In this Whitepaper, researchers from CPI/PUC-Rio highlights the need for the logistics projects’ EVTEA and EIAs to incorporate and correctly identify the indirect effects that result from the changes in transportation costs induced by improvements. It describes how using a combination of geoprocessing tools and statistical analysis can be used to identify these impacts and provides an example of their importance.

CPI/PUC-Rio has assessed Ferrogrão’s governance, planning, and environmental risks as a way to contribute to the ongoing debate on sustainable infrastructure policies and projects in the country. This executive summary presents three studies conducted over the last year, which: (i) analyze the robustness of Ferrogrão’s planning based on a set of structuring questions, which should be prepared in the pre-feasibility stage; (ii) evaluate the administrative rites and the governance of decision-making related to the project; and (iii) develop an innovative methodology to understand Ferrogrão’s area of influence and deforestation risk.

In this technical note, researchers from CPI/PUC-Rio (i) analyze how areas of influence are currently defined by government bodies and in the Terms of Reference for EVTEA and EIAs for land transportation infrastructure projects; (ii) present a set of recommendations for the adoption of clearer criteria for the definition and demarcation of areas of influence for new projects, from a perspective that explicitly incorporates where the direct and indirect effects of this type of undertaking will occur; and (iii) propose a dialogue between the EVTEA and the EIA.

This brief analyze cooperatives’ participation in rural credit, addressing both recent developments and potential challenges

This paper offers recommendations on how to move forward in developing remote systems to monitor secondary vegetation.

New work from CPI/PUC-Rio shows that protected territories shielded forests under their domain, but they also appear to have deflected deforestation to unprotected regions. The findings highlight the local effectiveness of these territories, and thereby support their use in protecting high-value areas. Yet, results also reinforce the importance of pursuing protection strategies in combination with integrated conservation policy efforts to reduce deforestation throughout the Amazon.

In this work, Climate Policy Initiative (CPI/PUC-RIO) provides a detailed impact analysis of the Brazilian Rural Credit policy on agricultural production, land use and deforestation.

The present study, conducted by researchers at CPI/PUC-Rio, indicates that this monitoring system works. Results also suggest that forest protection did not interfere with local agricultural production, and that its expected benefits outweighed the associated policy costs.