Forest conservation incentives are a popular approach to combatting tropical deforestation. Here we consider a case where direct economic incentives for forest conservation were offered to newly titled smallholders in a buffer zone of a protected area in the northeastern Ecuadorian Amazon. We used quasi-experimental impact evaluation methods to estimate changes in forest cover for 63 smallholders enrolled in Ecuador's Socio Bosque program compared to similar households that did not enroll. Focus group interviews in 15 communities provided insight into why landowners enrolled in the program and how land use is changing. The conservation incentives program reduced average annual deforestation by 0.4–0.5% between 2011 and 2013 for those enrolled, representing as much as a 70% reduction in deforestation attributable to Socio Bosque. Focus group interviews suggested that some landowners chose to ‘invest’ in conservation because the agricultural capacity of their land was limited and economic incentives provided an alternative livelihood strategy. Interviews, however, indicated limits to increasing enrollment rates under current conditions, due to lack of trust and liquidity constraints. Overall, a hybrid public–private governance approach can lead to larger conservation outcomes than restrictions alone.

During the past century, humans converted extensive areas of tropical forest into cultivated lands. Three distinct processes, each predominant during a different historical period, have driven the destruction of the forests. This review describes each of these deforestation dynamics: natural resource degrading poverty traps that predominated during the colonial era, new land settlement schemes that prevailed for two decades after decolonization, and finally, financialized, large enterprise dynamics that have predominated during the past quarter century. Each dynamic has, over time, given rise to different opportunities for conservation. Peasants emigrated from the sites of the poverty traps, and regrowth began to cover these degraded landscapes. Smallholders in the new land settlement areas became better acquainted with tropical tree species and allowed some trees to recolonize their fields, creating silvopastoral and agroforested landscapes. The heads of large enterprises relied on credit to clear land, so government regulators found that they could curb corporate-led deforestation by restricting access to credit when landowners failed to comply with laws against forest clearing. These links between deforestation's dynamics during past eras and conservation policies during the present era illustrate how a historical understanding of tropical deforestation can provide the basis for effective conservation policies.

Over the past several decades, the Brazilian State of Rondônia has been the destination of many rural migrants drawn from Brazil's middle southern regions by massive government colonization projects. Factors such as explosive population growth, logging, mining, small-scale farming and ranching have synergistically fuelled deforestation in the state. The total area deforested in Rondônia in 1978 was 4200 km2. In 1988, the area increased to 30 000 km2, in 1998 to 53 300 km2 and by the year 2003, a total of 67 764 km2 of Rondônia was deforested. In response to the high rate of deforestation observed in Rondônia and other Amazonian states, state and federal agencies worked to create a network of conservation units (CUs) in Brazil during the 1990s that was signed into law(Law 9985/00) in 2000. The ability of these CUs to reduce the rate of deforestation was analysed. Remotely-sensed data from Landsat and thematic coverages were used to measure deforestation inside all CUs in Rondônia. A more detailed analysis of CUs with the highest levels of deforestation, including an analysis between soil types and deforestation and a forecast of potential future deforestation, was conducted. The creation of conservation units in Rondônia has been useful in curbing deforestation within their boundaries; however, many CUs face pressure from the combined activities of illegal loggers, cattle ranchers and small-scale farmers seeking new sources of timber and agricultural land. For example, an exponential increase in the amount of deforestation was observed in Rondônia's Bom Futuro National Forest between 1992 and 2000. A regression model indicated a total of 20 500 ha deforested by 2002, while measurements from 2002 imagery showed an actual total deforestation of 20 720 ha. Should this trend persist, Bom Futuro National Forest could be completely deforested by 2017. CUs in Rondônia must be developed and implemented jointly by all stakeholders through the creation of partnerships between local communities, non-governmental organizations and government agencies.

Understanding patterns of tropical deforestation is a crucial issue for Mexico, a country that has lost more than 95% of its original rainforest cover. This paper examines the causes of accelerated deforestation in the Sierra Santa Marta, Veracruz, Mexico, by looking at settlement history and the evolution of productive schemes in the villages of Venustiano Carranza and Magallanes. Both settlements were founded in the 1960s, after the government donated land to landless peasants. Conversion of forests into pastures, after several agricultural enterprises failed, resulted in more than 80% of the original tropical rainforests being removed in both communities between 1960 and 1998. The process of deforestation in the villages differed from models proposed for the Amazon and Central America, in which deforestation responded to capital-intensive efforts to open up the tropical frontier. In the villages, transformation of forests into pastures was, from the beginning, a smallholder phenomenon. Misguided policies and institutional malfunctions appeared to direct households toward deforestation. Nevertheless, environmental deterioration could not only be explained by external causes. Inside the communities, demographic pressure over land, the modification of traditional land tenure systems and the cultural adoption of cattle as a way to overcome poverty were significant factors in the relationship between colonization and forest clearance. Deforestation at Venustiano Carranza and Magallanes cannot be considered an ecologically destructive practice performed by peasants. In fact, the process reflects not only a lack of environmental awareness in national development policies, but also the intricate interaction of ecological, cultural, social and economical variables.

There is general consensus that resource-use strategies of recent migrants in tropical rainforests result in extensive deforestation and other negative environmental impacts. Less agreement exists about the nature and extent of the impact of indigenous and long-standing migrant communities living in rainforests. It has often been argued that the high value these communities place on local resources results in environmental conservation in areas under their control, but this is being increasingly challenged. The aim of this study was to contribute to this debate by comparing the regional environmental impact of indigenous and non-indigenous households in North-west Ecuador, with emphasis on tropical deforestation. The basic premise was that long-term resource-use strategies and related decision-making processes should be discernible as characteristic land-use patterns. Three indigenous and non-indigenous populations coexist in the study region, and demographic, land-use and historical sources of information were used to evaluate their relationship to regional deforestation in the period 1983-93. No significant differences were found in the recent deforestation associated with each group based on their cultural or ethnic background, although differences did exist in the past. The need to differentiate between a given environmental impact and the decision-making process behind it was also evident. In North-west Ecuador, markets, factors of production, and access to and control of resources, are key for understanding the environmental impact of local communities. Low-impact resource-uses often result from low-return productive activities in forest environments with low labour opportunity costs, high discount rates for income generated through activities compromising food security, and from uncertainty about future conditions. Environmental policy-making and programme design need to recognize this relationship. Conservation will be possible only if the perceived benefit to local users is greater than that of resource transformation, both of which respond to the dominant environmental, economic and social conditions at a given time and place. Creating or fostering the appropriate conditions should be a key objective of both.

Deforestation is still rapid in some parts of the Caribbean, though it has attracted much less attention than deforestation in mainland Latin America. This paper examines the history and causes of the recent rapid deforestation of a lowland karst region of the Dominican Republic in the light of models derived from studies in Central America and the Amazon. Investigation was limited to the vicinity of a single village (Los Limones). Information was drawn from interviews, questionnaires and ground reconnaissance, in addition to archival information and aerial photographs. Deforestation at Los Limones involved many of the same elements seen in mainland deforestation, including construction of access roads, spontaneous agricultural colonization, and pasture conversion, but it followed no single mainland model. Logging, not normally emphasized as a cause of Latin American deforestation, played an important role in opening up the forest to agricultural settlement. Pasture conversion was not a matter of aggregation of large ranches by wealthy absentee landowners, as in the Amazon, but apparently a local response to the economic and ecological advantages of cattle raising. Government actions strongly influenced deforestation, but not via colonization schemes or economic subsidies for cattle ranching; the rhythm of deforestation at Los Limones was tied to the monopolistic practices of the dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo and the social disorganization following his assassination. The national government in fact bears the primary responsibility for deforestation of Los Haitises, a conclusion that contradicts the government's own suggestion that the destruction was largely carried out by poor farmers. Prospects for rehabilitation of the deforested area are gloomy because of the extent of ecological damage and the continued adversarial relationship between the government and the rural population.

This study combines hydrological modeling with applied micro-econometric techniques to value a complex ecosystem service: drought mitigation provided by tropical forested watersheds to agrarian communities. Spatial variation in current baseflow allows estimation of drought mitigation values as the marginal profit accruing to agricultural households. The paper shows that this uncommon focus on producer (not consumer) surplus measures is appropriate for valuation as long as markets for commodities related to the environmental services are complete. For the typical household, the estimated marginal profit is positive, validating the central hypothesis that baseflow makes positive contributions to agricultural profits. There is some evidence, however, that increased watershed protection will increase profits through greater baseflow only in watersheds with a unique mix of physio-graphic and climatic features. The paper evaluates and provides some support for the hypothesis, put forward by hydrological science and the Indonesian Government, that protected watersheds can supply latent and unrecognized ecosystem services to local people.