Frontier expansion in the Brazilian Amazon is often described as “boom-bust” development. We critically assess this characterization by mapping and estimating statistical models of welfare as a function of deforestation at the municipal level. After controlling for potential confounding...

Pervasive tenure insecurity in developing countries is a key challenge for REDD+. Brazil, a leader in REDD+, has advanced efforts to link forest tenure reform and environmental compliance. We describe how these policies have shaped sub-national interventions with detailed data on land tenure and...

Integrating conservation and development is central to the mission of many protected areas in the tropics, yet there is limited empirical evidence on the effectiveness of alternative strategies for ICDPs (Integrated Conservation and Development Projects). We evaluate an enterprise-based...

Summary Even in the absence of formal land markets, estimated values on agricultural frontiers of the Brazilian Amazon reflect the value-adding characteristics of the land. Understanding these characteristics provides important insights to the incentives (or dis-incentives) to protect tropical...

For Acre, in the Brazilian Amazon, we find that protection types with differences in governance, including different constraints on local economic development, also differ in their locations. Taking this into account, we estimate the deforestation impacts of these protection types that feature...