Forestry

Most of the remaining large wilderness areas in Latin America and the Caribbean have unclear or weak property rights. Insecure rights for land ownership are among the most critical factors associated with deforestation and forest degradation.

The IDB supports programs and policies to clarify tenure status of forested lands, including the creation, demarcation and establishment of protected areas, forest concessions for sustainable forest management, and indigenous and traditional communities to avert open access to unprotected forests.

These programs are generally coupled with additional investments to improve land administration, forest resources management, and technologies to improve land-use change monitoring.

Promoting Sustainable Rural Development in Latin America and the Caribbean

Conversion of native forest land to crops or grazing uses typically follows classic “slash-and-burn” methods, with trees burned to make way for agriculture. While some resulting agriculture may be intensive, most is low-yielding and extensive. Lack of access to modern agricultural practices and inputs for better pasture management, soil conservation, and agriculture and animal health can slowly deplete soil resources reducing land productivity over time and requiring new land to be cleared for production.

The IDB promotes agricultural policies and programs that intensify agricultural production as means to reduce the expansion of the agricultural frontier into forest areas. Instruments such as support payments for technologies adoption and value chain formation, especially for smallholders, are being promoted in the region to recover degraded land and intensify agricultural production.

Economic Incentives for Forest Protection and Conservation in Latin America and the Caribbean

Agriculture landscapes provide various environmental services, including carbon and biodiversity. In these places, the main problem is that society wants farmers to undertake natural resource management practices that are both costly and with no immediate benefits to farmers.

The IDB promotes and helps design policies and governance frameworks that establish proper economic incentives for farmers to restore degraded forestlands and protect existing forests in Latin America and the Caribbean.

The Bank supports the development of carbon markets, which will bring major incentives to farmers and governments to develop these economic incentives for forest protection. Working across several sectors, the Bank’s projects on agriculture, land administration (land titling and cadastral systems linking property ownership to deforestation prevention and control) and payment for ecosystem services, and natural disaster management are combined to devise programs to reduce deforestation and forest degradation.

The Bank has established strong partnerships with leading research institutions in the topic of climate change, agriculture, and development economics to deepen Latin America and the Caribbean’s knowledge about the effectiveness of policies to reduce deforestation and forest degradation.

These non-financial products open up room for a better understanding of development issues, innovation in the Bank’s business, and identification of new priorities.