Study: Large Land Investments Promote Forest Destruction in Amazon Region

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Large-scale land purchases of at least 200 hectares contribute to the destruction of tropical forests, according to a new study by Nature Geosciences. The study analyzed the consequences of over 80,000 land purchase contracts signed between 2000 and 2018 in 15 countries in South America, as well as sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia.

According to the study, over three quarters of these purchases were made by foreign investors. The Amazon region is also a particular focus. Human Rights Watch (HRW) is now concerned by the lack of protection in the region, particularly in light of the pending ratification of the Free Trade Agreement between Mercosur and the European Union.

The Nature Sciences study compared sales records of state-owned land with satellite data on changes in vegetation coverage. Large-scale mining throughout the Amazon region has been most frequently associated with forest destruction over the past two decades.

In other regions, palm oil and timber were the primary industries causing the increasing deforestation of tropical forests. Between 2000 and 2018, Brazil, Cambodia, Indonesia, Liberia, Malaysia, and Mozambique lost an average of ten percent of their forests.

Compared with similar areas with no private investment, areas with large-scale land purchases experienced increased deforestation in 52 percent of cases, although this rate varied between countries.

According to the study’s authors, governments in the Global South often welcome such investment as a means of potentially easing technology transfers and capital inflows, as well as promoting rural development and local job creation.

Kyle Davis, an environmental scientist at the University of Delaware, Newark, and Columbia University, New York, urged policymakers to take steps to prevent these investments from “leading to large concessions in their countries, including the forests, communities, and ecosystems that rely on them”.

The study also warns of the potential climatic impact of buying large plots of land in forest regions. Nearly a quarter of all carbon stored on earth is found in tropical forests.

Deforestation leads to the release of this carbon into the atmosphere. Currently, deforestation of tropical forests is said to account for approximately eight percent of all human-induced CO2 emissions.

The study also shows that in most countries, more land was purchased in forest regions than in rural areas or regions with less vegetation, such as grasslands or savannahs.

This finding suggests that companies are currently encouraged to invest in activities that require the clearing of primary forests, according to Charlotte Wheeler, a tropical forest researcher at the University of Edinburgh who was not involved in the study.

According to Weeler, gold prospecting has also increased in recent years in many parts of the Amazon. This type of mining could be more damaging to the environment because large forest areas need to be cleared to extract gold from deep underground gold deposits, according to the researcher.

The current Brazilian government under President Jair Bolsonaro is clearly pursuing a policy favorable to deforestation and gold mining. Consequently, the free trade agreement between the Mercosur states (Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay) and the EU, which has yet to be ratified, should not be considered for the time being, according to Human Rights Watch.

The planned trade agreement includes commitments to comply with the Paris Climate Change Agreement and to fight deforestation; however, these commitments are not being met, particularly by the current Brazilian government.

Bolsonaro is not only ignoring the environmental commitments contained in the agreement, but he is also making it increasingly unlikely that even future Brazilian governments will be able to meet such commitments, said Maria Laura Canineu, HRW’s Director for Brazil.

Illegal deforestation in Brazil is largely driven by violent criminal networks, according to a 2019 HRW report. Since taking office in January 2019, Bolsonaro has also sabotaged the Brazilian Environmental and Indigenous Protection Agency FUNAI and tried to sideline the country’s environmental groups.

Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon is said to have increased by more than 80 percent in 2019 alone. Preliminary data, based on real-time alerts from the Brazilian Space Research Agency, show that deforestation continued to increase this year during the Covid-19 pandemic. There are also increasing threats to forest conservationists.

The HRW also warned the EU Commission against ratifying the trade agreement between the European Union and Mercosur until Brazil starts to effectively protect the Amazon rainforest.