Researchers have scientifically proven now what was always believed passionately by the environmentalists : deforestation may look like a boon in the short term but does not pay in the long run. Cutting down Amazon forest for cattle and soy does not bring long-term economic progress, researchers say. A study of 286 Amazon municipalities found that deforestation brought quick benefits that were soon reversed. Writing in the journal Science, the researchers say the deforestation cycle helps neither people nor nature. They suggest that mechanisms to reward people in poorer countries for conserving rainforest could change this “lose-lose-lose” situation.
Ana Rodrigues and colleagues assessed the development status of people in 286 municipalities using the UN’s Human Development Index (HDI), which combines measures of standard of living, literacy and life expectancy. Some of the municipalities were in areas of virgin forest. Others had already lost all their trees, and some were in the process of being deforested.
Areas in the initial stage of deforestation yielded HDI scores above the average for the region. But once the period of deforestation had passed, scores returned to the values seen in areas that had not yet been logged. “It is generally assumed that replacing the forest with crops and pastureland is the best approach for fulfilling the region’s legitimate aspirations to development,” said Dr Rodrigues
“We found although the deforestation frontier does bring initial improvements in income, life expectancy, and literacy, such gains are not sustained.”
The “boom and bust” pattern was the same for each of the three aspects of the HDI, showing that even a straight economic benefit was not maintained.