Spatial Economics of Conservation and Development:

The Brazilian Amazon contains some of the world's§most biologically diverse ecosystems. These§ecosystems generate significant global benefits in§the form of ecosystem services, species habitats and§environmental amenities. However, the land required§to keep these ecosystems intact and the value of§natural resources the Amazon could generate under§alternative usage is substantial. This means that a§decision not to convert these areas imposes high§opportunity costs on the economy of a developing§country as a whole, and on local populations with a§high incidence of poverty and destitution in§particular. The importance of balancing this§trade-off has increasingly been recognised in§Brazilian development policy. This book aims to§investigate microeconomic issues related to land use§in the Brazilian Amazon emphasizing their§relationship with spatial processes of deforestation§and regional development. After a brief description§of the region and the exploratory analysis of the§data used in the research, theoretical models and§econometric methods are adopted to address specific§questions in four essays.