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.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | e20180658 |
| Journal | Biota Neotropica |
| Volume | 19 |
| Issue number | 4 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2019 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:This research was supported by São Paulo Research Foundation - Fapesp (2016/17680-2; 2017/02755-0; 2017/07942-2); and World Wide Fund for Nature Brazil – WWF. The research is part of the program BIOTA Fapesp. JPM was funded by the Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development. RRR was funded by Fapesp (Fapesp 2013/50718-5). We are very grateful for all the help and hard work of the GIS staff from Imaflora and Agrosatélite. We appreciate the comments and suggestions from the anonymous reviewers which helped us to improve the manuscript.
Funding Information:
This research was supported by S?o Paulo Research Foundation - Fapesp (2016/17680-2; 2017/02755-0; 2017/07942-2); and World Wide Fund for Nature Brazil ? WWF. The research is part of the program BIOTA Fapesp. JPM was funded by the Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development. RRR was funded by Fapesp (Fapesp 2013/50718-5). We are very grateful for all the help and hard work of the GIS staff from Imaflora and Agrosat?lite. We appreciate the comments and suggestions from the anonymous reviewers which helped us to improve the manuscript.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019, Universidade Estadual de Campinas UNICAMP. All rights reserved.
