The unintended impact of Colombia’s covid-19 lockdown on forest fires

Amador-Jiménez, Mónica, Millner, Naomi, Palmer, Charles ORCID: 0000-0002-1252-179X, Pennington, R. Toby and Sileci, Lorenzo ORCID: 0000-0003-4110-9427 (2020) The unintended impact of Colombia’s covid-19 lockdown on forest fires. Environmental and Resource Economics, 76 (4). 1081 - 1105. ISSN 0924-6460

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Abstract

The covid-19 pandemic led to rapid and large-scale government intervention in economies and societies. A common policy response to covid-19 outbreaks has been the lockdown or quarantine. Designed to slow the spread of the disease, lockdowns have unintended consequences for the environment. This article examines the impact of Colombia’s lockdown on forest fires, motivated by satellite data showing a particularly large upsurge of fires at around the time of lockdown implementation. We find that Colombia’s lockdown is associated with an increase in forest fires compared to three different counterfactuals, constructed to simulate the expected number of fires in the absence of the lockdown. To varying degrees across Colombia’s regions, the presence of armed groups is correlated with this fire upsurge. Mechanisms through which the lockdown might influence fire rates are discussed, including the mobilisation of armed groups and the reduction in the monitoring capacity of state and conservation organisations during the covid-19 outbreak. Given the fast-developing situation in Colombia, we conclude with some ideas for further research.

Item Type:	Article
Official URL:	https://www.springer.com/journal/10640
Additional Information:	© 2020 The Authors
Divisions:	Geography & Environment
Subjects:	G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > GE Environmental Sciences R Medicine > RA Public aspects of medicine > RA0421 Public health. Hygiene. Preventive Medicine H Social Sciences > HV Social pathology. Social and public welfare. Criminology
JEL classification:	Q - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics > Q2 - Renewable Resources and Conservation > Q23 - Forestry Q - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics > Q5 - Environmental Economics > Q56 - Environment and Development; Environment and Trade; Sustainability; Environmental Accounting; Environmental Equity Q - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics > Q5 - Environmental Economics > Q58 - Government Policy
Date Deposited:	09 Jul 2020 15:21
Last Modified:	01 Nov 2024 04:04
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/105586

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