Public visitation and deforestation in protected areas of the Brazilian Amazon: an application of the Linear Probability Model

ABSTRACT The creation of protected areas is one of the main strategies used for the conservation of natural resources. In the Amazon, they have suffered from illegal deforestation, causing damage, most of which is irreversible. In this sense, it is necessary to investigate the relationship between public visitation and the suppression of forest cover in the biome. Multiple linear regression by Weighted Least Squares (WLS) was used, with cutting data from the conservation units of the Amazon, to develop a Linear Probability Model for the occurrence of deforestation due to the existence of visitation and other explanatory aspects. The results highlighted that the existence of managed public visitation in a conservation unit represents a reduction in the probability of deforestation, suggesting that this may be an important strategy for the protection of forest cover and, consequently, regional biodiversity.