Towards Efficient Land Use in Brazil

Brazil is in a unique position- with an abundance of natural resources, and the potential to create well functioning markets and policies, the country can “realize latent land use efficiency gains.” The global demand for food and the increasing concern with climate change make protecting ecosystems, while also using land more effectively, a top priority. There is room in Brazil’s economic growth and ecosystem protection efforts to improve, especially in its rural landscape. Measures to do so provide an opportunity “to embed mitigation of climate change risk as increased food production in an overall strategy” for the development of the rural economy in Brazil. The most efficient way to start is to look at the current misallocation in Brazilian land use; learn from past policies, research and development, and private investments; and look ahead to pathways to improve “economic and environmental returns from land use.”