Private and Public Governance Interactions in Brazilian Amazon: The Effect of the Beef Value Chain Zero Deforestation Commitment in Municipal Level Deforestation

This paper investigates the effects of the Beef Zero Deforestation Commitment (Beef ZDC), an initiative aimed at enhancing environmental standards on the beef value chain, in deforestation rates in the Brazilian Amazon. We employed a panel data regression model on a set containing data of 280 municipalities from three states with measures taken at three time points ranging the pre and post Beef ZDC implementation period. The study makes use of an outcome variable constructed through an insightful geoprocessing technique that allows to evaluate the prevalence of the zero-deforestation commitment in within municipal administrative limits. The results indicate that the prevalence of the Beef ZDC has significant effects on reducing deforestation rates in the targeted municipalities. It is estimated that an increase of 1 pp in the Beef ZDC prevalence causes an expected reduction of approximately 0.7 pp in the deforestation rate. We also show that heterogeneous effects arise according to state. Besides bringing evidence of the effectiveness of these regulatory initiatives, our findings underscore the importance of using the adequate unit of analysis when exploring hybrid interventions and considering local governance contexts in shaping the outcomes of such initiatives.