Socioeconomic development versus deforestation: considerations on the sustainability of economic and social growth in most Brazilian municipalities

摘要

The Brazilian forests account for a large part of the world's flora and fauna diversity. Nevertheless, these important ecosystems are being supplanted to anthropic uses seeking for socioeconomic development with no actual improvement in the life of Brazilians. Therefore, in this study, we have evaluated the relation between the deforestation and the socioeconomic development in Brazil, from 2000 to 2010. A multiple linear model of fixed effects was fit to the data that composed a balanced panel with 3168 observations. The results suggest that the Brazilian socioeconomic development is intensively linked to the use of forest resources, leading to two problems: the ephemeral improvement in development as shown by the indicators; and the favoring of income concentration. However, the indicators that mean greater efficiency in Brazilian agriculture have had a positive effect on native forests. These results demonstrate the importance of investing in agricultural research in the promotion of socioeconomic development and forest conservation.