Deforestation and violence in Brazil

Abstract

In this paper, we propose an empirical model that aims to test whether deforestation is linked to violence in Brazil. In section 2, we discuss how the process of deforestation is linked to violence. More specifically, we show that an institutional framework conducive to the lack of well-defined property rights leads to a process of land accumulation that is prone to the occurrence of deforestation as well as land conflicts. In order to empirically test this relationship, section 3 presents an analysis crossing data for deforestation and homicide rates, used as proxy for land tenure conflicts in the Brazil. The results carried out using an instrumental variable for deforestation showed that these two variables are highly associated, independently of the functional forms tested for the regression analysis, providing robust support for the model’s predictions.