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2692156 . Accessed: 01/11/2013 10:02

This case study is one of six evaluations of the implementation of the World Bank's 1991 Forest Strategy. This and the other cases (Cameroon, China, Costa Rica, India, and Indonesia) complement a review of the entire set of lending and nonlending activities of the World Bank Group and the Global Environment Facility. The World Bank has clearly diminished its lending presence in the Amazon in the past decade. It has moved from the big projects era of the 1960s through the 1980s and strong economic and sector work to a more careful approach at the end of the century with attempts once again to focus on strategic issues and smaller projects, including pilot activities. This seems due both to the poor performance of earlier projects-which prompted a more risk-adverse Bank strategy following the intense international scrutiny and criticism contributing to the cautious approach urged by the 1991 Forest Strategy-and to a lack of demand in Brazil for Bank funds. Brazil's macroeconomic difficulties-its balance of payments and fiscal deficits-have led the government to be selective as well as to shift lending to quick-disbursing activities. This is evident in the most recent land reform programs. Controlling deforestation is not easy given the large number and level of national and global forces and actors affecting it. If the Bank is to be a facilitator for balancing the needs of stakeholders (i.e., the poor and the indigenous people) and national and global interests, it must be seen as an objective bystander. The 1991 Forest Strategy emphasizes the primacy of the rights of the indigenous people-and by implication their rights have primacy over those of the local poor. But the Bank cannot be a facilitator unless it is viewed by both parties as not serving the interests of only one party.

The Brazilian Amazon is globally important for biodiversity, climate, and geochemical cycles, but is also among the least developed regions in Brazil. Economic development is often pursued through forest conversion for cattle ranching and agriculture, mediated by logging. However, on the basis of an assessment of 286 municipalities in different stages of deforestation, we found a boom-and-bust pattern in levels of human development across the deforestation frontier. Relative standards of living, literacy, and life expectancy increase as deforestation begins but then decline as the frontier evolves, so that pre- and postfrontier levels of human development are similarly low. New financial incentives and policies are creating opportunities for a more sustained development trajectory that is not based on the depletion of nature and ecosystem services.

The creation of protected areas is one of the most effective and recommended strategies to preserve the integrity and biodiversity of the Amazon forest. In the state of Rondonia, where deforestation has already reached 32% of the territory, protected areas represent the last barrier against environmental degradation. However, deforestation has even advanced in these areas. In this article, we identify and quantify deforestation in Rondonia's protected areas and we evaluate the causes of degradation in State protected areas. In 2004, approximately 6.3% of Rondonia's entire protected area had already been deforested. In proportion to their total area, state protected areas were the most deforested, whereas federal protected areas and Indigenous lands were the least affected. There are two main causes for this greater deforestation in State protected areas: a lack of State Government action to protect these areas and their proximity to wood industry and cattle-raising centers. In order to detain deforestation from advancing into protected areas, greater government presence and a more efficient and transparent inspection system are required.

O conteudo e apresentado em seis capitulos: Capitulo 1 - Introducao; Capitulo 2 - Caracteristicas gerais do mogno; Capitulo 3 - Mogno na Amazonia brasileira; Capitulo 4 - Manejo e conservacao do mogno na Amazonia brasileira; Capitulo 5 - Iniciativas de controle da exploracao do mogno; Capitulo 6 - Conclusao.

Brazil9s government is currently implementing a policy for sustainable forest production within an expanded system of National Forests (Flonas). By 2010, 50 million hectares of new Flonas will be created. The scale of this initiative is equivalent to the 1908 establishment of the U.S. National Forest system and is unprecedented in the tropics. The resultant mosaic of conservation areas, combining Flonas with fully protected parks and indigenous reservations, will enhance biodiversity conservation and economic stability throughout the Amazon. Establishment of these Flonas will foster development of large-scale sustainable forestry and make Brazil a world leader in conserving natural resources.