fire and economics: understanding the - fs.fed.us and economics: understanding the amazonia’s fire...

Proceedings of the Second International Symposium on Fire Economics, Planning, and Policy: A Global View

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Fire and Economics: Understanding the Amazonia’s Fire Arch1

Tatiana Schor,2 Arnaldo Carneiro Filho,3 Carlos de Almeida Toledo4

AbstractLooking down at the Amazonian region using satellite images a “fire arch” that approachesthe Amazon River can be seen. Due to this visual effect the pattern of deforestation of Amazonia is usually considered a “fire arch” that approximates the Amazon River through thesouthwest of Brazil. The arch has been monitored since 1988, and estimates of deforestationareas have been an important instrument for fire prevention policies and national andinternational public opinion. The verified deforested areas in the years of 2000-2001 havebeen 1,4 times bigger than the original estimates. What has caused such a big increase in the fire and consequently in deforested areas in the Amazonia is not only a national Brazilianpreoccupation but also a worldwide concern. Environmental scientists’ and policy makers areconcerned in understanding why the actual deforested area is bigger than the estimate, whythere was a fire increase in some areas and if the fire arch pattern can be still considered as a dominant fire structure in the Amazonian Region.

Fire in the Amazon Region used by traditional population and also related to economicactivities such as opening of pastures, logging and cereal plantations. In fact, fire is usuallyconsidered the cheapest technology for cleaning a forest area for further economic activity.But, can the fire registered in the satellite images be correlated with economic factorsregistered in the macroeconomic indicators?

This paper is interested in approaching this question by means of analytically relating the different deforestation indices and the fire images with the local, regional and nationalmacroeconomic indicators.

Making use of the satellite images of the fires in the Amazon Region, areas that had animportant fire increase will be chosen as case studies. The period of study chosen will beduring the Brazilian Real Economic Plan, 1994-2002, due to the fact that during the initial andfinal years of this economic plan a great increase in fire areas in the Amazonian Region wasregistered.

The case studies chosen will be analyzed by means of local (the municipalities whichmost caught fire), regional and national economic indicators searching for possibleexplanations of the fire patterns which caused the important deforestation increase during theyears of 2000-2001 and discuss the possible future changes in the Amazonian “fire arch”.

1 An abbreviated version of this paper was presented at the second international symposium on fire economics, planning and policy: a global view, 19–22 April, 2004, Cordoba, Spain. 2 Economist, Teacher of Environmental Economics and Scientific Methodology,Environmental Education, SENAC-São Paulo and doctorate student in the postgraduateprogram in Environmental Science, University of São Paulo, Brazil. 3 Coordenator of the Geoprocessing Laboratory at the Instituto Nacional de PesquisaAmazônica, Manaus, Brazil.4 Economist, Teacher of the History of Economic Thought at Santanna University and doctorate student in the Geography Department of the University of São Paulo, Brazil.

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Proceedings of the Second International Symposium on Fire Economics, Planning, and Policy: A Global ViewGENERAL TECHNICAL REPORT PSW-GTR-208 Proceedings of the Second International Symposium on Fire Economics, Planning, and Policy: A Global View

Session 3B— Understanding the Amazonia’s fire arch —Schor, Filho, de Almeida Toledo

IntroductionFire management involves a large scope of analytical and methodological tools.Economic theory has not been influenced by the complicated debate aroused by thecontemporary necessity to protect wildland remnant from fire. Fire managementagencies have long looked at economic indicators and observed many relationshipsbetween economic activities and fire. These relationships vary enormously due not only to the different economic activities but also due to the historical processesinvolved in the occupation of the wildland. This paper analyses the commonly calledAmazonia’s Fire Arch by means of integrating the economic theory with the local historical processes of fire in Brazil and more specifically in the Amazonian frontier. This exploratory analysis hopes to contribute not only to the understanding of the fire in the Amazon but also to the discussion of wildland fire in economic theory and environmental management.

The Amazonian Fire Arch Looking down at the Amazonian region using satellite images a fire arch that approaches the Amazon River can be seen. Due to this visual effect the patternof deforestation of Amazonia is usually considered a deforestation arch thatapproximates the Amazon River along the eastern and southern edges of the forest (Cochrane, M. A. and others. 2002:288). This deforestation arch has a visual effect when seen through satellite images of a concentration of heat focuses delineating a heat arch or more specific terms: a fire arch. This firearch approaches the Amazon River from the southeast and in spite all effortsof controlling and monitoring the fire done by the Brazilian governmental agencies (IBAMA and more specifically PROARCO) has increased in the pastyears, such as can be seen in figure 1.

The arch has been monitored since 1988, and estimates of deforestation areas have been an important instrument for fire prevention policies and national and international public opinion. The verified deforested areas in the years of 2000-2001 has been 1,4 times bigger than the original estimates. Ascan be seen in figure 1 above the concentration of heat focuses has increased considerably in 2002 in comparison with 2000.

What has caused such a big increase in the fire and consequently in deforested areas in the Amazonia is not only a national Brazilian preoccupation but also a worldwide concern. Environmental scientists’ and policy makers are concerned in understanding why the actual deforested area is bigger than the estimate, why there was a fire increase in some areas and ifthe fire arch pattern can be still considered as a dominant fire structure in the Amazonian Region due to the fact that there has been an increase in importantfire focuses out of the arch territory (such as the big forest fires in Roraima,north of the Amazon River).

Fire in the Amazon region is used by traditional population and also related to economic activities such as opening of pastures, logging and cereal

USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. PSW-GTR-xxx. xxxx


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plantations. In fact, fire is usually considered the cheapest technology forcleaning a forest area for further economic activity. In order to approach the fire arch debate in an analytical perspective it is necessary to understand the position occupied by the Amazon region in the Brazilian economic activity.

USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. PSW-GTR-xxx. xxxx.

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Figure 1—Concentration of Heat Focuses in Brazil 2000 and 2002

The Legal Amazon: the history of territorial occupation. To better understand the Amazonian Fire Arch it is necessary to define what is meantby Amazonia. The Amazon River has an estimated drainage basin of 6,600,000 Km2(Wood, C.H. and Skole, D.1998:72) occupying an area that includes land in Brazil,Bolivia, Columbia, Equador, Peru and Venezuela. Brazil is divided politically into five geographical regions: south, southeast, northeast, central and north. All the statesof northern Brazil – Roraima, Amazonas, Pará, Acre, Rondonia - occupy what is usually referred to as Classical Amazonia (Moreira, I.A.G. 1989; Vesentini,J.W.V.1996). These states do not take into account the watershed of the AmazonRiver Basin. In order to congregate all states that are related physically to the Amazon River Basin with the perspective of regional planning the Brazilian FederalGovernment created a law (a first version in 1953) that configured a regiondesignated Legal Amazon which consists of all the Northern States plus Mato Grosso,Tocantins and Maranhão west of the 44th Meridian.



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Figure 2— The North of Brazil: Legal Amazonia

The occupation of this region began in the XVIII century through the nowcalled State of Pará mainly for the extraction of forest products such as timber, cocoa, vanilla and aromatic resins with Indian slave labor force (Prado, C. 1965:71). In the context of a Portuguese colonial system this region was considered peripherical thusthe Indian slavery and not African originated like most of the country. Since this period the concern about the geopolitical importance of the river system has kept the region under constant military supervision. In the XIX Century an importanteconomic activity started: the Rubber Cycle – 1870-1910. During this period landownership was extended right through Acre State. The activities related to the rubberextraction were an important demographic attraction. Many rubber farms were established changing completely the forest format especially in the States of Pará,Amazonas and Acre. The rubber crisis, due to the plantation of rubber trees in Malaysia at the beggining of the XX century, generated an economic crisis which left behind abandoned rubber-tree plantations and many rubber collectors who had migrated from the northeastern Brazil to work in this economic cycle (Fausto, B. 1999). These rubber collectors continued cultivating the rubber-trees but increasedsubsistence farming activity (roça). This type of traditional agricultural activityusually is based in cleaning a small area with fire and then planting different types of manioc and other family consumed products. An activity long learned with the Indians. The family economy after the rubber-crisis was strongly based on the cultivation of the roça, some rubber extraction and the collection of forest products. This is still the case in many places in the Legal Amazon, especially in Acre and Amazonia.


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Session 3B.— Understanding the Amazonia’s fire arch —Schor, Filho, de Almeida Toledo

During the Second World War the Brazilian government promoted a migratorypolitics trying to re-activate the rubber production. Many workers coming from the northeastern states were convoked as rubber-soldiers. During this period many oldrubber-tree farms were re-established and some new ones set up. Again in a short period of time due to an important demographic and economic pressure the forest was transformed. The forest was transformed not only in its ecosystem, but mainly inits demographic and land property structure. The region started to live a crescentsocial tension associated with many people without land and large plots ofunproductive land. The social tension was strongly due to the concentration of land inthe hands of few.

The geopolitical question concerning the Amazon region is strongly related withthe conception that the region, although occupied by small families’ landholders,suffers of a demographic emptiness and a lack of productive investments that could occupy the region productively. So during the period of 1964-1970 importantinvestments in infrastructure, such as the Transamazonian Highway, were made using World Bank and the Interamerican Bank credits. These investments were also directed to large land property (400.000 to 700.000Ha) with emphasis in cattleraising (Gremaud, A.P. and others, 1997). In this context, the social conflicts alreadyexisting were accentuated. During the period 1970-1974 the construction of highwayscontinued motivating the occupation of the wildlands around these infrastructures.These highways configured a new pattern of territory occupation: the fish-bone structure (Moran E. and others. 2002). This new territorial occupation is so called due to the images seen from above: the deforestation occurs around the main highway and the secondary roads that give access to the farms that surround the main road. These farms were government colonization projects of small farmers on 100-hectareplots along both sides of the Transamazonian Highway (Wood, C. H. and Skole, D.1998:73). During this period these colonization projects were responsible for most ofthe fire and subsequent deforestation in the Amazon, especially in the oriental part of the Amazon in the so called deforestation arch. The role played by the small farmersin the process of deforestation in the Amazon is well know and extremelycomplicated to resolve:

Although much, if not most, of the deforestation that took place in the Amazonwas carried out by medium- and large-scale ranchers, small farmers were also implicated in the process, as evidenced by the typical cycle of land use. Small farmers commonly clear 2 to 3 hectares of land, which they cultivate for as long asfertility remains high. In most areas soil fertility is depleted in 2 to 3 years,necessitating the clearing of more land. Since there are approximately 500,000 smallfarmers in the region, these figures imply a demand for additional 500,000 hectaresof cleared land per year (Homma and others 1992:9). Crude as these estimates may be, they nonetheless point to the magnitude of existing internal demand for land clearing, even if the migration of small farmers to the Amazon were to stopaltogether. (Wood, C. H. and Skole, D. 1998:74)

During the 70´s this pattern was accentuated with privileged credit for large properties, governmental colonization projects and the construction of the highwaysthat were never completed. This pattern is largely based in extensive cattle raising,until 1995 land for cattle raising with relation to the total of agricultural land in the Amazon was 81,5 percent (IBAMA, 2003). The typical cycle of land use perpetuated.

The government stopped financing these projects and the large cattle raising farms during the 1990´s but the occupation of the Legal Amazon became



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Session 3B.— Understanding the Amazonia’s fire arch —Schor, Filho, de Almeida Toledo

autonomous and the extensive cattle raising activity became economically viable without subsidies of the government (Margulis, S. 2003). The interruption of thefiscal and financial subsidies that where predominant in the 70´s and 80´s, considered the main causes of the deforestation of the Legal Amazon did not generate theexpected results. The fire and deforestation monitoring by the National Institute ofSpatial Research (INPE – Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais) did not permitthe formulation of public policies which would prevent fire and subsequent deforestation. In this sense, the causes of occupation and deforestation in the Legal Amazon during the 1990´s need a better understanding. Margulis (2003) in a reportto the World Bank entitled Causes of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon suggeststhat the real process of occupation and deforestation has to do with the following elements: (1) The agents of the deforestation have short planning horizon and base their activities in the mining of forest nutrients (2) cattle raising in the Amazon has small revenue and its persistence can only be explained by the subsidies or creditsfrom the government that sustain speculative gains (3) small producers are importantagents in the deforestation process (4) logging is one of the main causes ofdeforestation (5) roads are also causes of deforestations and not the consequence of the high potential of the agriculture in the region (6) soybean plantation has expandedrapidly in the barren lands (cerrado) putting pressure on the expansion of the agriculture frontier towards new areas. The elements presented do in fact congregatethe heritage of the frontier expansion and economic activities in the Amazon makingclear that the land use pattern, strongly molded by the economic activities, are the main causes for the persistence of the deforestation arc and impressive fire arch.

Figure 3— The Amazonian Arch of Deforestation

The persistence of the fire arch So that the fire in the Legal Amazon can be adequately discussed it is necessary to turn explicit the uses of the burnt areas. It can be assumed, in accordant to the


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arguments expressed above, that the use of fire represents the advance of the agricultural frontier, in other words, the augmentation in quantitative terms of landused in the country. The expansion of the economic usage of agricultural land has as a classical explanation in economic theory as David Ricardo’s land rent theory(Ricardo, D. 1996:Chap.2). Even though the ricardian theory of rent seems to fit perfectly into the argument it is necessary to weave some commentaries about thisconcept and the critiques to which it was been subjected. Not doing so would makeRicardo’s argument rather naïve two centuries latter.

David Ricardo comprehends rent as that portion of the produce of the earthwhich is paid to the landlord for the use of the original and indestructible powers of the soil (1996:45). Due to the unquestionable experience of environmental degradation in the begging of this century (XXI´s) the use of the term indestructiblemust be rethought. Alternatively to Ricardo’s conceptualization of rent we can consider an interesting formulation of Karl Marx. Marx when criticizing Ricardocomments that when the material standpoint is considered, as use value, and not as social form, land is a means of production not produced (1981:964). This formulationis interesting for understanding wildland fire and forest deforestation in two aspects.

Firstly, it considers that these means of production not produced are not replaced by the revenue received by the landowner. In the same way as the market which theexistence (that is not a result of planning) precedes the formulations of the economicscience (its theoretical understanding) the use of the natural resources (here identified as land) also precedes its theoretical understanding. The consequence of this incomplete understanding is the possibility that the destruction of the (natural)resources, necessary for the reproduction of society, happens without the possibilityto control it. There is no doubt that in terms of agriculture the substitution of the means of production not produced by means of production produced has made aquick advance: the conversion of forest into agricultural land by means of the use ofartificial resources such as pesticides and fertilizers. In this sense, there is a problem.It is not known exactly all the necessary things for the reproduction of the non-produced resources used by society. This problem gains an important dimension specifically when dealing with the role played by the tropical forests in themaintenance of the climatic patterns, biodiversity and other environmental aspects. This problem must be considered seriously.

This takes us to the second interest point of the formulation made by Marx: thesocial form. Marx’s standpoint, know as radical, puts into question the historicallydetermined possibilities of economic organization of the reproduction of society.Without having to take over the normative part of the author’s argument, societyshould reflect about the character of the economic organization, and, in this sense, its territorial dynamic expansion.

In his elaboration of the theory of absolute rent, amplifying Ricardo’s land renttheory (restricted to rent that he denominates as differential), Marx (returning toAdam Smith) discusses the role of land monopoly for society. His emphasis, thatpossesses a clear political character (revolutionary), is about the consequences of thismonopoly on the value of the reproduction of the working force, associated to the creation of a structural surplus of workers - relative surplus population (Chapters 25 and 33 of Capital, Book 1).

In relation to the argument constructed in this paper it is interesting to note how this dynamic interacts with the existence of the tropical forest inside of an



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underdeveloped country marked by a strong colonial heritage. The dynamicsdescribed in the item The Legal Amazon of this paper contradicts, relatively, the thesis defended by Marx in the 33th. Chapter of The Capital The Modern Theory ofColonization. In this chapter, the author argues that the existence of available land for subsistence farming makes unviable the use of employment on salary basis. When the expression relatively is used the intention is not only to remember the slavery past, but is above all to remember that until today it is possible to encounter slaves in the Legal Amazon (Martins, J. S. 1997).

It is impossible to comprehend the expansion of the occupation of the Amazonwithout taking into consideration the role played by land property. It was presentedabove the land use cycle; this same cycle can be seen in a much tenser and violentexpression. The social conflicts due to illegal properties and the expropriation of small farmers due to the existence of these false documents plays an important role in the deforestation and the use of fire in the region. This process of expropriation is surely one of the factors of the expansion of the deforestation arch in the Amazon.Strengthen with these property titles and usually with armed militias the grileiros(land-grabbers) expulse the small farmers. These in order to survive penetrate into the forest occupying wildland by means, initially, of fire. This is one important way, notonly in terms of natural resources but especially in terms of social conflict, that the fire and deforestation arch approximates the Amazon River. This is the image seenby the satellites: the heat of the Amazon on fire.

ConclusionIt seems that the predominant tendency in the Legal Amazon, as has been discussedabove, is the expansion of the cattle raising and soybean plantation. The advance of these economic activities in Amazonia, and in Brazil, responds to strong internal and external demands, specially since the crazy cow crisis.

It is important to remember, as has been discussed above, of the role played by the government by means of subsidies and credits for the large farms directed to extensive cattle raising. If this command is now being carried out by the private initiative, such as suggested by Margulis, it means that the command is now themarket allocation. If this is the case, the logic of the expansion of the agriculturalfrontier must be analyzed in this perspective.

Presented these considerations we can now turn back to the propositions ofRicardo’s land rent. Land rent would be, for the author, the surplus proportioned bydifferentials in costs, due to the advantage of fertility and localization of the landused in relation to those land plots that the agricultural production provides onlynormal profits. What defines the occupation of a new stripe of land is an increase in price due to an increase in demand that makes viable these stripes that weredeficitary.

In this sense, the occupation of wildland would be determined by the surplus provided by its use. In case this surplus stays beyond the normal profit, the land plot would be abandoned. The consequence is that the occupation of an additional stripeof land would depend in the surplus provided by the use of a determined area.Ricardo affirms that the increase in the land rent is always due to the increase in richness of a country and of the difficulty to produce food for the increasingpopulation, generating revenues in the most productive stripes. In the period of


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increase of heat focuses such as shown in figure 1 (during the years 2000-2002) therewas a regional increase in the price of land due not only to the crazy cow crisis,which augmented the demand for cattle raising activities, but also due to an increaseof soybean plantations. It can also be asked if the increase of the fire arch is a directconsequence of the high capital investments in the soybean and cattle productive network or if it was an indirect effect of this process such as suggested by Margulis. The expression indirect suggests the perpetuation of the land cycle use. This land cycle use, as an expropriation dynamics, means that the people who lived in the area that now is incorporated to this productive network have been pushed forward,occupying the wildland by means of fire. Anyway, Ricardo’s argument provides a good explanation for the problem treated above.

The existence of the fire arch that corresponds with the deforestation arch, even after the state stimulus for the occupation of the Amazon has ceased, seems afunction of demand. Such stimulus, due to the nature of the market economy, isdifficult to be controlled, especially in a situation that regional studies about the areaare limited. And nothing can be said about the existence of coherent policies towardsthe region. Even the creation of an effective fire monitoring structure such as the PROARCO, which monitors daily the fire arch in the Legal Amazon, in suchextensive region of difficult access has the tendency to function merely as apalliative. The solution of the problem of preservation of wildland and its unknown resources needs to be related to the social problem hidden behind the heat focusesseen in the satellite images.

By means of this exploratory analysis alternatives for the problem of fire monitoring and planning can be thought. The necessity of a theoretical approach doesnot restrict itself to the normative answers suggested by the authors cited above. Italso shows the necessity to re-elaborate the economic theory in order to incorporatenew problems such as the fire dynamics. The theoretical answers given by Ricardo and used to understand contemporary problems can not be totally sufficient becausethe reality analyzed is not totally clear. Anyway, it provides a good insight to an insipient debate that can take theory to new normative proposals.

In this sense, the analysis of the Amazonian fire arch by means of incorporating the classical economic theory provides a different standpoint not only for the theoryand regional territorial understanding but also provides new elements in the firemonitoring, planning and environmental management debate.

ReferencesCochrane, Mark A. and others. 2002. Investigating positive feedbacks in the fire dynamic of

closed canopy tropical forests. In WOOD, Charles H. and PORRO, R. (eds) Deforestations and Land use in the Amazon. University Press of Florida, Florida,USA.

Fausto, Boris. 1999. História do Brasil. 7 edition. EDUSP, São Paulo, Brazil.

Gremaud, A. P. and others. 1997. Formação econômica do Brasil. Editora Atlas. São Paulo,Brazil.

Prado Junior, Caio. 1965. História econômica do Brasil. Editora Brasiliense, 9 edition, São Paulo, Brazil.

Margulis, Sergio. 2003. Causas do desmatamento da Amazônia Brasileira. Relatório ao Banco Mundial, Brasília, Brazil.



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underdeveloped country marked by a strong colonial heritage. The dynamicsdescribed in the item The Legal Amazon of this paper contradicts, relatively, the thesis defended by Marx in the 33th. Chapter of The Capital The Modern Theory ofColonization. In this chapter, the author argues that the existence of available land for subsistence farming makes unviable the use of employment on salary basis. When the expression relatively is used the intention is not only to remember the slavery past, but is above all to remember that until today it is possible to encounter slaves in the Legal Amazon (Martins, J. S. 1997).

It is impossible to comprehend the expansion of the occupation of the Amazonwithout taking into consideration the role played by land property. It was presentedabove the land use cycle; this same cycle can be seen in a much tenser and violentexpression. The social conflicts due to illegal properties and the expropriation of small farmers due to the existence of these false documents plays an important role in the deforestation and the use of fire in the region. This process of expropriation is surely one of the factors of the expansion of the deforestation arch in the Amazon.Strengthen with these property titles and usually with armed militias the grileiros(land-grabbers) expulse the small farmers. These in order to survive penetrate into the forest occupying wildland by means, initially, of fire. This is one important way, notonly in terms of natural resources but especially in terms of social conflict, that the fire and deforestation arch approximates the Amazon River. This is the image seenby the satellites: the heat of the Amazon on fire.

ConclusionIt seems that the predominant tendency in the Legal Amazon, as has been discussedabove, is the expansion of the cattle raising and soybean plantation. The advance of these economic activities in Amazonia, and in Brazil, responds to strong internal and external demands, specially since the crazy cow crisis.

It is important to remember, as has been discussed above, of the role played by the government by means of subsidies and credits for the large farms directed to extensive cattle raising. If this command is now being carried out by the private initiative, such as suggested by Margulis, it means that the command is now themarket allocation. If this is the case, the logic of the expansion of the agriculturalfrontier must be analyzed in this perspective.

Presented these considerations we can now turn back to the propositions ofRicardo’s land rent. Land rent would be, for the author, the surplus proportioned bydifferentials in costs, due to the advantage of fertility and localization of the landused in relation to those land plots that the agricultural production provides onlynormal profits. What defines the occupation of a new stripe of land is an increase in price due to an increase in demand that makes viable these stripes that weredeficitary.

In this sense, the occupation of wildland would be determined by the surplus provided by its use. In case this surplus stays beyond the normal profit, the land plot would be abandoned. The consequence is that the occupation of an additional stripeof land would depend in the surplus provided by the use of a determined area.Ricardo affirms that the increase in the land rent is always due to the increase in richness of a country and of the difficulty to produce food for the increasingpopulation, generating revenues in the most productive stripes. In the period of



MartinS, José de Souza. 1997. Fronteira. A degradação do Outro nos confins do humano.Editora Hucitec, São Paulo, Brazil.

Marx, Karl. Capital. A critique of political economy. Penguin Classics, London, England.

Moran, Emilio F. and others. 2002. Trajectories of Land Use. Soils, succession, and cropchoice. In WOOD, Charles H. and PORRO, R. (eds) Deforestations and Land use in the Amazon. University Press of Florida, Florida, USA.

Moreira, Igor A. G. 1989. O espaço geográfico. Geografia geral e do Brasil. Editora Ática, São Paulo, Brazil.

Ricardo, David. 1996 (1817). Principles of political economy and taxation. PrometheusBooks, New York, USA.

Vesentini, José W. 1996. Brasil sociedade e espaço. Editora Ática, São Paulo, Brazil.

Wood, Charles H.; David, Skole. 1998. Linking satellite, census, and survey data to studydeforestation in the Brazilian Amazon. In LIVERMAN, Diana and others. 1998 Peopleand Pixels. Linking remote sensing and social science. National Academy Press, Washington, USA.


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