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Indicators of deforestation in the Southern Brazilian Pre-Amazon

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Abstract

In recent years, Amazonian deforestation has become a question of global concern. Deforestation in Amazon is a complex phenomenon in nature and has been related to traditional agriculture expansion. In this work, land use, socioeconomic and conservation indicators, combined with statistical analysis, were used to understand forces associated with patterns of deforestation. This approach was applied in Southern Brazilian Pre-Amazon in Mato Grosso State, which represents an extensive rain forest-savanna ecotone, located in the south border of Amazon biome. Based on data from the last two agricultural censuses (1995/1996–2006), we compared agricultural expansion in this area and Mato Grosso state. Results have shown that 85 % of state deforestation was concentrated in Southern Pre-Amazon and was closely related to increase in number of cattle and pasture area. PCA results pointed that population (92 %), number of cattle (86.5 %), pastures (84.2 %) and tractors (78.4 %) were variables with highest positive correlation to deforestation. It showed that GDP contributes to an individual axis and has a low correlation to deforestation (37.8 %). Conservation units and indigenous reserves also contribute to a single axis and were negatively correlated to temporary crops area. Results revealed a significant reduction in production and commercialization of extractive products in the region, revealing that the main, almost only conservation policy in Mato Grosso remains the creation of Special Areas. We suggest that further studies are necessary to screen development alternatives to simple cutting trees down. It is important to diversify strategies for deforestation control, and development aspects must be more seriously considered to reach a sustainable deforestation control policy.

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  1. Licensed to the Department of Geography, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro.

  2. Licenced to the Department of Geography, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro.

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Acknowledgments

This work is part of a series of studies on land-use change and its environmental impacts in Amazonia developed by the Instituto Virtual Internacional de Mudanças Globais as part of the Graduate Program in Energy and Environmental Planning at COPPE/UFRJ. We would like to thank Professor Luis Pinguelli Rosa for his ideas for the first paper and Professor Alexandre Szklo for the support he provided as Program Coordinator. We would also like to thank CNPq for funding a scholarship for ME, BF and CAGE.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Programa de Planejamento Energético, PPE/COPPE, Instituto Virtual Internacional de Mudanças Globais, IVIG, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rua Pedro Calmon, S/Nº, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, 21945-970, Brazil

    Mariana Egler, Barbara Franz, Maria Silvia Muylaert de Araujo & Marcos Aurélio Vasconcelos de Freitas

  2. Programa de Pós-Graduação em Geografia, Departamento de Geografia, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Cx P. 68.537, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, 21941-972, Brazil

    Claudio Antonio Gonçalves Egler

  3. Rua Lopes Quintas, nº 200, aptº 607, Bloco 2, Jardim Botânico, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, 22460-010, Brazil

    Mariana Egler

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  1. Mariana Egler
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  2. Claudio Antonio Gonçalves Egler
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  3. Barbara Franz
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  4. Maria Silvia Muylaert de Araujo
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  5. Marcos Aurélio Vasconcelos de Freitas
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Correspondence to Mariana Egler.

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Egler, M., Egler, C.A.G., Franz, B. et al. Indicators of deforestation in the Southern Brazilian Pre-Amazon. Reg Environ Change 13, 263–271 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10113-012-0331-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10113-012-0331-4

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