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      Transportation costs, agricultural expansion and tropical deforestation: Theory and evidence from Peru Translated title: Los costos de transporte, la expansión agrícola y la deforestación tropical: Teoría y evidencia de Perú

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          Abstract

          The growth of urban areas adjacent to forest areas, as well as international trade growth, has accelerated the demand for food. These areas of growth have led to the deforestation of tropical forests, a process that contributes negatively to climate change, and a decline in the provision of environmental services and biodiversity. This article seeks to propose and simulate a theoretical model of optimal control at the household level. This model is used to explain the dynamics of forest loss by expansion of the agricultural frontier. Under these conditions, based on tradable permanent crops, farmers decide whether to install new areas for cultivation or manage existing ones in a context of increasing transportation costs. We simulate a theoretical model using data on permanent crops in the high forest of Peru. The results of the model establish that there is a limit to the expansion of the agricultural frontier of the rainforest due to transportation costs. This limit can be surpassed in the context of the free movement of labor whenever these costs cause a decrease and/or increase in the price of land cultivation. Finally, the main policy recommendations of this study emphasize the subordination of transport policy to agroforestry and the conservation of forest ecosystems policies. Agroforestry design forest policies should consider the differential impact of the construction of highways and rural roads on the loss of tree cover as well as on sustainable food production, given that deforestation is not accelerated by the mere existence of roads but by the incentives that are presented to settlers to guide their efforts toward clearing new forest areas.

          Translated abstract

          El crecimiento de las áreas urbanas adyacentes a las zonas forestales, además del crecimiento del comercio internacional, ha acelerado la demanda de alimentos y por lo tanto la deforestación de los bosques tropicales, un proceso que contribuye negativamente al cambio climático, a la disminución de la provisión de los servicios ambientales y a la biodiversidad. Este artículo tiene como objetivo proponer y simular un modelo teórico de control óptimo a nivel de hogares para explicar la dinámica de la pérdida de bosques por la expansión de la frontera agrícola que hace que un agricultor, en base a cultivos permanentes transables, quien decide en cada momento si expander a nuevas áreas para el cultivo o si maneja las ya existentes en un contexto de aumento de los costos de transporte. Simulamos el modelo teórico a partir de datos sobre los cultivos permanentes en la selva alta del Perú. Los resultados del modelo establecen que hay un límite a la expansión de la frontera agrícola en la selva dado por los costos de transporte. Este límite puede ser superado en un contexto de libre disposición de mano de obra cada vez que estos costos disminuyen y/o aumentan el precio pagado para el cultivo de la tierra. Por último, las principales recomendaciones de este trabajo destacan la subordinación de la política de transportes a la agroforestería y a la conservación de las políticas de los ecosistemas forestales. Políticas forestales de diseño agroforestales deben considerar el impacto diferencial de la construcción de carreteras y caminos rurales por la pérdida de la cobertura forestal, y también en la producción sostenible de alimentos, teniendo en cuenta que la deforestación no es acelerada por la mera existencia de caminos, sino por los incentivos presentados a los colonos para orientar sus esfuerzos hacia la limpieza de nuevas áreas forestales.

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          Most cited references26

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          Policies for reduced deforestation and their impact on agricultural production.

          Policies to effectively reduce deforestation are discussed within a land rent (von Thünen) framework. The first set of policies attempts to reduce the rent of extensive agriculture, either by neglecting extension, marketing, and infrastructure, generating alternative income opportunities, stimulating intensive agricultural production or by reforming land tenure. The second set aims to increase either extractive or protective forest rent and--more importantly--create institutions (community forest management) or markets (payment for environmental services) that enable land users to capture a larger share of the protective forest rent. The third set aims to limit forest conversion directly by establishing protected areas. Many of these policy options present local win-lose scenarios between forest conservation and agricultural production. Local yield increases tend to stimulate agricultural encroachment, contrary to the logic of the global food equation that suggests yield increases take pressure off forests. At national and global scales, however, policy makers are presented with a more pleasant scenario. Agricultural production in developing countries has increased by 3.3-3.4% annually over the last 2 decades, whereas gross deforestation has increased agricultural area by only 0.3%, suggesting a minor role of forest conversion in overall agricultural production. A spatial delinking of remaining forests and intensive production areas should also help reconcile conservation and production goals in the future.
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            Explaining Agricultural Land Expansion and Deforestation in Developing Countries

            E. Barbier (2004)
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              The Economics of Tropical Deforestation and Land Use: An Introduction to the Special Issue

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                Author and article information

                Contributors
                Role: ND
                Role: ND
                Role: ND
                Journal
                ciagr
                Ciencia e investigación agraria
                Cienc. Inv. Agr.
                Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. Facultad de Agronomía e Ingeniería Forestal (Santiago )
                0718-1620
                August 2015
                : 42
                : 2
                : 153-169
                Affiliations
                [1 ] Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú Perú
                [2 ] Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez Chile
                Article
                S0718-16202015000200003
                5fa7d8cb-37aa-45ac-88ac-b8f35148c98c

                http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

                History
                Product

                SciELO Chile

                Self URI (journal page): http://www.scielo.cl/scielo.php?script=sci_serial&pid=0718-1620&lng=en
                Categories
                AGRICULTURE, MULTIDISCIPLINARY

                General agriculture
                Agriculture,deforestation,transportation costs,Peruvian Amazon,Amazonas Peruano,agricultura,costos de transporte,deforestación

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