As climate negotiators gathered in Belém for the 30th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP30), the surrounding rainforest was in the spotlight, with COP30 being dubbed a “forest COP”. As one of its key projects, the Brazilian government...

This paper explores the environmental consequences of illegal drug production, specifically focusing on the impact of coca prices and cultivation on tree cover density in Peru. Using satellite imagery and granular data on the economic value of coca cultivation, I show that fluctuations in coca...

Land tenure for Indigenous peoples and local communities in forested areas can improve livelihoods and protect forests while recognizing territorial and human rights. Yet little is known about the relationship between land tenure and deforestation within Quilombola territories (QTs) of...

Charcoal production to meet the cooking needs of urban households is one of the leading causes of deforestation and degradation of Africa’s tropical forests. We randomly distributed high-cost Liquified Petroleum Gas (LPG) stoves to urban households through subsidy and on credit and measured...

Regionally dominant extractive sectors - including Brazilian cattle ranching, Amazonian narco-gold mining, and Finnish paper pulping - provide the foundation for this book's analysis of the range of motivations for deforestation. This framing allows for a discussion of the global political...

The Amazon rainforest is currently threatened by deforestation and degradation, making the transition to a sustainable economy a global issue. Hence, addressing these social and environmental challenges requires new approaches to science, technology, and innovation (STI), that go beyond...

Am 1. Januar 2023 tritt Luiz Inácio "Lula" da Silva seine dritte Präsidentschaft in Brasilien an. Damit endet gleichzeitig die von vielen politischen Beobachtern als destruktiv eingestufte Amtszeit von Präsident Jair Bolsonaro. Vieles deutet darauf hin, dass es zu einem geordneten Prozess der...

Soil enzymes are the most potent bioactive components of forest ecosystems. They are involved in carbon and nutrient cycling, and the ratio of ligninase to cellulase activity can be used to effectively track changes in the soil carbon (C) pools for microbial assimilation. However, our...

Charcoal production to meet the cooking needs of urban households is one of the leading causes of deforestation and degradation of Africa’s tropical forests. We randomly distributed Liquified Petroleum Gas (LPG) stoves to urban households in Tanzania through subsidy and on credit to measure...

Concessions that grant logging rights to firms support economic development, based on forest resources. Eco-certifications place sustainability restrictions on the operation of such logging concessions. Using a spatially detailed panel and new DID estimators, we estimate the 2002-2018 impacts on...

Am 1. Januar 2023 tritt Luiz Inácio "Lula" da Silva seine dritte Präsidentschaft in Brasilien an. Damit endet gleichzeitig die von vielen politischen Beobachtern als destruktiv eingestufte Amtszeit von Präsident Jair Bolsonaro. Vieles deutet darauf hin, dass es zu einem geordneten Prozess der...

Peru holds an important portion of the South American rainforest. An average deforestation rate of 145,000 ha a year makes it the largest source of GHG emissions. Based on the drivers of deforestation, this paper proposes a deep decarbonization pathway (DDP) through the year 2050 with the...

Most recent cross-country analyses of economic growth have neglected the importance of physical geography. This paper reviews the distinctive development challenges faced by economies situated in tropical climates. Using geographic information system (GIS) mapping, the paper presents evidence...

The production of charcoal to meet cooking needs of urban households is one of the main causes of deforestation and degradation of Africa’s tropical forests, which offer significant carbon sequestration capacity to the global economy. In collaboration with a reputable local microfinance...