CONSERV: financial mechanisms to prevent legal deforestation and promote sustainable agriculture in Brazil

In the face of growing pressure to increase agricultural production, reducing legal deforestation driven by agriculture requires thoughtful economic interventions that are both attractive to participating landowners and economically viable in terms of long-term financing. Over the past five years, the Amazon Environmental Research Institute (IPAM) has designed, implemented and validated CONSERV – an experimental compensation mechanism for rural landowners in Brazil who protect their surplus native vegetation. A payment program designed to combat legal deforestation was rigorously evaluated and demonstrated its effectiveness over a four-year pilot period. The results of this pilot add new empirical evidence to the literature on the costs of financing conservation on private properties. This article also illustrates the potential of three business models for scaling up CONSERV, developed through a participatory approach with the participation of landowners. CONSERV offers a new development paradigm that harmonizes conservation and production to achieve truly sustainable agriculture on a global scale.

Link: https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/forests-and-global-change/articles/10.3389/ffgc.2026.1715607/full