Eduardo Almeida (UFJF)
06/07/2010 – terça-feira
18:00
Sala de Reuniões da FIPE (USP/FEA)
The tropical deforestation is a main issue on the global climate change discussion. There is always a concern about the increasing pressure over the forest as economic growth increases. Concerning the Brazilian Amazon deforestation, there are important intra-regional differences due to occupation history, large area, economic structure and geographical aspects, inducing a strong spatial heterogeneity in this environmental phenomenon. Within this context, this work aims to investigate locally the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis applied to Brazilian Amazon region, that is, whether there is an inverted “U” relationship between a deforested area and economic growth for each municipality in Brazilian Amazonia from 2001 to 2006. Some other variables mentioned in the literature were considered to explain deforestation: cattle size, soybean and sugar cane crops, vegetal extraction and forestry products, population density, rural credit, and previous forested area. The spatial parameter heterogeneity was considered by estimating a local econometric model using geographically weighted regressions (GWR). The results show different local relationships between deforestation and GDP per capita at the municipal level, and also different local relationships between deforestation and the additional variables: it was possible to map the different shapes for these local relationships found mainly in central and northeastern portions of Amazonia.