Amazon deforestation drives malaria transmission, and malaria burden reduces forest clearing

Abstract

Significance Widespread human impacts on the environment are expected to harm human health, which may in turn alter our interactions with the environment. However, evidence for impacts of environmental changes on health, and for feedbacks between environmental change and health, remains locally specific and context dependent. Using a large, geospatial dataset encompassing the Brazilian Amazon rainforest across 13 y, we identify strong evidence for a feedback between deforestation and malaria: Deforestation significantly increases malaria transmission, while high malaria burden simultaneously reduces forest clearing. Our results put into broader context the contradictory effects of deforestation on malaria found in earlier studies and provide evidence useful to land use policy and public health interventions that provide win–win solutions for conservation and health.