In 2004, deforestation in the Amazon rainforest was so rampant, an area the size of the state of Massachusetts was lost in that year alone.
Efforts to combat deforestation were outdated and time-consuming with Brazil’s environmental protection agency relying on patrols by plane or boat — not terribly effective or efficient, considering the rainforest’s massive size.
Marina Silva, a politician and environmentalist who served as Brazil’s minister of the environment and climate change, sought to change this.
Silva — who was born in the Amazon to a family of rubber tappers — devised a plan of preserving the rainforest using satellite imagery on a regular basis in 2005.
In 2008 the technology was supported by the Brazilian government creating a “blacklist” of municipalities where deforestation was particularly active and where more rigorous monitoring and stricter enforcement was needed.
The plan also included prompt inspections of newly cleared forest areas and quick enforcement measures, including issuing large fines.
This model and policy worked. Between 2008 and 2012, deforestation was reduced by 43 per cent and cut emissions by almost 50 million tons of carbon. (When deforestation occurs, much of the carbon stored by trees is released back into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide.)
“It was a true game-changer,” says Eduardo Souza-Rodrigues, an associate professor with the Faculty of Arts & Science’s Department of Economics. “Brazil reached its lowest level of deforestation of less than 5,000 square kilometres in 2012, compared to close to 30,000 square kilometers in 2004.
“The satellite passes over the same place every few days, and it’s highly accurate, so when deforestation occurs, an inspector can be sent out to the site within a week or so of the event and issue the appropriate penalty.”
It’s extremely cost effective. The governments have to make an initial investment in training people to use the satellite monitoring data, but after they have used it for some time, they recover all of that investment by targeting their efforts where they are needed most.
This government policy has proven so effective in protecting Brazil’s sensitive ecosystems, Souza-Rodrigues believes it could benefit other nations wanting to protect their natural lands.
Souza-Rodrigues and his departmental colleague Robert McMillan, examined Brazil’s 2008 policy response to its deforestation and completed a study called, Optimal Environmental Targeting in the Amazon Rainforest that appeared in The Review of Economic Studies.
“We thought this policy really is making a big impact,” says Souza-Rodrigues. “But could we do even better? So we thought, what if the government had information about those impacts?.”
In addition to the effective monitoring and enforcement, the policy had a spillover effect.
“When farmers from one municipality that isn’t on the blacklist see a farmer in a blacklisted municipality being monitored and fined, we found they deforested less in the region due to proximity,” he says.
While promising, the technology and the policy were not perfect, with Souza-Rodrigues uncovering areas for potential improvement in the study.
For example, he suggested revising the blacklist of municipalities and moving away from listing areas that were side by side.
“The impact of the policy was not just reducing deforestation in blacklisted municipalities, but also neighbouring municipalities because of the spillover,” he says.
“So the government could have done better by spreading them out. If you put two municipalities on the blacklist against adjacent municipalities in the blacklist, you will lose the spillover. You could split them up and take advantage of the spillovers, and then you can reduce deforestation even further.”
As well, he also found there was overlap in terms of safeguarding, meaning some areas were already heavily protected and didn’t need to be put on the blacklist, though they would still need some monitoring.
“We found that you don’t need to blacklist municipalities where there are already other legal protection systems in place, such as nature conservancy areas or Indigenous peoples’ reserves.”
Still, Souza-Rodrigues believes other developing countries should consider adopting a similar program and policy.
“It’s extremely cost effective,” he says. “The governments have to make an initial investment in training people to use the satellite monitoring data, but after they have used it for some time, they recover all of that investment by targeting their efforts where they are needed most.”
Looking globally, Souza-Rodrigues feels nations such as the Republic of Congo could greatly benefit by adopting similar plans and policies.
“I'm trying to stimulate people to do more research on deforestation in Congo, because it's an important place,” he says. “There’s a lot of deforestation there. But it's one of the three biggest rainforests on the planet. It's an important place to look at and I don't think we know nearly enough.”
In the meantime, Souza-Rodriques continues to be in contact with the Brazilian government and was concerned by the fact that deforestation began to creep back up by 2017.
“That's when they contacted me, saying, ‘We want to revisit this blacklist policy and update this.’’ That led to a series of productive meetings.
“I provided some input to help them select a new set of municipalities to be put onto the blacklist,” he says.
Today, Souza-Rodrigues is encouraged by the fact that Marina Silva returned as the environment minister in 2023.
“I’m happy to see her back in office,” he says. “I believe she will be able to reduce deforestation. Indeed, she is preparing a new plan to combat it very much in line with the changes we saw by 2004, when deforestation started to drop substantially.”
He’s also inspired by the passion and drive of the younger officials in Brazil’s government.
“The people who are putting these policies in place are not only the highest officials, like a minister or deputy minister,” he says. “It’s also people around 30 to 40 years old, very energetic, enthusiastic and wanting to do the right thing.
And he hopes this energy, will and spirit can be harnessed in other regions around the world.
“These policies were successful in reducing deforestation substantially. Now, we need to take advantage of policies that have proven to work well in practice. We need to refine, improve and replicate them.”