DEGRADAÇÃO AMBIENTAL E CRESCIMENTO ECONÔMICO: A CURVA DE KUZNETS AMBIENTAL PARA O CERRADO

This paper aims to verify the existence of relationship between environmental degradation and economic growth, based on the Environmental Kuznets Curve hypothesis for the Brazilian Cerrado in 2008. The deforested area of the Cerrado’s municipalities was defined as dependent variable and as explanatory variables the GDP per capita and its quadratic and cubic form, population density, the planted area and the cattle. Spatial econometric methods were used. The results show that, initially, the growth of per capita income helps to reduce deforestation in the region. However, the continuous increase of per capita GDP leads to deforestation to grow back.