<p>This
research explores the impact of road infrastructure on deforestation, the role
of forest governance and a carbon tax/credit mechanism in mitigating the effect
on land use change and subsequent GHG emissions, with application to the states
of Pará and Mato Grosso in Brazil. Few studies have addressed how policies to
protect forested land affect the rate of deforestation associated with road and
infrastructure improvement. This research makes three main contributions to the
literature of roads and deforestation: 1) the concept of cost of access to the
“closest” market in terms of time (expressed in person hours per ten ton load)
is introduced to reflect variations in the road network infrastructure; 2) development
of empirical evidence of the role of forest governance in diminishing the rate
of deforestation linked to roads, using data from Brazil; and 3) and assessment
of the efficacy of a carbon tax/credit scheme for mitigating the impact of
infrastructure investment on land use and resultant changes in GHG
emissions. Access cost ranged between
0.01 and 3084 person hours per load, however 80 percent of the pixels measured
less than 784 person hours across the three years analyzed (2003, 2013, and
2018). This measure facilitated a contrast in spatial accessibility due to road
infrastructure across pixels within the same year and across years on a same
pixel. The use of a fractional logit model allowed the incorporation of
proportions of different land uses within a same pixel at the same resolution
of other <a></a>variables not available at the same fine scale.
Strong forest governance reduced up to 25% the elasticities on forest lands
with respect to access cost; in other words, the impact of roads on
deforestation is reduced by one fourth when forest governance is strengthened.
These larger impacts occur at the frontier where most of the efforts need to be
addressed. Finally, provided a shock in road infrastructure, a carbon
tax/credit level of $82/tCO2e permitted to abate an additional amount of GHG
emissions estimated in 244 million tons of CO2e released due to changes in
carbon stocks and flow emissions from agricultural activities induced from
changes in road infrastructure. More
importantly, this research provided insights of a proportion of GHG emissions
that could be abated at different levels of a carbon tax/credit.</p>
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:purdue.edu/oai:figshare.com:article/15085380 |
| Date | 30 July 2021 |
| Creators | Carlos Andres Fontanilla Diaz (11211147) |
| Source Sets | Purdue University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, Thesis |
| Rights | CC BY 4.0 |
| Relation | https://figshare.com/articles/thesis/ROADS_DEFORESTATION_AND_GHG_EMISSIONS_THE_ROLE_OF_FOREST_GOVERNANCE_AND_CARBON_TAX_POLICY_IN_PARA_AND_MATO_GROSSO_BRAZIL/15085380 |
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