Cracking Brazil's Forest Code

Abstract

Brazil's controversial new Forest Code grants amnesty to illegal deforesters, but creates new mechanisms for forest conservation.

Actor-specific contributions to the deforestation slowdown in the Brazilian Amazon

“…Our results serve to highlight the need for actor-specific approaches to address some of the major environmental, economic, and social difficulties that lie in the way of achieving this goal. One prominent example of such difficulties is the challenge facing smallholders in achieving compliance with Brazil's revised Forest Code, even considering the amnesty for areas cleared by them before 2008 (44). The differences in actor-specific deforestation and degradation dynamics revealed by our study suggest that to be both effective and fair, legal reserve limits and compliance requirements established in the Forest Code may need to be not only coupled with appropriate supporting and incentive measures but also more closely tailored to the responsibilities, capacities, and context associated with different actors, in contrast with a blanket obligation to protect and restore a minimum percentage of forest cover.…”

“…Even if deforestation rates in the Amazon can be further reduced against mounting pressures posed by increased global demand for farming commodities; the potential effects of new mining, hydropower, and road investments (45); a weakened Forest Code (44); and the recent downgrading of conservation areas (39), other concerns remain. These include the need for additional measures to avoid further degradation (e.g., from unsustainable logging) and to rehabilitate already-degraded areas; the risk of deforestation shifting to other biomes (46); and increases in fire and drought caused by changes within the Amazon (47), neighboring biomes (48), and the global climate.…”

Soil macrofauna density and diversity across a chronosequence of tropical forest restoration in Southeastern Brazil

“…Only in Brazil, 21.1 Mha of forests must be restored as legal a requirement (Soares-Filho et al, 2014). The shifts in composition and structure of vegetation during secondary succession through natural regeneration and forest restoration are fairly well-known, but knowledge associated with changes in soil macrofauna is still limited.…”

Análise De Conflitos No Uso Do Solo Em Apps: O Uso De Sensoriamento Remoto No Entorno De Um Sistema Estuarino Lagunar

“…O fato é que as mudanças no atual Código Florestal do Brasil seguiram a linha deliberativa, isso fez reduzir a área total a ser restaurado a partir de 50 ± 6 para 21 ± 1 milhão de ha (SOARES-FILHO et al, 2014).…”

“…Entretanto, as políticas ambientais vêm sofrendo grandes pressões de setores agrícolas. As discussões surgidas na criação do atual e principal instrumento legal relativo às políticas ambientais no Brasil, a lei florestal, é um bom exemplo desta pressão (METZGER et al, 2010;SOARES-FILHO et al, 2014). Essas ações efetivas fazem o Brasil retroceder e arriscar sua posição política de liderança ambiental por decisões que vão contra as políticas globais (SCARANO et al, 2012;BERNARD et al, 2014;LOYOLA, 2014).…”