Study will evaluate international impact on Amazon

“The Amazon is on the agricultural frontier and the international community’s growing demand for natural resources is partly responsible for the deforestation,” says Brazilian researcher

By Mônica Pileggi

Agência FAPESP – The deforestation of the Amazon Forest is almost always attributed to local development, and for the international community is a problem caused by domestic issues like land use for diverse activities.

“But the Amazon is also on the agricultural frontier and the international community’s growing demand for natural resources is partly responsible for the deforestation,”  comments Joaquim José Martins Guilhoto, professor at USP’s Economics, Administration and Accounting School (FEA-USP), in an interview with Agência FAPESP. 

The researcher decided to better understand and measure deforestation due to global demand for Brazilian agricultural products. The study became the topic of a proposal approved in the call for proposals held by FAPESP in conjunction with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the results of which were released this past December.

The project will be conducted by Guilhoto and Karen Polenske, professor at MIT’s Urban Studies and Planning Department and specialist in natural and energy resources, particularly in the United States and China.
 
Guilhoto has just returned to Brazil after spending a year as a visiting professor at MIT’s Urban Studies and Planning Department. “During the period, Karen [Polenske], her team and I developed a study group in the area of regional economy, covering environmental questions in Brazil, the United States and China. The idea to pursue a project to better understand deforestation in the Amazon emerged from this interaction,” explains the coordinator of Thematic Project “International agriculture markets, poverty and inequality in Brazil” funded by FAPESP and concluded in 2010.

The new study is in its early stages – formation of the database – and as of the second half of the year, three students under Guilhoto’s mentorship will go to Boston for two-week internships at MIT. Afterwards, three other post-doctoral students mentored by Polenske will go to Brazil for two weeks to exchange experiences with colleagues at USP.

This exchange will mark the second phase of the project, when analysis of the data will occur. At USP, the studies will be conducted by two groups in FEA’s Economics Department: the Regional and Urban Economics Center and the Socio-environmental Economics Center.

“In these groups, we have banks with Brazilian economic, social and environmental data, which allow for regional and environmental studies and analysis on the country’s economy. It is this experience that we are bringing the study,” highlights Guilhoto.

On the other hand, the professor notes that one must understand the dynamics of economies of more developed nations and how these external factors affect deforestation of the Brazilian Amazon.

Quantifying demand

Polenske’s studies on soil occupation began in urban areas in the 1990s. “We studied the relationship between production, energy demand and natural resources usage in countries like the United States and China, which are major consumers,” she notes.

The MIT group has been charged with the task of providing a panorama of the international natural resources market, particularly countries that exert pressure on the resources found in the Amazon region.

“We intend to observe changes in land occupation in rural regions of the Amazon and, together with the project’s post-doctoral students, analyze the energetic, economic and environmental consequences of this process,” adds Polenske.
According to Guilhoto, with the exchange of information and knowledge among Brazilian and U.S. researchers, the study could quantify the potential global demand for agricultural and mineral products in the region comprised by nine Brazilian states: Acre, Amapá, Rondônia, Roraima, Amazonas, Pará, Maranhão, Mato Grosso and Tocantins.

The group will only include iron ore in its calculations for Pará. The state, one of the leaders in deforestation of the Amazônia Legal (Official Amazon), exports a significant volume of iron ore and other minerals.

Both Guilhoto and Polenske view the partnership between researchers at USP and MIT as an excellent opportunity to advance knowledge in the area.

“Until a few years ago, the greater majority of our research was directed solely to China, a major consumer of fossil fuels, particularly coal. With the support of diverse sources, we have managed to have greater activity in Brazil, which is also a major energy consumer, albeit more focused on renewable sources,” comments the economist.

More information about the FAPESP-MIT partnership can be found at: www.fapesp.br/en/5680