This chapter explores how the ranching-grabbing RDPE is supported by moral economic changes, which in this context is veneration for the cowboy lifestyle and scorn of traditional/Indigenous livelihoods. The cowboy lifestyle is often seen in a positive light, despite the violence that accompanies forest removal. These changes in the moral economy help to explain how locals increasingly welcome ranching-land speculation, even inside multiple-use conservation areas. Another key factor in deforestation processes are the policies and infrastructure investment decisions made at the federal and state level, which render large areas available for appropriation. These problems are also international, as groups expanding deforestation are still often funded by international banks, creating investment lock-in, as investors are more interested in preserving returns on investments than curbing illegalities. Simultaneously, there is a wide variety of activists in local communities who are resisting these extractivist pushes. The chapter examines where and how Indigenous peoples/forest-dwellers successfully resist land grabbing and clearcutting on their lands.

Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 9 is centered on three main pillars: industry, infrastructure and innovation. With 8 targets and 12 indicators, SDG 9 will have multiple impacts on forests, forest-based livelihoods and forest-based economies. Drawing on a comprehensive literature review, we conclude that major trade-offs will exist between SDG 9 and SDG 15 (sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems), especially if economic expansion and increasing planetary impacts remain coupled. More specifically, the implementation of Target 9.1 and its corresponding indicators (road, infrastructure and transportation expansion) may lead to irreversible and widespread forest degradation and deforestation. As such, the short- and long-term environmental and social costs of this goal need to be better assessed, especially in light of the fact that other SDG 9 targets (e.g. small-scale industry expansion (Target 9.3); access to information and communications technology (Target 9.c)) may have diverse consequences for forests and livelihoods, depending on how they are applied. We call for reforms of SDG 9 to promote and support alternative socio-economic models that are not based on indefinite economic growth, nor reliant on the ongoing expansion of infrastructure, but, rather, necessitate forests and terrestrial ecosystem services to be essential building blocks of a green and sustainable economy.