Socioeconomic Factors and Native Vegetation Cover in Rural Lands in São Paulo State, Brazil

Abstract

This study investigated how farm size, economic activity and social group are related to declared native vegetation cover in rural lands in the state of São Paulo, Brazil, evaluating implications to environmental public policies. We analyzed data from Rural Environmental Registry System of São Paulo (SICAR-SP). More than one third of the farms does not have declared native vegetation and half of them have up to 3% of native vegetation cover. Percentage of declared native vegetation cover tends to increase with farm size. However, only community lands and silviculture farms larger than 500 hectares showed most properties (more than 50%) with at least 20% of its area covered with native vegetation, as determined by the Brazilian Forest Act (federal law 12,651/2012). Our results suggest that, beyond property size, property social group and economic activity are also important aspects to be considered into public policy design aiming at environmental conservation in rural landscapes.

Information Technology in the Pecan Nut Production: Case in Parana State, Brazil

“…The farmer must train and complement his skills. The farmer must be able to analyze data and ultimately decide, even if decision-making tools are implemented in the area (Leite et al, 2020). Finally, among the difficulties raised remains the question of ownership of agricultural data and information.…”

“…In Brazil, the rural properties have common barriers, such as production costs, difficulties in commercialization and the acquisition of better technology. The new competitive context puts pressure on many rural properties that have not yet managed to assimilate changes in technology (Leite et al, 2020). According to Helfand, Pereira & Soares (2014), the rural properties are undergoing major restructuring, as they are moving from patrimonial production to technological production.…”

“…Agricultural production in Brazil, and also in Parana State, is based on some factors, such as, for example, government support for food production, through subsidies offering credit lines for the sector, raw material in abundance, work capacity, among others (Leite et al, 2020). However, these are factors that can no longer be seen as a competitive advantage over competitors.…”

“…Therefore, the use of detailed information on the use of technology by organizations is becoming increasingly relevant, with the aim of structuring management activities, in order to benefit from its mechanisms (Rodrigues & Caldeira, 2020;Porter, 2001;Parsons, 1983). Some research gaps in the IT literature and most specifically on the matter of pecan nut production were identified by Leite, Junior, Calaboni & Igari (2020), Fronza et al, (2018), Barrios et al, (2010), among others. Specifically, these authors claim that there is little research on developing the insertion of IT in the pecan nut production process.…”

Do command and control instruments for nature conservation on private property always fail?

“…Finally, questions that arose during the development of this research and were not explored here may be the subject of future works. These include: (i) Would tourist activity have any effect on the intensity of land use, or would such activity contribute to income generation, thus enabling owners to retain the APP and RL?, and (ii) Is it possible to identify effects of size and type of economic activity on compliance with legal devices, as suggested by Leite et al (2020)? Victor Eduardo Lima Ranieri ✉ vranieri@sc.usp.br ORCiD: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9203-5037.…”