TY - JOUR
T1 - The cost of forest preservation in the Brazilian Amazon
T2 - The “arc of deforestation”
AU - de Figueiredo Silva, Felipe
AU - Fulginiti, Lilyan E.
AU - Perrin, Richard K.
N1 - Funding Information:
Felipe de Figueiredo Silva is an assistant professor in the Department of Agricultural Sciences at Clemson University and a former graduate student at the University of Nebraska, Lilyan E. Fulginiti and Richard K. Perrin are professors in the Department of Agricultural Economics at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. This project is based on research that was partially supported by the Nebraska Agricultural Experiment Station with funding from the Hatch Multistate Research capacity funding program (Accession Numbers NEB 1011054, NEB 227784) and from the Strategic Investments-Enhancing Interdisciplinary Teams Award. Review coordinated by Richard T. Woodward.
Publisher Copyright:
Copyright 2019 Western Agricultural Economics Association
PY - 2019
Y1 - 2019
N2 - We estimate the trade-off between agricultural production and forest preservation for the municipalities in Brazil’s agricultural frontier, the so-called “arc of deforestation,” using census and deforestation data for 2006. We use a nonparametric directional output distance function that allows us to identify the gradients of the production possibility frontier, which are the trade-offs of interest. We found that, on average, $979 is forgone in annual livestock, timber, and grain revenues to conserve 1 hectare of forest. This translates, ceteris paribus, to an average present value of costs to permanently sequester CO2 of $16.36/t, higher than most previous estimates.
AB - We estimate the trade-off between agricultural production and forest preservation for the municipalities in Brazil’s agricultural frontier, the so-called “arc of deforestation,” using census and deforestation data for 2006. We use a nonparametric directional output distance function that allows us to identify the gradients of the production possibility frontier, which are the trade-offs of interest. We found that, on average, $979 is forgone in annual livestock, timber, and grain revenues to conserve 1 hectare of forest. This translates, ceteris paribus, to an average present value of costs to permanently sequester CO2 of $16.36/t, higher than most previous estimates.
KW - CO sequestration cost
KW - Directional distance function
KW - Trade-off
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U2 - 10.22004/ag.econ.292328
DO - 10.22004/ag.econ.292328
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85072241715
SN - 1068-5502
VL - 44
SP - 497
EP - 512
JO - Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics
JF - Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics
IS - 3
ER -