Brazil Beef Tax Could Spare Forests

A stick-and-carrot approach to persuade Brazil’s cattle farmers to make far more productive use of pasture could reduce up to a quarter of greenhouse gas emissions caused by the loss of precious rainforest, according to new research.

The new study calculates that by subsidising more productive use of pasture – such as by planting better grasses and by better soil management – they could double the productivity, reducing the pressure to cut down more trees to create new grazing space.

If the government then also taxed the less sustainable methods of beef rearing, the nation could cut its rate of deforestation by half, and trim a quarter of the emissions from deforestation.  The researchers estimate that about half of all Brazil’s pasture could be used more efficiently.

“These practices are already used commercially on some ranches in Brazil, but they are not yet competitive because of higher up-front costs, so subsidies can provide a needed boost to make the investment worthwhile,” said the study’s lead author, Avery Cohn, an independent fellow at the UC Berkeley Energy Biosciences Institute, and an Assistant Professor of Environment and Resource Policy at Tufts University in the US.

Brazil Beef Tax Could Spare Forests