A lack of property rights is the real cause of the fires in Brazil. Webb Beard writes:
There is a blame game going on over the true cause of the fires. Some environmentalists and activists are blaming Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro, whose administration is accused of not doing enough to combat deforestation. Bolsonaro, for his part, has suggested that non-governmental organizations and nonprofits are to blame, deliberately setting fire to the rainforest because they have lost money and want to embarrass his administration.
But the INPE claims the true cause of the unusual numbers of fires this year is ranchers and farmers using fires to clear land that they use for themselves. The INPE claimed up to 99 percent of the fires can be attributed to these people. However, this might suggest that only one thing may be to blame: the tragedy of the commons. [...]
When something is owned by everyone, such as a public highway or pond, in practice it is owned by no one. No one has an incentive to maintain or take care of the good because they receive no benefit from doing so. But when there are property rights over something, such as the piece of land you live on, you have an incentive to take care of it because you directly benefit from it.
Economists have observed this phenomenon hundreds, if not thousands of times. Ted Turner and buffalo ranchers brought the buffalo population back from the brink of extinction because of property rights. Fishermen almost fished the population of British Columbia halibut into extinction, and property rights brought their population back. In many regions of Africa, trophy hunting helps to keep populations of certain animals from dipping to extinction levels and helps to fund conservation.
Something similar could be achieved in the Amazon rainforest. The rainforest covers part of nine countries, but roughly 60 percent of it is in Brazil. Brazil makes a claim to ownership of the Amazon. But Brazil and the other countries don’t have the resources or proper incentive structures to take care of the Amazon. The answer could be property rights.
[Webb Beard, “How Property Rights Can Help Preserve the Amazon Rainforest,” Foundation for Economic Education, August 28]
