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2. The Racist Undertones of Bolivia’s Environmental Movement
- Author:
- Benjamin Swift and Laura Barriga Dávalos
- Publication Date:
- 02-2024
- Content Type:
- Commentary and Analysis
- Institution:
- The North American Congress on Latin America (NACLA)
- Abstract:
- As massive wildfires swept across Bolivia in late 2023, a classist, racist, and capitalist public outcry deflected from the primary drivers of drought and deforestation.
- Topic:
- Environment, Capitalism, Political Movements, Racism, Deforestation, Drought, Wildfires, and Classism
- Political Geography:
- South America and Bolivia
3. Protected areas, indigenous communities, deforestation and the role of institutions: evidence for the lowlands of Bolivia
- Author:
- Pedro Cayul
- Publication Date:
- 03-2024
- Content Type:
- Research Paper
- Institution:
- Centre for International Environmental Studies, The Graduate Institute (IHEID)
- Abstract:
- Protected areas and indigenous communities play a crucial role in controlling deforestation, which is responsible for carbon emissions related to land use and land use change, contributing to global warming and climate change. However, the effectiveness of protected areas is conditioned by their administration and the quality of the institutions in their countries. In this paper, I will analyze the effectiveness of protected areas (Both at the national and sub-national levels) and indigenous territories and the institutions' role in the case of Bolivia's lowlands. I computed deforestation rates for four different periods between 1986 and 2021 to test the impact of institutions on different types of protected areas by using satellite images at 30m resolution and combining them with official data on protected areas and indigenous communities, which includes specific locations and dates of creation. Using a spatial regression discontinuity design, the results show that protected areas at the national level are the most effective in controlling deforestation, particularly after the creation of institutions taking care of them. Departmental protected areas have some impact on preventing deforestation, while municipal ones have no influence. For indigenous communities, there was a significant effect on reducing deforestation with the first reservations created, but the effect wears off over time. Regarding mechanism, being close to cities and routes is a threat for indigenous communities and departmental PAs, while it is an advantage for national PAs. Finally, protected areas and indigenous communities show, in general, greater levels of deforestation when they are exposed to cattle ranching settlements, mines, and oil wells.
- Topic:
- Environment, Institutions, Mining, Indigenous, Deforestation, and Protection
- Political Geography:
- South America and Bolivia
4. Brazil Is Burning and Agribusiness Must Be Held Liable
- Author:
- Sabrina Fernandes
- Publication Date:
- 10-2024
- Content Type:
- Commentary and Analysis
- Institution:
- The North American Congress on Latin America (NACLA)
- Abstract:
- As blazes set new records, it is important to denormalize the framing of forest destruction as a simple natural cycle, detached from criminal activity, intentional deforestation, economic interests, and climate change.
- Topic:
- Climate Change, Crime, Economics, Deforestation, and Agribusiness
- Political Geography:
- Brazil and South America
5. Dynamics of the Ecosystem of Environmental Crimes in the Brazilian Legal Amazon
- Author:
- Igarapé Institute
- Publication Date:
- 08-2024
- Content Type:
- Special Report
- Institution:
- Igarapé Institute
- Abstract:
- The Brazilian Legal Amazon is the site of a complex ecosystem of environmental and related non-environmental crimes that impact both the environment and the people living there. Organized environmental crime contributes in many ways to the destruction and degradation of the forest, significantly accelerating land use changes in the world’s largest tropical forest. The loss of Amazon forest cover is causing irreversible damage to Brazil and the world by accelerating climate change. Despite growing recognition among actors inside and outside the Brazilian state, there is still a lack of systematic and in-depth understanding of the scope, scale, and dynamics of organized environmental crime in the Amazon region. While there has been significant progress in the development of georeferenced information systems to monitor deforestation in the Legal Amazon – an area spanning nine states in the northern region of the country – Brazil lacks data on organized crime to assist the government and society in addressing one of the most significant challenges of our time. In an effort to understand the phenomenon, the Igarapé Institute is launching the Strategic Article Dynamics of the Ecosystem of Environmental Crimes in the Legal Amazon. This article presents an overview of the different crime patterns in the states that make up the Brazilian Amazon based on updated data on Federal Police operations in the region covering 2016 to 2022. This analysis is essential not only to understand the Brazilian State’s efforts in combating organized environmental crime but also to reveal the transnational connections of environmental crime, links between environmental crimes and drug-related offenses, the presence of rural militias, and these crimes in Indigenous Lands.
- Topic:
- Climate Change, Police, Indigenous, Militias, Organized Crime, Deforestation, and Environmental Crime
- Political Geography:
- Brazil, South America, and Amazon Basin
6. The European Union Deforestation Regulation: The Impact on Argentina
- Author:
- Pablo de la Vega
- Publication Date:
- 06-2024
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Center for Distributive, Labor and Social Studies (CEDLAS)
- Abstract:
- We analyze the potential economic impacts in Argentina of the European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), which as of January 2025 will prohibit the export to the European Union of certain raw materials and related products if they involve the use of deforested land. A dynamic computable general equilibrium model is used to simulate the impact of such regulation on the Argentine economy. The results suggest that the potential macroeconomic impacts are limited. As a consequence of the EUDR, between 2025 and 2030, GDP would be reduced by an average of 0.46% with respect to the baseline scenario. However, of greater magnitude is the potential environmental impact. Deforested hectares would be reduced by 6.64% and polluting gas emissions by 0.39%.
- Topic:
- European Union, Regulation, Exports, Trade, and Deforestation
- Political Geography:
- Europe, Argentina, South America, and Latin America
7. Seeing the Forest for More than the Trees: A Policy Strategy to Curb Deforestation and Advance Shared Prosperity in the Colombian Amazon
- Author:
- Timothy Cheston, Patricio Goldstein, Timothy Freeman, Alejandro Rueda-Sanz, and Ricardo Hausmann
- Publication Date:
- 02-2023
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University
- Abstract:
- Does economic prosperity in the Colombian Amazon require sacrificing the forest? This research compendium of a series of studies on the Colombian Amazon finds the answer to this question is no: the perceived trade-off between economic growth and forest protection is a false dichotomy. The drivers of deforestation and prosperity are distinct – as they happen in different places. Deforestation occurs at the agricultural frontier, in destroying some of the world’s most complex biodiversity by some of the least economically complex activities, particularly cattle-ranching. By contrast, the economic drivers in the Amazon are its urban areas often located far from the forest edge, including in non-forested piedmont regions. These cities offer greater economic complexity by accessing a wider range of productive capabilities in higher-income activities with little presence of those activities driving deforestation. Perhaps the most underappreciated facet of life in each of the three Amazonian regions studied, Caquetá, Guaviare, and Putumayo, is that the majority of people live in urban areas. This is a telling fact of economic geography: that even in the remote parts of the Amazon, people want to come together to live in densely populated areas. This corroborates the findings of our global research over the past two decades that prosperity results from expanding the productive capabilities available locally to diversify production to do more, and more complex, activities.
- Topic:
- Economic Growth, Deforestation, and Green Economy
- Political Geography:
- Colombia, South America, Latin America, and Amazon Basin
8. Inventory of data on economic activity and deforestation in the Amazon Basin
- Author:
- Igarapé Institute
- Publication Date:
- 11-2022
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Igarapé Institute
- Abstract:
- Multiple factors shape land change and land use patterns in the Amazon Basin.This note aims to identify data sources for two specific phenomena: changes in land cover and GHG emissions. It also considers key economic sectors that accelerate deforestation including livestock and agricultural development. To this end, the focus is on available data sources across three countries with an analysis of their geographic scope, depth of detail, and the frequency and periodicity with which they are reported.
- Topic:
- Security, Climate Change, Environment, Economy, Carbon Emissions, and Deforestation
- Political Geography:
- Brazil, South America, and Amazon Basin
9. Connecting the Dots: Territories and Trajectories of Environmental Crime in the Brazilian Amazon and Beyond
- Author:
- Laura Trajber Waisbich and Terine Husek
- Publication Date:
- 07-2022
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Igarapé Institute
- Abstract:
- A new study by the Igarapé institute analyzing more than 300 Federal Police operations between 2016 and 2021 found that environmental crime in the Amazon region is not only organized but far more than a local problem. Indeed, this vertibable criminal ecosystem behind Amazon plunder has expanded nationwide, reaching 24 of Brazil’s 27 states as well as neighboring nations. According to the study “Connecting the Dots: Territories and Trajectories of Environmental Crime in the Brazilian Amazon and Beyond”, published Wednesday July 20, the federal operations flagged criminal networks in 846 venues across Brazil and the region. This article is the latest in our series “Mapping Environmental Crime in the Amazon Basin.” The police ops focused largely on the nine states comprising Brazil’s Legal Amazon region, where spreading criminal activities took investigators to 197 municipalities, representing 75% of total interventions. Police also targeted environmental crimes in 57 Brazilian municipalities outside the Amazon region, and another eight cities in neighboring countries. The Federal Police interventions were triggered by unchecked deforestation associated with a variety of unlawful economic activities, from outright crimes to nominally licit market activity tainted by crime. These include illegal timber extraction, illicit mining (especially gold), land grabbing and predatory farming and ranching. This criminal network was first explored in Igarapé’s strategic paper, published earlier this year, “The Ecosystem of Environmental Crime in Amazonia: An Analysis of Illicit Economies in the Forest.” The current study takes a deeper dive into the widening criminal nexus that undergirds environmental crimes and related offenses, including illegal money flows, tax evasion, corruption, fraud and criminal violence.
- Topic:
- Crime, Environment, Law Enforcement, Deforestation, and Illicit Financial Flows
- Political Geography:
- Brazil, South America, and Amazon Basin
10. A Broken Canopy: Deforestation and Conflict in Colombia
- Author:
- International Crisis Group
- Publication Date:
- 11-2021
- Content Type:
- Special Report
- Institution:
- International Crisis Group
- Abstract:
- Colombia’s vast forest is fast receding, partly because guerrillas and criminals are clearing land for farming, ranching and other pursuits. These unregulated activities are causing both dire environmental harm and deadly conflict. Bogotá should take urgent steps to halt the damage.
- Topic:
- Environment, Conflict, Farming, and Deforestation
- Political Geography:
- Colombia and South America