Achieving private conservation targets in Brazil through restoration and compensation schemes without impairing productive lands

Autor(es)

de Mello, Kaline ^[1] ; Fendrich, Arthur Nicolaus ^[2] ; Sparovek, Gerd ^[2] ; Simmonds, Jeremy S. ^[3] ; Maron, Martine ^[3] ; Tavares, Paulo Andre ^[2] ; Brites, Alice Dantas ^[2] ; Rodrigues, Ricardo Ribeiro ^[4] ; Joly, Carlos Alfredo ^[5] ; Metzger, Jean Paul ^[1]

Afiliação do(s) autor(es)

^[1] Univ Sao Paulo, Inst Biosci, Dept Ecol, Rua Matao 321, Trav 14, BR-05508090 Sao Paulo, SP - Brazil

^[2] Univ Sao Paulo, Luiz de Queiroz Coll Agr, Soil Sci Dept, Ave Padua Dias 11, BR-13418900 Piracicaba, SP - Brazil

^[3] Univ Queensland, Sch Earth & Environm Sci, Brisbane, Qld 4072 - Australia

^[4] Univ Sao Paulo, Luiz de Queiroz Coll Agr, Dept Biol Sci, Ave Padua Dias 11, BR-13418260 Piracicaba, SP - Brazil

^[5] Univ Estadual Campinas, Biol Inst, Dept Plant Biol, Rua Monteiro Lobato 255, BR-13083862 Campinas, SP - Brazil

• Tipo de documento: Artigo Científico
• Fonte: ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & POLICY; v. 120, p. 1-10, JUN 2021.
• Citações Web of Science: 1

Resumo

Environmental policies that require native vegetation conservation can be challenging to implement, especially in productive agricultural landscapes. In Brazil, the Brazilian Native Vegetation Protection Law mandates `Legal Reserves', protected native vegetation that landowners must retain on their properties. If landowners do not have the required minimum amount of native vegetation on their properties (the Legal Reserve `target'), they must either restore vegetation on the same property to meet the target, or compensate by protecting existing vegetation or restoring it on another property, ideally in ecologically equivalent areas. Here, we evaluate how different strategies (on-site/off-site protection and/or restoration), and different requirements for ecological equivalence when off-site strategies are used, affect the ability to achieve Legal Reserve targets, while minimising the need to restore native vegetation on productive farmland. We used a novel iterative tool to build scenarios that reflect different combinations of strategies to meet the minimum conservation target under different requirements for ecological equivalence, and compared their ability to achieve the target and their likely cost. The Atlantic Forest was the only biome where it was not possible to achieve the Legal Reserve target by protection of existing native vegetation, even when ecological equivalence rules were relaxed. As a consequence, vegetation restoration is required in this biome. Directing this required restoration to pasturelands that are less-suitable for agriculture allowed the target to be achieved in all states of Brazil, as long as only minimal ecological equivalence was required; however, for most states, the need to restore native vegetation on productive areas on farmlands could still be avoided while requiring medium to high ecological equivalence. These findings show the potential for moderate ecological equivalence to be achieved across most of Brazil in a cost-effective way and without impairing productive lands when seeking to meet the Legal Reserve targets. (AU)

• Processo FAPESP: 13/50718-5 - Restauração ecológica de florestas ciliares, de florestas nativas de produção econômica e de fragmentos florestais degradados (em APP e RL), com base na ecologia de restauração de ecossistemas de referência, visando testar cientificamente os preceitos do Novo Código Florestal Brasileiro
• Beneficiário: Ricardo Ribeiro Rodrigues
• Modalidade de apoio: Auxílio à Pesquisa - Programa BIOTA - Temático
• Processo FAPESP: 13/07375-0 - CeMEAI - Centro de Ciências Matemáticas Aplicadas à Indústria
• Beneficiário: Francisco Louzada Neto
• Modalidade de apoio: Auxílio à Pesquisa - Centros de Pesquisa, Inovação e Difusão - CEPIDs
• Processo FAPESP: 17/24028-2 - Elaboração de mapa de áreas prioritárias para compensação de Reserva Legal no Estado de São Paulo e desenvolvimento de protótipo de ferramenta automatizada de consulta a informações georreferenciadas
• Beneficiário: Kaline de Mello
• Modalidade de apoio: Bolsas no Brasil - Pós-Doutorado
• Processo FAPESP: 18/25147-8 - Desenvolvimento de ferramenta metodológica para avaliar cenários de compensação de vegetação nativa
• Beneficiário: Kaline de Mello
• Modalidade de apoio: Bolsas no Exterior - Estágio de Pesquisa - Pós-Doutorado