Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-27gpq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-29T10:53:23.698Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Patterns of frontier development: a dynamic model of resource extraction in the Brazilian Amazon

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 September 2015

Richard T. Melstrom
Affiliation:
Department of Agricultural Economics, Oklahoma State University, Agriculture Hall, Stillwater, OK 74078, USA. E-mail: melstrom@okstate.edu
Luke R. Jones
Affiliation:
Department of Economics and Finance, Valdosta State University, GA, USA. E-mail: lukjones@valdosta.edu
Jill Caviglia-Harris
Affiliation:
Department of Economics and Finance, Department of Environmental Studies, Salisbury University, MD, USA. E-mail: jlcaviglia-harris@salisbury.edu

Abstract

Developing countries are known to exploit their resource frontier to achieve growth objectives and reduce poverty. This can lead to long-term positive outcomes or – if resource exploitation is unsustainable – lose–lose outcomes that leave populations and ecosystems worse off. This paper introduces a dynamic model of resource exploitation to explain how regions may succumb to, avoid or escape this negative outcome. The theoretical model characterizes a frontier community that uses soil as an input into agricultural production. The model shows that there may be a critical point in the soil stock that determines whether agricultural activities lead to sustainable development or a collapse in local income. This suggests that, in the event of a resource collapse, temporary adjustments to the system may permanently rehabilitate the resource base and change a community's development pattern. Calibration of the model to several frontier states of the Brazilian Amazon points toward an overall outcome of steady development.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Anderies, J.M. (2003), ‘Economic development, demographics, and renewable resources: a dynamical systems approach’, Environment and Development Economics 8: 219246.Google Scholar
Angelsen, A. (2007), Forest Cover Change in Space and Time: Combining the Von Thunen and Forest Transition Theories, Washington, DC: World Bank.Google Scholar
Asano, S. and Fiuza, E.O. (2001), ‘Estimation of the Brazilian consumer demand system’, Discussion Paper IPEA No. 793, Rio de Janeiro.Google Scholar
Auty, R.M. (1993), Sustaining Development in Mineral Economies: The Resource Curse Thesis, London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Auty, R.M. (2001), ‘The political economy of resource-driven growth’, European Economic Review 45: 839846.Google Scholar
Barbier, E.B. (1999), ‘Endogenous growth and natural resource scarcity’, Environmental and Resource Economics 14: 5174.Google Scholar
Barbier, E.B. (2005a), Natural Resources and Economic Development, New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Barbier, E.B. (2005b), ‘Frontier expansion and economic development’, Contemporary Economic Policy 23: 286303.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barrett, S. (1991), ‘Optimal soil conservation and the reform of agricultural pricing policies’, Journal of Development Economics 36: 167187.Google Scholar
Bell, A.R., Caviglia-Harris, J.L., and Cak, A.D. (2015), ‘Characterizing land-use change over space and time: applying principal components analysis in the Brazilian Legal Amazon’, Journal of Land Use Science 10(1): 1937.Google Scholar
Brander, J.A. and Taylor, M.S. (1997), ‘International trade and open-access renewable resources: the small open economy case’, Canadian Journal of Economics 30: 526552.Google Scholar
Brander, J.A. and Taylor, M.S. (1998), ‘The simple economics of Easter Island: a Ricardo-Malthus model of renewable resource use’, American Economic Review 88: 119138.Google Scholar
Bulte, E.H. and Horan, R.D. (2003), ‘Habitat conservation, wildlife extraction and agricultural expansion’, Journal of Environmental Economics and Management 45: 109127.Google Scholar
Caviglia-Harris, J.L. (2005), ‘Cattle accumulation and land use intensification by households in the Brazilian Amazon’, Agricultural and Resource Economics Review 34: 145162.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Caviglia-Harris, J.L., Sills, E.O., Bell, A.R., Harris, D., Mullan, K.L., and Roberts, D.A. (2014), ‘Busting the boom-bust pattern of Amazonian development’, Unpublished manuscript, Salisbury University.Google Scholar
Celentano, D. and Veríssimo, A. (2007), A Amazônia e os Objetivos do Milênio. O Estado da Amazônia Indicadores, Belém: Imazon (in Portuguese).Google Scholar
Chen, Y., Irwin, E.G., and Jayaprakash, C. (2009), ‘Dynamic modeling of environmental amenity-driven migration with ecological feedbacks’, Ecological Economics 68: 24982510.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
de Espindola, G.M., de Aguiar, A.P.D., Pebesma, E., Câmara, G., and Fonseca, L. (2012), ‘Agricultural land use dynamics in the Brazilian Amazon based on remote sensing and census data’, Applied Geography 32(2): 240252.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Di Maria, C. and Valente, S. (2008), ‘Hicks meets Hotelling: the direction of technical change in capital-resource economics’, Environment and Development Economics 13: 691717.Google Scholar
Erickson, J.D. and Gowdy, J.M. (2000), ‘Resource use, institutions, and sustainability: a tale of two Pacific island cultures’, Land Economics 76: 345354.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Faminow, M.D. (1998), Cattle, Deforestation and Development in the Amazon: An Economic, Agronomic and Environmental Perspective, Wallingford: CABI.Google Scholar
Fearnside, P.M. (2002), ‘Can pasture intensification discourage deforestation in the Amazon and Pantanal regions of Brazil’, In Wood, C.H. and Porro, R. (eds), Deforestation and Land Use in the Amazon, Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida, pp. 283364.Google Scholar
Fujisaka, S., Bell, W., Thomas, N., Hurtado, L., and Crawford, E. (1996), ‘Slash-and-burn agriculture, conversion to pasture, and deforestation in two Brazilian Amazon colonies’, Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment 59: 115130.Google Scholar
Goetz, R.U. (1997), ‘Diversification in agricultural production: a dynamic model of optimal cropping to manage soil erosion’, American Journal of Agricultural Economics 79: 341356.Google Scholar
Goodland, R.J.A. and Irwin, H.S. (1975), Amazon Jungle: Green Hell to Red Desert? An Ecological Discussion of the Environmental Impact of the Highway Construction Program in the Amazon Basin, Oxford: Elsevier Scientific.Google Scholar
Guedes, G.R., VanWey, L.K., Hull, J.R., Antigo, M., and Barbieri, A.F. (2014), ‘Poverty dynamics, ecological endowments, and land use among smallholders in the Brazilian Amazon’, Social Science Research 43: 7491.Google Scholar
Gylfason, T., Herbertsson, T.T., and Zoega, G. (1999), ‘A mixed blessing’, Macroeconomic Dynamics 3: 204225.Google Scholar
Haggblade, S., Hazell, P., and Reardon, T. (2010), ‘The rural non-farm economy: prospects for growth and poverty reduction’, World Development 38: 14291441.Google Scholar
Hall, S.C. and Caviglia-Harris, J. (2013), ‘Agricultural development and the industry life cycle on the Brazilian frontier’, Environment and Development Economics 18(3): 326353.Google Scholar
Hansen, W.D. and Naughton, H.T. (2013), ‘Social and ecological determinants of land clearing in the Amazon: a spatial analysis’, Land Economics 89: 699721.Google Scholar
Hecht, S. and Cockburn, A. (1990), The Fate of the Forest: Developers, Destroyers and Defenders of the Amazon , New York: HarperCollins.Google Scholar
IBGE (2014a), ‘População e Distribuição da população nos Censos Demográficos’ (vide Nota de Rodapé), Censo Demográfico No. Tabela 1286, Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística (in Portuguese).Google Scholar
IBGE (2014b), ‘Soils map of Brazil 2014’, interactive thematic map produced by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics, Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatistica, Sao Jose dos Campos, Sao Paulo, Brazil.Google Scholar
Jalan, J. and Ravallion, M. (2002), ‘Geographic poverty traps? A micro model of consumption growth in rural China’, Journal of Applied Economics 17: 329346.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ludewigs, T., D'Antona, A., Brondizio, E., and Hetrick, S. (2009), ‘Agrarian structure and land-cover change along the lifespan of three colonization areas in the Brazilian Amazon’, World Development 37(8): 13481359.Google Scholar
Mahar, D.J. (1989), Government Policies and Deforestation in Brazil's Amazon Region, Washington, DC: World Bank Publications.Google Scholar
McConnell, K.E. (1983), ‘An economic model of soil conservation’, American Journal of Agricultural Economics 65: 8389.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pimentel, D. and Pimentel, M. (2003), ‘Sustainability of meat-based and plant-based diets and the environment’, American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 78(3): 660S663S.Google Scholar
Pimentel, D., Allen, J., Beers, A., et al. (1987), ‘World agriculture’, Bioscience 37: 277283.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
PNUD (Programa das Nações Unidas Pará o Desenvolvimento) (2013), Desenvolvimento Humano e IDH (in Portuguese).Google Scholar
Reardon, T. and Vosti, S.A. (1995), ‘Links between rural poverty and the environment in developing countries: asset categories and investment poverty’, World Development 23: 14951506.Google Scholar
Restuccia, D., Yang, D.T., and Zhu, X. (2008), ‘Agriculture and aggregate productivity: a quantitative cross-country analysis’, Journal of Monetary Economics 55: 234250.Google Scholar
Rodrigues, A., Ewers, R., Parry, L., Souza, C., Verissimo, A., and Balmford, A. (2009), ‘Boom-and-bust development patterns across the Amazon deforestation frontier’, Science 324: 14351437.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Scherr, S.J. (2000), ‘A downward spiral? Research evidence on the relationship between poverty and natural resource degradation’, Food Policy 24: 479498.Google Scholar
Serrao, E.A.S. and Homma, A.K.O. (1993), ‘Brazil: country profile’, in Natural Resource Council, Sustainable Agriculture and the Environment in the Humid Tropics, Washington, DC: National Academy Press, pp. 265361.Google Scholar
Serrao, E.A.S., Nepstad, D., and Walker, R. (1996), ‘Upland agricultural and forestry development in the Amazon: sustainability, criticality and resilience’, Ecological Economics 18: 313.Google Scholar
Shiferaw, B. and Holden, S. (1999), ‘Soil erosion and smallholders' conservation decisions in the highlands of Ethiopia’, World Development 27: 739752.Google Scholar
Siegmund-Schultze, M., Rischkowsky, B., da Veiga, J.B., and King, J.M. (2010), ‘Valuing cattle on mixed smallholdings in the Eastern Amazon’, Ecological Economics 69(4): 857867.Google Scholar
Simmons, C.S. (2004), ‘The political economy of land conflict in the eastern Brazilian Amazon’, Annals of the Association of American Geographers 94(1): 183206.Google Scholar
Soler, L. S., Verburg, P.H., and Alves, D.S. (2014), ‘Evolution of land use in the Brazilian Amazon: from frontier expansion to market chain dynamics’, Land 3(3): 9811014.Google Scholar
Southgate, D. (1990), ‘The causes of land degradation along “spontaneously” expanding agricultural frontiers in the Third World’, Land Economics 66: 93101.Google Scholar
Stevens, P. (2003), ‘Resource impact: curse or blessing? A literature survey’, Journal of Energy Literature 9: 342.Google Scholar
Stiglitz, J. (1974), ‘Growth with exhaustible natural resources: efficient and optimal growth paths’, Journal of Economic Studies 41: 123137.Google Scholar
The Economist (2010), ‘Brazilian agriculture: the world's farm’, 27 August.Google Scholar
Troeh, F.R., Hobbs, J.A., and Danahue, R.L. (1980), Soil and Water Conservation for Productivity and Environmental Protection, Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.Google Scholar
USDA (2013), Livestock and Poultry: World Markets and Trade, Washington, DC: US Department of Agriculture, Foreign Agricultural Service, Office of Global Analysis.Google Scholar
van der Ploeg, F. (2011), ‘Natural resources: curse or blessing?’, Journal of Economic Literature 29: 366420.Google Scholar
VanWey, L.K., Spera, S., de Sa, R., Mahr, D., and Mustard, J.F. (2013), ‘Socioeconomic development and agricultural intensification in Mato Grosso’, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 368(1619): 20120168.Google Scholar
Walker, R., Browder, J., Arima, E., Simmons, C., Pereira, R., Caldas, M., Shirota, R., and de Zen, S. (2009), ‘Ranching and the new global range: Amazonia in the 21st century’, Geoforum 40: 732745.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wolcott, E.L. and Conrad, J.M. (2011), ‘Agroecology of an island economy’, Land Economics 87: 403411.Google Scholar