RESUMEN
Abstract 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 São Paulo State Research Foundation (FAPESP) to support the implementation of the New Forest Act in São 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.
Resumo Os ecossistemas naturais estão sob grave ameaça em todo o mundo e as políticas ambientais são essenciais para minimizar os impactos presentes e futuros na biodiversidade, nos serviços ecossistêmicos e nas mudanças climáticas. O Novo Código Florestal no Brasil é a principal política de proteção da vegetação nativa em terras privadas, que compreende 54% da vegetação nativa remanescente brasileira. No entanto, os conflitos entre as preocupações ambientais e agrícolas na sua implementação exigem soluções equilibradas e baseadas em evidências científicas. Para enfrentar o desafio de aplicar a ciência no estabelecimento de políticas ambientais, desenvolvemos um projeto científico financiado pela Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP) para apoiar a implementação do Novo Código Florestal no Estado de São Paulo, como parte do Programa Biota/FAPESP. O projeto foi conduzido de forma diferente de um projeto de pesquisa regular: o objetivo amplo foi fornecer suporte científico para a implementação do Novo Código Florestal pelo Estado, a partir de uma interação participativa entre as partes interessadas para construir objetivos específicos, métodos e discussão de resultados, dentro de uma equipe de pesquisa interdisciplinar e intersetorial. Aqui, apresentamos as lições aprendidas durante e após os quatro anos de desenvolvimento do projeto de pesquisa para avaliar como o conhecimento científico pode ser produzido e adotado na implementação de uma política ambiental específica. Apresentamos os principais resultados e os desafios enfrentados na tentativa de incluir dados científicos no processo decisório. Apresentamos também desafios atuais e futuros na implementação do Novo Código Florestal que podem ser resolvidos com evidências científicas. As lições aprendidas mostraram que mesmo concebendo o projeto de forma a atender as necessidades de apoio à implementação da política ambiental, evitando dificuldades normalmente apontadas por projetos semelhantes, houve uma grande dificuldade para que contribuições científicas fossem adotadas no processo decisório. A maioria das informações e conselhos científicos, mesmo após discussão e entendimento comum entre um grupo diversificado de partes interessadas, foi ignorada nas fases finais de tomada de decisão.
RESUMEN
Brazil contains the largest volume of freshwater of any nation in the world; however, this essential natural resource is threatened by rapid increases in water consumption and water quality degradation, mainly as a result of anthropogenic pressures. Declining water quality has become an increasingly more significant global concern as economic activities and human populations expand and climate change markedly alters hydrological cycles. Changes in land-use/land-cover (LULC) pattern have been recognized as a major driver of water quality degradation, however different LULC types and intensities affect water quality in different ways. In addition, the relationships between LULC and water quality may differ for different spatial and temporal scales. The increase in deforestation, agricultural expansion, and urban sprawl in Brazil highlights the need for water quality protection to ensure immediate human needs and to maintain the quality of water supplies in the long-term. Thus, this manuscript provides an overview of the relationships between LULC and water quality in Brazil, aiming at understanding the effects of different LULC types on water quality, how spatial and temporal scales contribute to these effects, and how such knowledge can improve watershed management and future projections. In general, agriculture and urban areas are the main LULCs responsible for water quality degradation in Brazil. However, although representing a small percentage of the territory, mining has a high impact on water quality. Water quality variables respond differently at different spatial scales, so spatial extent is an important aspect to be considered in studies and management. LULC impacts on water quality also vary seasonally and lag effects mean they take time to occur. Forest restoration can improve water quality and multicriteria evaluation has been applied to identify priority areas for forest restoration and conservation aiming at protecting water quality, but both need further exploration. Watershed modelling has been applied to simulate future impacts of LULC change on water quality, but data availability must be improved to increase the number, locations and duration of studies. Because of the international nature of watersheds and the consistent relationships between land use and water quality in Brazil, we believe our results will also aid water management in other countries.
Asunto(s)
Conservación de los Recursos Naturales , Calidad del Agua , Agricultura , Brasil , Monitoreo del Ambiente , Bosques , HumanosRESUMEN
Abstract: The Native Vegetation Protection Law - 2012 - (NVPL) is the main Brazilian regulation for protecting native vegetation (NV) on private land. The NVPL, currently in the implementation phase, reduced Legal Reserves (LR) requirements compared to its previous version, the 1965's Forest Act (FA), through several legal mechanisms. Among them, Article 68 (Art.68) exempts landholders from LR obligations if NV was converted without offending the legislation in place at the time of the conversion. The technical implementation of Art. 68 is controversial and its effects are still unknown. We developed a model to estimate the effects of Art.68 on LR using São Paulo State (Brazil) as case study. We analyzed former environmental laws to identify key periods in which NV preservation requirements had changed. After, we searched for past spatial data on NV cover with sufficient accuracy for each legal benchmark. Combining legal benchmarks with spatial data, we created two scenarios for Art.68 effects, plus a baseline scenario. The first scenario considered a single legal benchmark, the 1965's FA (scenario "1965"), while the other included the 1989 Cerrado's protection Federal Law as a second benchmark (scenario "1965/89"). The baseline scenario did not include Art.68 effects. Scenario "1965" reduced LR deficits in 49% compared to the baseline scenario, waiving landholders from restoration or offsetting needs in 423 thousand hectares (kha) of NV. Scenario "1965/89" waved 507 kha of NV from restoration needs and represented a 59% reduction in LR deficit compared to the baseline scenario. The LR reduction by scenario "1965/89" assumed particular importance considering that the additional cutback was concentrated on Cerrado, an already very fragmented and impacted region. Together with reductions from other NVPL rules, the additional effects of Art. 68 unfolded great concerns about the role of LR as a tool for NV preservation on private land, threating governmental restoration commitments, and pointing that conservation command and control approaches should be complemented with incentive policies to achieve the desired and committed standards.
Resumo: A Lei de Proteção da Vegetação Nativa - 2012 - (LPVN) é a principal lei brasileira para proteção da vegetação nativa (VN) em terras privadas. A LPVN, atualmente em fase de implementação, reduziu os requerimentos de Reserva Legal (RL) presentes no Código Florestal (CF) de 1965 através de uma série de mecanismos legais. Entre eles, o Artigo 68 (Art.68) elimina a obrigação de recomposição ou restauração da VN convertida sem violação da lei vigente à época da conversão. O Art.68 é um dos mais controversos mecanismos da LPVN e cujos efeitos ainda não são conhecidos. Nós desenvolvemos um modelo para estimar os efeitos do Art.68 utilizando o estado de São Paulo, Brasil, como estudo de caso. Para isso, levantamos marcos legais nos quais os requerimentos mínimos de preservação da VN foram alterados. Em seguida, levantamos a existência de dados espaciais da cobertura de VN com a precisão necessária para cada marco legal. Combinando os marcos legais com os dados espaciais encontrados, criamos dois cenários incluindo os efeitos do Art.68 e um cenário linha de base para controlar tais efeitos. O primeiro cenário considerou apenas um marco legal, o CF de 1965 (cenário "1965"), enquanto o segundo incluiu a Lei Federal de proteção ao Cerrado de 1989 (cenário "1965/89"). O cenário "1965" reduz os déficits de RL em 49% quando comparado ao cenário de base, dispensando os proprietários de terra da obrigação de restaurar ou recompor 423 mil hectares (kha) de VN. O cenário "1989/65" dispensa da obrigação de restauração ou recomposição 507 kha de VN, representando uma redução de 59% do déficit de RL em comparação ao cenário base. A redução apresentada pelo cenário "1965/89" assume grande importância uma vez que se concentra em áreas de Cerrado, bioma já extremamente fragmentado e impactado. Em conjunto com as reduções promovidas por outros Artigos da LPVN, estes efeitos revelam grande preocupação sobre o papel das RL como uma ferramenta para a conservação de VN em terras privadas, ameaçando compromissos governamentais de restauração e indicando que estratégias de comando e controle deverão ser complementadas por políticas de incentivo para atingir os objetivos de conservação desejados.
RESUMEN
The conversion of natural ecosystems to agricultural land and urban areas plays a threat to the protected areas and the natural ecosystems conservation. The aim of this paper is to provide an analysis of the agricultural expansion and its impact on the landscape spatial and temporal patterns in a buffer zone of a protected area located in the transition zone between the Atlantic Forest and Cerrado, in the State of São Paulo, Brazil. The land use and land cover were mapped between 1971 and 2008 and landscape metrics were calculated to provide a spatiotemporal analysis of the forest structure and the expansion of the croplands. The results showed that the landscape patterns were affected by the economic cycles. The predominant crop surrounding the protected area is sugar cane, which increased by 39% during this period, followed by citrus. This landscape change is connected to the Brazilian oil crisis in 1973. The rapid expansion of sugar cane was largely driven by Brazil's biofuel program, the "Proálcool" (pro-alcohol), a project in 1975 that mixed ethanol with gas for automotive fuel. The forest loss occurred mainly between 1971 and 1988, decreasing the forest cover from 17% in 1971 to 12.7% in 2008. Most of the forest patches are smaller than 50 ha and has low connectivity. Throughout the years, the fragments in the buffer zone have become smaller and with an elongated shape, and the park has become isolated. This forest fragmentation process and the predominance of monoculture lands in the buffer zone threaten the protected areas, and can represent a barrier for these areas to provide the effective biodiversity conservation. The measures proposed are necessary to ensure the capability of this ecosystem to sustain its original biodiversity.
