Revisiting human settlement patterns and its relationship with deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon

Demographic pressure is often viewed as the principal determinant of tropical deforestation. However, with the actual trend of rural-urban migrations and the expansion of large-scale cropping in the tropics, the relation between human settlement patterns and deforestation is unclear. This research investigates the variation in population settlement across the Brazilian Amazon between 2000 and 2010 and how it is related to deforestation. The basis of our analysis are the high resolution geographic database on deforestation released by the Brazilian space research center (INPE) and population census data at block level released by the Brazilian geographical and statistical agency IBGE. We propose an innovative methodology to cross these data despite their different geographical ladders using a grid of more than 50,000 quadrats of 100 km² covering the entire Brazilian Amazon. We show the importance of rural depopulation both in the agriculture/forest frontier and in the riverine road-less regions and the important growth of regional towns. In the frontier, rural depopulation is not associated with lower deforestation rates what give rise to what one can call "deforested desert": quadrats with very low population density and high deforestation rates. At the opposite, we show the still important number of people living in forest without causing deforestation. This radiography of deforestation and population settlement demonstrates the complexity of the processes shaping the Brazilian Amazon and the need to better considerate the current human settlement pattern when implanting public policies.

Bibliographic Details

Main Authors:	Tritsch, Isabelle, Le Tourneau, François-Michel
Format:	conference_item biblioteca
Language:	eng
Published:	AAG
Online Access:	http://agritrop.cirad.fr/598314/ http://agritrop.cirad.fr/598314/7/ID598314.pdf
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