With over 800,000 square kilometers of deforested native vegetation, Brazil has already lost a fifth of the original extent of its Amazon Forest (INPE 2021a). Protecting this vegetation is a formidable challenge, accentuated by the vast forest and its rich diversity, as well as the complex legal framework governing land use in Brazil. But it is a challenge worth facing.
Public policy plays a fundamental role in this. Protecting native Amazon vegetation demands coordinated public policy actions across thematic areas and government spheres. Such actions must be based on empirical evidence and grounded both in the strategic use of state of the art technology and in the application of robust technical knowledge. Brazil is fully capable of implementing an effective strategy for protecting the Amazon Forest — it has done this before.
This report aims to contribute to the design and implementation of this strategy. It is organized as follows: section “Why Protect the Amazon Forest?” provides an overview of the various benefits of forest conservation, highlighting how this action has repercussions at the local, national, and international levels; section “What Works to Protect the Amazon Forest” summarizes empirical knowledge about the effectiveness of public policies for forest conservation, consolidating key results from the academic literature that evaluates policies aimed at combating Amazon deforestation; section “Strengthening Amazon Forest Protection” discusses ways to improve and strengthen the forest conservation and sustainable development agenda for the Brazilian Amazon.
