Science and environmental policy establishment: the case of the Forest Act in the State of Sao Paulo, Brazil

Autor(es)

de Mello, Kaline ; Brites, Alice ; Borges-Matos, Clarice ; Tavares, Paulo Andre ; Metzger, Jean Paul ; Rodrigues, Ricardo Ribeiro ; dos Santos, Zenilda Ledo ; Joly, Carlos Alfredo ; Sparovek, Gerd

• Tipo de documento: Artigo Científico
• Fonte: Biota Neotropica; v. 22, p. 8-pg., 2022-01-01.

Resumo

Natural ecosystems are under severe threat worldwide and environmental policies are essential to minimize present and future impacts on biodiversity, ecosystem services and climate change. The New Forest Act in Brazil is the main policy to protect native vegetation in private lands, which comprise 54% of the remaining Brazilian native vegetation. However, conflicts between environmental and agricultural concerns in its implementation demand for balanced solutions based on scientific evidence. To face the challenge of applying science in environmental policy establishment, we developed a scientific project funded by the Sao Paulo State Research Foundation (FAPESP) to support the implementation of the New Forest Act in Sao Paulo State, as part of the Biota/FAPESP Program. The project was conducted differently from a regular research project: the broad objective was to provide scientific support to the State's implementation of the New Forest Act, based on a participatory interaction among stakeholders to build specific objectives, methods, and discussion of results, within an interdisciplinary and intersectoral research team. Here, we present the lessons learned during and after the four years of the research project development to evaluate how scientific knowledge can be produced and adopted in the implementation of a specific environmental policy. We present the main outcomes and the challenges faced in trying to include scientific data in the decision-making process. We also present current and future challenges in the New Forest Act implementation that could be solved with scientific evidence. The lessons learned showed that even designing the project in order to meet the needs to support the implementation of the environmental policy, avoiding difficulties normally pointed out by similar projects, there was a great difficulty for scientific contributions to be adopted in the decision-making process. Most of the scientific information and advice, even after discussion and common understanding among a diverse stakeholder group, were ignored or over-ruled in the final decision-making phases. (AU)

• Processo FAPESP: 16/17680-2 - Áreas prioritárias para compensação de Reserva Legal: pesquisa para o desenvolvimento de uma ferramenta para auxílio à tomada de decisão e transparência no processo de implementação do Programa de Regularização Ambiental (PRA) no estado de São Paulo
• Beneficiário: Gerd Sparovek
• Modalidade de apoio: Auxílio à Pesquisa - Programa BIOTA - Temático
• Processo FAPESP: 17/04812-0 - 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: Paulo Guilherme Molin
• Modalidade de apoio: Bolsas no Brasil - Pós-Doutorado
• Processo FAPESP: 17/02755-0 - Construção e avaliação de processo participativo para a elaboração de peça técnica para viabilização da implementação do Programa de Regularização Ambiental (PRA) no estado de São Paulo
• Beneficiário: Alice Dantas Brites
• Modalidade de apoio: Bolsas no Brasil - Pós-Doutorado
• 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: 17/07942-2 - Análise temporal da cobertura de vegetação nativa no estado de São Paulo para atendimento ao mecanismo compensação em Reserva Legal da lei nº 12.651/2012
• Beneficiário: Paulo André Tavares
• Modalidade de apoio: Bolsas no Brasil - Doutorado Direto
• 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