Abstract
Brazil recently began granting timber concessions in public forests to promote sustainable forest use. The effectiveness of this strategy hinges on the design and implementation of the concessions themselves as well as their competitive position within the logging sector as a whole. There is, however, a lack of information on the competitive interaction between legal and illegal logging and its effects on concessions profits. We address this knowledge gap by using a spatially explicit simulation model of the Amazon timber industry to examine the potential impact of illegal logging on timber concessions allocation and profits in a 30-year harvest cycle. In a scenario in which illegal logging takes place outside concessions, including private and public “undesignated” lands, concession harvested area would decrease by 59% due to competition with illegal logging. Moreover, 29 out of 39 National Forests (≈74%) would experience a decrease in harvested area. This “leakage” effect could reduce concession net rents by up to USD 1.3 Billion after 30 years. Federal and State “undesignated” lands, if not adequately protected, could have 40% of their total volume illegally harvested in 30 years. Our results reinforce the need to invest in tackling illegal logging, if the government wants the forest concessions program to be successful.
Highlights
Brazil has been on a long and difficult journey to legalize and manage its tropical timber sector
While many technical and institutional challenges of timber concessions systems are well known [5,6,7], and by and large addressed in the design of concessions in Brazil, the market impacts of illegal timber production on concession success or failure have been neglected
We investigate the risk of being illegally exploited that public lands face if not adequately protected
Summary
Brazil has been on a long and difficult journey to legalize and manage its tropical timber sector. A key component of that effort has been the allocation of timber concessions on public lands [1,2,3,4]. While many technical and institutional challenges of timber concessions systems are well known [5,6,7], and by and large addressed in the design of concessions in Brazil, the market impacts of illegal timber production on concession success or failure have been neglected. The economic effects of illegal logging on government finances due to uncollected. Economic impacts of illegal logging in the Amazon and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
