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- Egeskog, Andrea, 1981, et al.
(författare)
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Actions and opinions of Brazilian farmers who shift to sugarcane : an interview-based assessment with discussion of implications for land-use change
- 2016
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Ingår i: Land use policy. - Kidlington : Elsevier. - 0264-8377 .- 1873-5754. ; 57, s. 594-604
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Sugarcane ethanol systems can deliver large greenhouse gas emissions savings if emissions associated with land-use change are kept low. This qualitative study documents and analyzes actions and opinions among Brazilian farmers who shift to sugarcane production. Semi-structured interviews were held with 28 actors associated with sugarcane production in three different regions: one traditional sugarcane region and two regions where sugarcane is currently expanding. Most farmers considered sugarcane a land diversification option with relatively low economic risk, although higher risk than their previous land use. Beef production was considered a low-risk option, but less profitable than sugarcane. In conjunction with converting part of their land to sugarcane, most farmers maintained and further intensified their previous agricultural activity, often beef production. Several farmers invested in expanded production in other regions with relatively low land prices. Very few farmers in the expansion regions shifted all their land from the former, less profitable, use to sugarcane. Very few farmers in this study had deforested any land in connection with changes made when shifting to sugarcane. The respondents understand "environmental friendliness" as compliance with the relevant legislation, especially the Brazilian Forest Act, which is also a requirement for delivering sugarcane to the mills. Indirect land-use change is not a concern for the interviewed farmers, and conversion of forests and other native vegetation into sugarcane plantations is uncontroversial if legal. We derive hypotheses regarding farmers' actions and opinions from our results. These hypotheses aim to contribute to better understanding of what takes place in conjunction with expansion of sugarcane and can, when tested further, be of use in developing, e.g., policies for iLUC-free biofuel production.
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| 2. |
- Englund, Oskar, 1982, et al.
(författare)
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A new high-resolution nationwide aboveground carbon map for Brazil
- 2017
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Ingår i: Geo: Geography and Environment. - : Wiley. - 2054-4049. ; 4:2, s. e00045-
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Brazil is home to the largest tracts of tropical vegetation in the world, harbouring high levels of biodiversity and carbon. Several biomass maps have been produced for Brazil, using different approaches and methods, and for different purposes. These maps have been used to estimate historic, recent, and future carbon emissions from land use change (LUC). It can be difficult to determine which map to use for what purpose. The implications of using an unsuitable map can be significant, since the maps have large differences, both in terms of total carbon storage and its spatial distribution. This paper presents comparisons of Brazil’s new ‘official’ carbon map; that is, the map used in the third national communication to the UNFCCC in 2016, with the former official map, and four carbon maps from the scientific literature. General strengths and weaknesses of the different maps are identified, including their suitability for different types of studies. No carbon map was found suitable for studies concerned with existing land use/cover (LULC) and LUC outside of existing forests, partly because they do not represent the current LULC sufficiently well, and partly because they generally overestimate carbon values for agricultural land. A new map of aboveground carbon is presented, which was created based on data from existing maps and an up- to-date LULC map. This new map reflects current LULC, has high accuracy and resolution (50 m), and a national coverage. It can be a useful alternative for scientific studies and policy initiatives concerned with existing LULC and LUC outside of existing forests, especially at local scales when high resolution is necessary, and/or outside the Amazon biome. We identify five ongoing climate policy initiatives in Brazil that can benefit from using this map.
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| 5. |
- Freitas, Flavio L. M., 1986-
(författare)
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Brazilian land use policies and the development of ecosystem services
- 2017
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Concerns related to global environmental changes due to land use changes have been driving international communities towards more sustainable land use systems. Brazil is a country of global strategic importance in this matter considering that it is the nation with the largest extension of preserved tropical native vegetation, recognised for its ecosystem services and high and unique biodiversity. Expansion of forestry and agriculture is taking place rapidly in Brazil, partly over degraded pastureland, but also over native vegetation. Regulating policies to govern and limit this expansion is crucial to ensure the preservation of the ecosystems services provided by native vegetation. This thesis aims at improving the understanding of the potential impacts of prevailing public and private policies in the conservation of nature in Brazil. For this end, the Land Use Policy Assessment (LUPA) model was employed to evaluate potential pathways of implementation of the land use policies. Paper 1 evaluated the effects of current private and public command and control regulations in the protection of above-ground carbon stocks, identifying the most relevant stakeholders holding carbon stocks. The findings suggest that about 10% of carbon stocks are unprotected, where other policy instruments based on the market will be mostly required. Paper 2 performed an assessment of the mechanism for offsetting the legal deficit of native vegetation among landholders, evaluating the different offsetting implementation practices and their impacts on nature protection and socio-economic development. The results indicate that the offsetting mechanism may have little or no additional effects on protection of native vegetation and its ecosystem services because most of the offsetting is likely to take place where native vegetation is already protected by current legislations. However, it is viable to maximise environmental and socio-economic returns from the offsetting mechanism.
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| 6. |
- Freitas, Flavio L. M., 1986-
(författare)
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Brazilian public protection regulations and the preservation of ecosystem services and biodiversity
- 2019
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Brazil is significant for sustaining ecosystems services and biodiversity of global importance. However, the expansion of forestry and agriculture to supply national and international markets often results in loss of ecosystem services and biodiversity. Public protection regulations play a crucial role in setting limits for agricultural expansion. This thesis aims at improving the understanding of the potential impacts of prevailing policies in the preservation of ecosystem services and biodiversity associated with the native vegetation in Brazil. The Land Use Governance Assessment (LUGA) model was developed to simulate the implementation of existing public protection regulations, in particular, the Brazilian Forest Act.The results suggest that command and control regulations do not protect about 28 % of the above-ground carbon in Brazil. The regularisation process of undesignated land is expected to expand protection to an additional 18 % of the above-ground carbon stocks, leaving about 10 % of the carbon stocks unprotected. On the other hand, the preservation of viable populations of several threatened mammal species is highly dependent on an urgent expansion of protected areas in the Cerrado and Caatinga biomes. Furthermore, the results from this thesis indicate that offsetting legal deficit of native vegetation may have little or no additional effects on the protection of native vegetation. The potential loss of forest protection due to reduced legal reserve requirements in the Amazon could potentially range from 6.5 Mha to more than 15 Mha.There are critical gaps in the land use policies in Brazil that threaten the preservation of ecosystem services and biodiversity associated with native vegetation. Market-driven mechanisms can potentially contribute to filling this gap, protecting nature beyond the legal requirements. Yet, additional regulations may be necessary to improve the efficiency of the trading system of legal deficit of native vegetation among farmers, ensuring environmental and socio-economic functions of this system, and effectively balancing production with conservation.
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| 7. |
- Freitas, Flavio L. M., 1986-, et al.
(författare)
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Offsetting legal deficits of native vegetation among Brazilian landholders : Effects on nature protection and socioeconomic development
- 2017
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Ingår i: Land use policy. - : Elsevier. - 0264-8377 .- 1873-5754. ; 68, s. 189-199
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The Brazilian native vegetation supports essential ecosystem services and biodiversity for the global society, whileland use competition may intensify around the increasing needs for food, fibre and bioenergy. The Brazilian Forest Actof 2012 amplified a market-based mechanism for offsetting native vegetation deficits in private farmlands. Thismechanism enables a large-scale trading system allowing landholders to offset their own deficits of native vegetationby purchasing certificates associated with a surplus of native vegetation from other landholders. This mechanism is analternative for the more expensive restoration of native vegetation on own land. The launching of the mechanism nowdepends on specific regulations at state level, which may include geographical restrictions for offsetting deficits. Theaim of this study is to evaluate the effects in nature protection and socio-economic development of different offsettingimplementation alternatives. Our findings suggest that in a business-as-usual scenario the offsetting mechanism mayhave little or no additional effects on protection of native vegetation, because most of the offsetting is likely to takeplace where native vegetation is already protected by prevailing legislations. We concluded that it is possible tomaximise environmental and socio-economic returns from the offsetting mechanism without undermining productiveland. This would be possible if regulations ensure additionality in nature protection while enabling a self-sustainingmechanism for income generation for small-scale family farmers in the poorest region of Brazil, protecting biodiversityand counteracting major trade-offs between ecosystem services.
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| 9. |
- Freitas, Flavio L. M., 1986-, et al.
(författare)
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Recent political development threaten terrestrial mammal diversity in Brazil
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Annan publikation (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Recent political developments may weaken the legal protection of native vegetation in Brazil, which holds large areas of high biodiversity value. We assess the extent to which legislation protects terrestrial mammal species in Brazil. To this end, we quantify the natural population of mammal species in each fragment of native vegetation and relating this quantification to relevant legislation. We also assess the urgency of interventions to improve the protection of the mammal species. The results indicate that the legislation concerning private and public lands protects at least 40%, and about one-third, of the habitats where half of the threatened mammal species live, respectively. In scenarios of full compliance with relevant legislation, at least 40% of habitats supporting about one-third of these species are unprotected or undesignated lacking command and control regulations protecting the native vegetation. The implications of these results are discussed in light of recent policy developments in Brazil.
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| 10. |
- Freitas, Flavio L. M., 1986-, et al.
(författare)
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TECHNICAL NOTE: LAND TENURE MAP OF BRAZIL
- 2017
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Annan publikationabstract
- The land tenure map of Brazil is the result of a collaborative effort between Imaflora, ESALQ/USP’s GeoLab and the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH, Sweden). This georeferenced database covers the entire Brazilian territory, offering an open and public picture of all public and private land holdings in Brazil.This land tenure map is an update on previous studies conducted by Professor Gerd Sparovek's team - ESALQ/USP’s GeoLab - (Freitas, Sparovek e Matsumoto, 2016; Sparovek et al., 2010, 2012, 2015) and includes new functionalities and the coding of a routine that allows for the continuous updating of this database developed by Imaflora and KTH-Sweden teams.
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