Strategies against deforestation across the Amazon Basin

The command-and-control approach to reducing or eliminating environmental wrongdoing depends on both carrots and sticks. The carrots are largely linked to the private sector and are predicated on access to markets. The sticks all depend on the public sector and include administrative sanctions, such as the denial of environmental licences and the imposition of fines for noncompliance using both administrative and civil law. The biggest stick is law enforcement via the criminal justice system. The application of the criminal code has been lax on pioneer landscapes, including for murder, fraud, slavery and drug trafficking, to name a few of the most common serious felonies. Criminal action flourishes because of the absence of strong institutions, accompanied by a culture of noncompliance rei