Municipal-Level Data on Deforestation, Prosecutions, and Socioeconomic Indicators in Colombia (2021–2023)
Description
his dataset supports the study "Towards Green Prosecution? Analyzing the Efficacy of a Tough-on-Crime Approach on the Prevention of Deforestation in Colombia." It includes municipal-level data from 2021 to 2023 for all municipalities in Colombia and was used to test whether arrests and prosecutions effectively deter deforestation. The dataset contains tree cover loss data from Global Forest Watch, legal enforcement data (arrests and prosecutions) from the Colombian Attorney General’s Office, and multiple control variables. Socio-economic variables such as Population Density and the Unmet Basic Needs Index (NBI) were obtained from DANE. Coca presence was derived from cultivation and eradication data provided by the Ministries of Justice and Defense. The presence of armed groups was coded as a dummy variable based on reports from Fundación Ideas para la Paz and La Silla Vacía. Agricultural area and cattle counts were obtained from the Ministry of Agriculture, while illegal mining cases were reported by the Attorney General’s Office. Alluvial gold mining (AGM) data came from the Ministry of Mines and Energy. A spatial lag variable was included to account for tree cover loss in neighboring municipalities. All variables are contained in a single Excel sheet and were cleaned and transformed (log or dummy) when necessary to address skewness, outliers, and interpretability. The data allows replication of the study’s Negative Binomial Regression model and supports further research on deforestation, environmental enforcement, and prosecutorial strategies in Latin America.