Template-Type: ReDIF-Paper 1.0
Author-Name: Patricio Goldstein
Author-Workplace-Name: Center for International Development at Harvard University
Author-Name: Timothy Freeman
Author-Name: Alejandro Rueda-Sanz
Author-Name: Shreyas Gadgin Matha
Author-Name: Sarah Bui
Author-Name: Nidhi Rao
Author-Name: Timothy Cheston
Author-Email: tim_cheston@hks.harvard.edu
Author-Workplace-Name: Center for International Development at Harvard University
Author-Name: Sebastian Bustos
Author-Email: sebastian_bustos@hks.harvard.edu
Author-Workplace-Name: Center for International Development at Harvard University
Title: The Connectivity Trap: Stuck Between the Forest and Shared Prosperity in the Colombian Amazon
Abstract: The Colombian Amazon faces the dual challenge of low economic growth and high deforestation. High rates of deforestation in Colombia have led to a perceived trade-off between economic development and protecting the forest. However, we find little evidence of this trade-off: rising deforestation is not associated with higher economic growth. In fact, the forces of deforestation of some of the world’s most complex biodiversity are driven by some of the least complex economic activities, like cattle-ranching, whose subsistence-level incomes are unable to meet the economic ambitions for the region. All the while, the majority of the Amazonian departments’ population works in non-forested cities and towns, at a distance from the agriculture frontier that forms the “arc of deforestation.” The relative urbanization of the Amazonian departments, despite the vast land mass available, recognizes that prosperity is achieved through close social-economic interactions to expand the knowledge set available to be able to produce more, and more complex activities. Achieving economic goals therefore relies on creating new productive opportunities in non-forested, urban areas.
Creation-Date: 2023-02
Keywords: Colombia, Peru, Amazon Rainforest, deforestation
Number: 210
Handle: RePEc:glh:wpfacu:210
File-Url: https://growthlab.cid.harvard.edu/sites/projects.iq.harvard.edu/files/growthlab/files/2023-02-cid-fellows-wp-147-colombia-amazon-connectivity-trap.pdf
File-Format: application/pdf