Land Rights Lower Deforestation In Brazil's Amazon

Credit: Molly Champion from Pexels

Max Esterhuizen, Virginia Tech

edited by Gaby Clark, reviewed by Alexander Pol

Editors' notes

Nov. 22, 2025

Who owns the rainforest -- and who has the right to use it -- might seem like a simple question.

But in the Brazilian Amazon, that question lies at the heart of one of the world's most persistent environmental challenges.

New research from Virginia Tech natural resource economist Stella Schons with collaborators João Paulo Mastrangelo of the University of Acre in Acre, Brazil, and Alexandre Maia University of Campinas in São Paulo, Brazil, provides some of the strongest evidence yet that secure land tenure -- not merely possessing a land title -- plays a critical role in reducing deforestation and improving compliance with environmental laws.

Published recently in World Development, the study examined data from more than 35,000 private rural properties in Acre, a state in the western Brazilian Amazon known both for its history of forest conservation and its growing development pressures. Using satellite and environmental registration data, the researchers compared properties with clearly declared land boundaries to those with overlapping or disputed claims.

They found that properties with secure land rights deforested less and were more likely to comply with Brazil's Forest Code, which limits deforestation to 20 percent of each property's area.

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