CSF worked with Brazil 2000 course participant, Ricardo de Assis Mello, a researcher with IPAM (Amazon Environmental Research Institute), to conduct a cost-benefit analysis of alternative agricultural methods aimed at preventing destructive forest fires.

Farmers in the Eastern Amazon see few alternatives to the traditional slash and burn agricultural. As a direct consequence, in the states of Pará and Mato Grosso, the area of forest burned by accidental fires is greater than the amount of land intentionally burned for agriculture. Ricardo is working with IPAM as part of a World Bank Pilot Program for Tropical Forest Protection that aims to develop no-burn agricultural clearing methods. Results from the study will form the basis of a proposal for a forest fire prevention program in Pará to be implemented by the Pará State Ministry of Science, Technology, and Environment.