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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.

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Brazil's Rural Environmental Registry (CAR) is a potentially promising avenue to slow deforestation on private properties as it facilitates the monitoring of land use. Yet limited empirical evidence exists on how the CAR affects smallholders' behavior and recent scholarly efforts have in fact indicated that it may be doing less to protect forests than previously assumed. Based on 1177 smallholder surveys conducted in the Cerrado, we assess 1) whether the CAR might incentivize smallholders to pursue deforestation and 2) which factors are associated with smallholders' intended deforestation behavior. We find that upon CAR registration, factors significantly associated with smallholders' intention to deforest are: the existing percentage of native vegetation on the property, the use of agricultural loans, property owner's age, and livestock production experience. To curb deforestation that may follow expressed intentions of smallholders, the CAR, and environmental registration programs alike, should account for existing land use by, for example, improving the system already in place for trading areas of native vegetation as this system is not widely adopted by those smallholders with more native vegetation than the legal cut-off. Also, such programs should assess the role of whether conditions related to land cover maintenance may protect against deforestation if credit access is supported especially to younger smallholders and/or livestock producers with a high percentage of native vegetation in their properties.

Brazil offers a complex and unique example of tropical landscapes. The country has considerably decreased deforestation since 2004, but Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) is arguably under question, both as a concept and as a tool to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, as deforestation levels have increased over the last five years. This article investigates how different policy actors have perceived REDD+ over time, how they have engaged in REDD+ efforts over the past decade, and how REDD+ implementation in Brazil should move forward accordingly. We analyzed qualitative data from semi-structured interviews and actors’ “stances”, i.e., their positions—with regards to key issues connected to REDD+ governance and its challenges—over three different time periods (Phase 1: 2010–2011, Phase 2: 2015–2016, and Phase 3: 2019), so as to identify the practical implications of these diverse interpretations. We argue that the way actors perceive REDD+ is intimately related to the way they interpret and assign meanings towards it and, in consequence, the way they coordinate REDD+-related practices and efforts. We focus on the link between perceptions and efforts so as to comprehend the relevance that different interpretations have to both the concept and implementation of REDD+ in Brazil. Our analysis concentrates on the potential to improve the coordination and integration of REDD+ implementation and diverse actors’ efforts with regards to REDD+ activities. Results suggest that actors’ perceptions of REDD+ generated a plurality of meanings, highlighting a range of dialectical and ontological interactions that have, in turn, resulted in multiple REDD+ interpretations. Findings highlight that different actors have the same interests when it comes to their organizational efforts to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, suggesting that there is room for a better coordination of efforts towards this end, as well as increased collaboration.

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Artigo recebido em 16 de novembro de 2015, versão final aceita em 23 de abril de 2016. RESUMO:A comercialização de produtos florestais não madeireiros (PFNM) é considerada estratégia que combina o desenvolvimento socioeconômico com baixo impacto ambiental. Porém, evidências demonstram que a exploração desses recursos pode provocar efeitos ecológicos negativos. Este estudo identificou os efeitos mais frequentes por meio de revisão sistemática de estudos empíricos, previamente submetidos a quatro critérios de inclusão e depois classificados conforme o tipo de PFNM explorado e os efeitos da exploração sobre 15 parâmetros em diferentes escalas biológicas. Os resultados indicaram que efeitos ecológicos negativos são frequentes, especialmente para a extração de cascas e folhas em grandes volumes, embora no curto prazo os efeitos possam ser nulos ou positivos. Os parâmetros mais frequentemente afetados foram: tamanho populacional; alterações nas partes vegetais; distribuição de classes de tamanho; probabilidade média de sobrevivência e riqueza de espécies. A constatação de que a atividade pode provocar efeitos ecológicos significativos evidencia a necessidade de sistemas de monitoramento e manejo.Palavras-chave: recursos florestais; efeitos ecológicos; extrativismo; revisão. ABSTRACT:Trade of non-timber forest products (NTFP) is a strategy that combines socioeconomic development with activities of low environmental impact. However, evidence suggests that harvesting these resources can produce negative ecological effects. This article identified the most common effects through a systematic literature review of empirical studies. Articles were previously evaluated against four criteria of inclusion, and were then classified according to the plant part harvested and the effects on 15 parameters at different levels of the biological organization. The results indicated that negative ecological effects are common, especially when harvesting barks and leaves in large volumes, although null and positive effects may also be observed. The parameters most frequently affected were population size; modifications in plant parts; age structure; probability of survival, and species richness. The evidence that NTFP harvest can cause significant ecological impacts calls for a need of monitoring and management systems.