Tropical deforestation. Credit: Amazônia Real from Manaus AM, Brasil, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Poorly defined land rights increase deforestation, but private land rights must be combined with strict environmental policies.
Tropical deforestation causes widespread degradation of biodiversity and carbon stocks. Researchers were now able to test the relationship between land tenure and deforestation rates in Brazil. Their findings show that poorly defined land rights go hand in hand with increased deforestation rates. The study, by researchers from the German Center of Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) and Leipzig University, was published today (October 1) in the journal DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-33398-3
Funding: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
