Territorial environmental management in oilseeds production to obtain biofuels

• Grant number: 06/00761-8
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• Start date: June 01, 2006
• End date: May 31, 2007
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Geography - Regional Geography
• Principal Investigator: Luiz José Maria Irias
• Grantee: Izilda Aparecida Rodrigues
• Host Institution: Embrapa Meio-Ambiente. Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuária (EMBRAPA). Ministério da Agricultura, Pecuária e Abastecimento (Brasil). Jaguariúna , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Methods for the environmental impact assessment of alternative sources of energy that include consideration of social, economical and ecological aspects must address perspectives for the territorial management of the productive rural undertakings, be them large or small. The present study aims at presenting the socio-economical dynamics and the environmental concerns that characterize the impacts of land occupation with oleaginous crops destined to biofuel production, focusing on the territorial management of production in rural areas and its consequences in adjacent areas. The research will integrate the environmental impact assessment Component Project (PC 09) “Viability, competitiveness, and sustainability of the productive chains of soybean, sunflower, canola, castor-bean, and palm-oil for biofuel production”, included in the National Network of biofuels of the Brazilian Agency for Agricultural Research (Embrapa). The study at the municipal level will provide insights on the land occupation dynamics through linkages between activities in the different productive sectors, aiming at formulating the regional Social, Economical and Ecological profiles, whereas demographic analyses will characterize the dwelling communities. Information for this section of the study will proceed mainly from secondary data obtained in the censuses and municipal databases. This regional reach of the study will be complemented with results of the other Component Projects of the Network, which address the rural establishment scale at the local level, in addition to primary data collected in selected territories. (AU)