ABSTRACT
Venezuela is another highly specialised oil exporter. Was oil just as important a forestprotecting factor as in Gabon? As we will see in this chapter, many similar mechanisms were at work. Forests expanded as croplands receded. However, cattle-ranching had a contrary land-use impact, much helped by protectionist trade policies. Still, this was insufficient to reverse the overall trend: the secular rise of oil significantly contained deforestation and forest degradation in Venezuela.
