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Road investments, spatial Intensification and deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon

Alexander Pfaff, Juan A. Robalino, Robert Walker, Eustáquio J. Reis, Stephen Perz, Claudio B. Bohrer, Steven Aldrich

Pfaff, Alexander, Juan A. Robalino, Robert Walker, Eustáquio J. Reis, Stephen Perz, Claudio B. de A. Bohrer, and Steven Aldrich. "Road Investments, Spatial Intensification and Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon." Paper presented at the Nono Encontro Científico LBA-ECO, São Paulo 2005.

Abstract: Anticipating the impacts of new roads on environmental services is crucial for the complete evaluation of these major investments in infrastructure. For the case of the Brazilian Amazon, we find that deforestation rates increase in census tracts that lack roads but are within 100km of a tract with a new paved or unpaved road. We provide mixed evidence of lower clearing in census tracts between 100km and 200km from the road tract, and at greater distances paved roads are found to increase deforestation. Alongside the finding in Pfaff et al. 2005 that any new road investment unambiguously increases deforestation within the road tract, our results reject the recent claim that such road investments will reduce a county’s deforestation rate by spatially concentrating development in fewer tracts.