Science: Deforestation of Brazilian Amazon is "Boom and Bust"

A study of nearly 300 municipalities across the Brazilian Amazon rainforest shows that deforestation—the conversion of forests to fields for agriculture, cattle-ranching, and logging—generally produces prosperity at first, but typically is followed by economic decline, researchers say in the new issue of Science.

This region is among the poorest and least developed in Brazil, and a wide variety of people migrate there to look for new jobs and opportunities. However, these findings indicate that, overall, deforestation creates a boom-and-bust impact on local residents, and that municipalities which have cleared their forests are no better off than those which did not.

To learn more about the economic impact of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon, read the full story.