Environmental Policy Analysis - Deforestation - Research Paper Example

According to statistics, about 2-3 hectares of forestland is destroyed for agricultural purposes annually. In addition to the commercial use of the forest, ranching has also led to an increase in the deforestation process. Deforestation has also been due to livestock operations, which has led to increase in small-scale farming, since land devoted for annual crops production is converted to pasture due to low yields. According to Wood and Porro (25), the Brazilian Environmental Policy being discussed in this paper mainly addresses mechanisms for reducing deforestation without affecting economical development in the Amazon region.

For example, the policy deals with introducing practices that would reduce deforestation through either slashing or burning. The economic and environmental impacts of the policy are mainly targeted on technological changes in the agricultural sector in the region. Some of the new technology would have both negative and positive effects on the environment as well as economical situation. This is because the new technology might emit gasses in the air and make many farmers lose their source of income.

The policy also seeks to update the physical infrastructure in the region, and the effects of lower transportation costs would make the area more accessible (Wood and Porro 30). This would reduce costs by reducing transportation expense for transporting goods and people from one area to another. The other effect of the policy is reducing the macro-economic impact of shocks such as currency devaluation on the movement of agriculture in the region. Balancing environmental sustainability and reducing poverty levels is always a problem in any region, hence the need to identify a policy that would be able to provide basic needs without affecting or destroying the natural environment (Wood and Porro 39).

This necessitates the provision of an alternative to slashing and burning for agriculture. Even though the government removed policies that advocated for land clearing, the rate of deforestation has not reduced in the area. Therefore, to mitigate the effects of deforestation there was a need to come up with a model that would facilitate the Brazilian economic policy changes and improve land tenure regimes in the region. The model would also ensure the adoption of new agricultural policies such as adoption of new farming tenure systems that would take into consideration growing of perennial crops rather than annual crops.

In addition to the improvement of infrastructure in the region, the policy seeks to reduce currency devaluation and align it with the new system, and provide fiscal methods to reduce the rate of deforestation (Wood and Porro 45). Regulating the land tenure system is one of the best options for reducing deforestation since most instances of deforestation occurred in the hands of foresters who acquired informal land tenure. By introducing new land tenures, the government is reclaiming the land and removing the incentives for deforestation, which would effectively reduce deforestation by 23 percent per year.

Advancement in agricultural development would play a vital role in agricultural advancement and reduce deforestation (Wood and Porro 46). Due to improvement in livestock production, the returns of agricultural activities would increase, which would in turn improve food security. However, in the long-run, deforestation would increase as