Offsetting legal deficits of native vegetation among Brazilian landholders : Effects on nature protection and socioeconomic development

• 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.

Subject headings

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Geovetenskap och miljövetenskap -- Miljövetenskap (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Earth and Related Environmental Sciences -- Environmental Sciences (hsv//eng)

LANTBRUKSVETENSKAPER  -- Annan lantbruksvetenskap -- Miljö- och naturvårdsvetenskap (hsv//swe)

AGRICULTURAL SCIENCES  -- Other Agricultural Sciences -- Environmental Sciences related to Agriculture and Land-use (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Native vegetation

Offsetting

Brazilian Forest Act

Land use policy

Additionality

Socio-economic development

Land and Water Resources Engineering

Mark- och vattenteknik

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)