Deforestation tends to be worst in areas where property rights are hazy. A lack of clarity about who owns a plot of forest makes it harder to assign blame for torching it. And a tradition of local officials tolerating land-grabbing encourages more of it. Ranchers seek to establish facts on the ground by chopping down trees, burning the undergrowth and putting cows on the newly created pasture. In the first eight months of 2023, the pace of deforestation has fallen by nearly 50% compared with last year. This reflects a change of government. Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil’s president from 2019 to 2022, was an outspoken chum of the loggers and ranchers who are slicing down and burning the rainforest.  There is a decent chance that Brazil could make good use of external financing, which it sorely needs to protect the rainforests However, No amount of enforcement will stop people from chopping down trees if they see no other way of making a living—illegal miners whose equipment is blown up by the environmental police may simply go to work on beef farms carved out of the rainforest. How do we help protect the world’s  largest rainforest ?

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