Decision-making and the environment in the Amazon Land War

Abstract

Land change science has provided a number of chains of explanation for change that have provided many insights over the past few decades. However, these chains of explanation are developed using assumptions that may not be true in all circumstances. Furthermore, land change science approaches consider the drivers of change (i.e., why change takes place), rather than where change is preferentially occurring. Using a unique dataset of land cover and land conflict in the Eastern Brazilian Amazon, I develop statistical models which suggest that land change can be significantly modified as a result of social process (constituting a driver of change), and show that land cover affects the type of landholding where land change is likely to occur.