Testing temporal benchmarks effects on the implementation of the new Brazilian Forest Act

Author(s):Show less -

Tavares, Paulo Andre ^[1] ; Brites, Alice ^[1] ; Guidotti, Vinicius ^[2] ; Molin, Paulo Guilherme ^[3] ; de Mello, Kaline ^[4] ; Santos, Zenilda Ledo dos ^[1] ; Pinto, Luis Fernando Guedes ^[5] ; Metzger, Jean Paul ^[4] ; Rodrigues, Ricardo Ribeiro ^[6] ; Joly, Carlos Alfredo ^[7] ; Sparovek, Gerd ^[1]

Affiliation

^[1] Univ Sao Paulo, Luiz de Queiroz Coll Agr, Dept Soil Sci, Ave Padua Dias 11, BR-13418900 Piracicaba, SP - Brazil

^[2] Imaflora, Estrada Chico Mendes 185, BR-13426420 Piracicaba, SP - Brazil

^[3] Univ Fed Sao Carlos, Ctr Nat Sci, Rodovia Lauri Simoes de Barros, Km 12, BR-18245970 Buri, SP - Brazil

^[4] Univ Sao Paulo, Inst Biosci, Dept Ecol, Rua Matao 321, Trav 14, BR-05508090 Sao Paulo, SP - Brazil

^[5] SOS Mata Atlantica Fdn, Ave Paulista 2073, Horsa 1, Conj 1318, BR-01311300 Sao Paulo, SP - Brazil

^[6] Univ Sao Paulo, Luiz de Queiroz Coll Agr, Dept Biol Sci, Ave Padua Dias 11, BR-13418260 Piracicaba, SP - Brazil

^[7] Univ Estadual Campinas, Inst Biol, Rua Monteiro Lobato 255, BR-13083862 Campinas, SP - Brazil

• Document type: Journal article
• Source: ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & POLICY; v. 126, p. 213-222, DEC 2021.
• Web of Science Citations: 0

Abstract

Native vegetation in private lands plays an important role in providing ecosystem services and safeguarding biodiversity worldwide. Legal protection rules of this vegetation are thus crucial. In Brazil, since 1934, there has been a requirement for landowners to preserve a percentage of their land covered with native vegetation, the Legal Reserve. However, the 1934 legislation applies only to arboreal vegetation, while the protection of savannahs and grasslands begins after 1965 and 1989. The reference year for the application of Legal Reserves can thus have significant impacts on the amount of native vegetation legally protected. Here we tested the effects on Legal Reserve cover in Sa similar to o Paulo State, considering two different legal benchmarks as starting points: 1934 and 1965. Given that the 1934 law precedes the first aerial mapping in Brazil, we developed a methodology to estimate past native vegetation cover through a probabilistic approach. The forest deficit considering 1934 as the initial point is 3% lower than the one starting with the 1965 benchmark. Comparing both scenarios, the 1934 led to a reduction of 1255 farms with Legal Reserve deficit from a total of 30,417. For both scenarios, Legal Reserve deficits were concentrated in the West, Northwest, and Mid-west regions of the state. The outcomes showed that the benchmark change does not significantly affect the total area of Legal Reserves protection, the number of farms potentially benefited by this mechanism, and the amount of native vegetation deficit. However, the use of the 1934 as an initial date for considering protection of Legal Reserve can delay the implementation of the law due to a time-consuming farm-by-farm analysis, once the probabilistic map has an intrinsic limitation for an automatic process. Thus, the environmental gains with the adoption of 1934 as the initial date do not overcome the limitations of using a probabilistic map, suggesting that effective law enforcement depends on reliable and more recent baselines, allowing semi-automated analyses. This scientific evidence can be adopted by the other Brazilian States that have not yet defined the initial legal benchmark, balancing the advantages and disadvantages of adopting the 1934 Forest Act. (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 13/07375-0 - CeMEAI - Center for Mathematical Sciences Applied to Industry
• Grantee: Francisco Louzada Neto
• Support Opportunities: Research Grants - Research, Innovation and Dissemination Centers - RIDC
• FAPESP's process: 13/50718-5 - Ecological restoration of riparian forests, native forest of economic production and of degraded forest fragments (in APP and RL) based on restoration ecology of reference ecosystems in order to scientifically test the precepts of the New Brazilian Forest Code
• Grantee: Ricardo Ribeiro Rodrigues
• Support Opportunities: BIOTA-FAPESP Program - Thematic Grants
• FAPESP's process: 17/04812-0 - Elaboration of a priority areas map for legal reserve compensation in the State of São Paulo and development of an automated tool prototype to query geo-referenced information
• Grantee: Paulo Guilherme Molin
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• FAPESP's process: 17/02755-0 - A participatory process construction and evaluation aiming at a technical part preparation for an Environmental Adjustment Program (EAP) in the state of São Paulo
• Grantee: Alice Dantas Brites
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• FAPESP's process: 16/17680-2 - Priority areas for Legal Reserve offsetting: research for the development of a decision making tool to enhance transparency in the implementation process of the environmental adjustment program (Programa de Regularização Ambiental - PRA) in São Paulo
• Grantee: Gerd Sparovek
• Support Opportunities: BIOTA-FAPESP Program - Thematic Grants
• FAPESP's process: 18/25147-8 - Developing a methodological framework to evaluate scenarios of native vegetation compensation
• Grantee: Kaline de Mello
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Post-doctor
• FAPESP's process: 17/24028-2 - Elaboration of a priority areas map for Legal Reserve compensation in the State of São Paulo and development of an automated tool prototype to query geo-referenced information
• Grantee: Kaline de Mello
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• FAPESP's process: 17/07942-2 - Historical overview patterns of natural vegetation cover in the State of São Paulo as support in the regularization of the compensation mechanisms in Legal Reserve established by the law nº 12.651/2012
• Grantee: Paulo André Tavares
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate (Direct)