The revisi on of the Brazilia n Forest Act: in creased deforestationor a hi stor ic st ep toward s ba lanc ing ag ri cu lt ur al de velopment and nature cons er va ti on? Gerd Sparovek a, *,Go ¨ran Bernde s b , Al be rto Giaroli de Oliveira Pe re ira Barr et to a , Israel Leoname Fro ¨hlich Klug a a UniversityofSa ˜oPaulo,‘‘LuizdeQueiroz’’CollegeofAgriculture,DepartmentofSoilScience.Av.Pa ´duaDias,11,Piracicaba(SP), Zip13418-900,Brazil b Chalmers University ofTechnology, Departme nt ofEnergyandEnvironment, DivisionofPhysical Resource Theory, SE-41296Go ¨teborg,Sweden 1.Introduction Brazilisamongthebiologicallywealthiestnationsandholds substantialareasofhighvalueforbiodiversityconservation, coveringbiomessuchastheAmazonrainforests,savannas (Cerrado);thetypicalsparse,thornywoodswithdrought- resistanttreesinnortheasternBrazil(Caatinga);thetropical wetland(Pantanal);theworldbiospherereservecomplex alongtheAtlanticcoast(AtlanticForest);andthegrasslandofSouthBrazil(Pampa). ThepressureonBrazil’sbiodiverselandshasvariedover time.Studiespointtoevidenceoflargepre-European(400–500 yearsago)occupationsandlarge-scaletransformationsofforestandwetlandenvironmentswithintheAmazonregion, thusrefutingtheviewontheAmazonasaprimordialforest, onlyminimallyimpactedbysmall,simpleanddispersed groupsthatinhabittheregion(Heckenbergeretal.,2007).Yet, economicdevelopmentandtheconstructionofanetworkofhighwaysintheearly1970s(includingtheTransamazon)lead todeforestationfarbeyondhistoricratesintheAmazon region(Fearnside,2005; Mittermeieretal.,2005;Fearnside, 2007).ThedeforestationoftheAtlanticForestthatonce coveredabout15%oftheBrazilianterritory(Brondizioand Gurgel,1990) started intheearly1500s.Itacceleratedinthe twentiethcenturyandtodaylessthan10%oftheoriginalarea enviro nm ent al sci ence & policy 16 (20 12) 65– 72 articleinfo Published on li ne 15 Dece mber 2011 Keywords: Brazil Legislation Agriculture Deforestation Conservation abstract Almo st two- th ir ds of the Brazilia n te rr it ory st il l has pr evalence of na tura l ve getation. Althou gh no t all pr istine, much of thes e areas ha vehig h conservation value. 170million hectare (Mha) of the natural veg etati on is located within Federa l and State prot ected ar eas . Most of the remainin g 367 Mha is on private agriculture la nds, wh er e the Fo rest Ac t is th e most important legal fr amework for conservat ion. In July 201 0, the Brazilian parl iament be gan the analysis of a substi tuti ve legi slation for the Forest Ac t. The main motivat ions for the revision is th at , on the on e ha nd, it ha s been foun d in ef fectiv e in pr ot ec ti ng natu ra l ve getation, and onthe ot he r ha nd, it is perc ei ved as a ba rr ie r ag ai nst development in the agri cult ur e sec tor. The substi tutive Forest Act, as it presently st ands, does not repre sen t a balance between existi ng st andpo ints and objectives; it may dr ive devel opme nt towar ds either mor e pri vat e protec tion through mar ket -driven compensation act ion s, or increas ed deforestation and le ss nature pr ot ec ti on /restorati on. This article us es outcomes fr om mo de li ng anal ys es to di scus s we akness es of th e subs ti tuti ve Fore st Ac t and to suggest possible improvements. #2011 El sev ier Ltd. All ri ghts reser ved . * Corre sponding author .Te l. : +5 5 19 3417 21 40 ; fax: +5 5 3 41 7 2 1 10 . E-mail address: [email protected](G. Spa rov ek). Availableonlineatwww.sciencedirect.com journal homepage:www.elsevier.com/locate/envsci 1462- 901 1/$ – see fro nt matt er # 2011 El sev ier Lt d. Al l ri ghts reser ved . doi:10.1016/j.envsci.2011.10.008
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8/13/2019 11.the Revision of the Brazilian Forest Act
what regards protection of several hundred Mha of high
conservation value areas. In the present situation, science
based information is essential – not the least to challenge
the perception that Brazil needs to decide between two
competing options for the future.
Appendix A. Supplementary data
Supplementary data associated with this article can be
found, in the online version, at doi:10.1016/j.envsci.2011.
10.008.
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Gerd Sparovek Sparovek is full professor at University of Sa ˜ oPaulo, Brazil. Sparovek has experience in the topicsof agriculturalproduction system analysis, rural development and land useplanning. He coordinated several research projects for the Brazi-lian FederalGovernment relatedto policyevaluationand design inareas ofagrarian reform,land credit, agricultural certification, andfood production by family agriculture. Sparovek also has a solidbackground in physical modeling related to soil science (soilerosion and land use suitability). Remote sensing, GIS, DB and
multidisciplinary work in tropical regions related to agriculturalproduction are tools frequently used in Sparovek’s research.
Go ¨ ran Berndes Berndes is associate professor at Chalmers at theEnergy and Environment Department (Physical Resource Theorydivision). Go ¨ ran Berndes does research into development of ener-gy systems and of land use, and of interactions between theserespectivedevelopments.His focus isonhowbiomass canbeused
to reduce the energy system’s carbon footprint and the impact of large-scale use of biomass for energy.
Alberto Giaroli de Oliveira Pereira BarrettoBarretto is PhDstudentat University of Sa ˜ o Paulo. This report is part of his research, thataims theunderstanding, viaspatialmodeling,of sustainable alter-natives for agricultural development in Brazil.
Israel Leoname Fro ¨ hlich Klug Klug is graduate student at Univer-sity of Sa ˜ o Paulo. This report uses part of the technical support heprovided in setting up geographic land use information for Brazil.
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