O desmatamento está se acelerando na Amazônia brasileira?

Abstract

IRecent studies suggest that deforestation rates in the Brazilian Amazon could increase sharply in the future as a result of over $40 billion in planned investments in highway paving and major new infrastructure projects in the region. These studies have been challenged by several Brazilian ministries, which assert that recent improvements in environmental laws, enforcement, and public attitudes have fundamentally reduced the threat posed to forests by such projects. We tested the notion that hazards to Amazonian forests have declined over the last decade by assessing available data on yr ). Moreover, correlation and regression analyses reveal that both absolute and per-capita rates of forest loss accelerated significantly over the last decade. These trends fail to support the assertion that deforestation pressure in Amazonian forests has been brought under control. We suggest that poor enforcement of existing environmental laws, rapidly expanding logging and mining industries, increasing population pressure, and other challenges are greatly hindering efforts to limit the environmental impacts of development activities in Brazilian Amazonia.

Toward a Policy of Sustainable Forest Management in Brazil

“…Until 2005, deforestation levels increased rather steadily. Laurance, albernaz, and da Costa (2002) show that although deforestation rates (absolute and per capita) declined slightly in the first few years of the 1990s compared with the period 1978 to 1989, they returned to historically high levels between 1995 and 2005. Variations in deforestation rates between years appear to be correlated with macroeconomic factors.…”

“…Variations in deforestation rates between years appear to be correlated with macroeconomic factors. For example, the relatively lower levels of deforestation between 1991 and 1994 are likely associated with the freezing of bank accounts that occurred the previous year, thus constraining investment and economic activity (Laurance et al, 2002). The drastic increase in 1995 is hypothesized to be a response to the increase in investment funds available due to stabilization measures contained in the Plano Real (Fearnside, 1999, cited in Laurance et al, 2002.…”

A Incorporação das Dimensões Sociais e Ambientais no Novo Marco Regulatório da Mineração sob a Ótica da Gestão Social

“…No entanto, desde suas origens, a atividade de mineração caracterizou-se por "ações predatórias dos jazimentos, agressão violenta ao meio ambiente, imprevidente desequilíbrio que causava desabastecimento e, consequentemente, ciclos de fome que castigavam os pioneiros da mineração" (SILVA, 1995, p. 77). Nesse sentido, diversas pesquisas revelam os impactos da mineração no meio ambiente (SANTOS et al, 1995;LAURANCE;ALBERNAZ;COSTA, 2002;PEIXOTO;LIMA, 2004;MONTEIRO, 2005;MECHI;SANCHES, 2010). A contaminação da água e do ar, supressão da vegetação e alteração de ecossistemas são alguns impactos que afetam todas as dimensões do meio ambiente, incluindo, assim, a saúde humana (MECHI;SANCHES, 2010 Para Keinert (2007), a noção do que é público é resultado: "a) do entrelaçamento Estado-Sociedade, como espaço de mediação; b) do modelo de gestão pública, como espaço de organização e distribuição dos recursos públicos" (KEINERT, 2007, p. 73).…”

Rapid survey of the herpetofauna in an area of forest management in eastern Acre, Brazil

“…Currently the deforestation rates in the Brazilian Amazon are measured by the "Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais" (INPE), with visual interpretation of Landsat images through the Amazon Deforestation Project (PRODES; INPE 2009). These data are considered scientifically sound, though underestimated (Laurance et al 2002), since the method does not detect other human activities such as changes that cause loss of forest canopy, such as superficial fires, edge effects, hunting, small scale mining and selective logging (Cochrane et al 1999; Nepstad et al 1999).…”

“…Currently the deforestation rates in the Brazilian Amazon are measured by the "Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais" (INPE), with visual interpretation of Landsat images through the Amazon Deforestation Project (PRODES; INPE 2009). These data are considered scientifically sound, though underestimated (Laurance et al 2002), since the method does not detect other human activities such as changes that cause loss of forest canopy, such as superficial fires, edge effects, hunting, small scale mining and selective logging (Cochrane et al 1999; Nepstad et al 1999).Timber exploitation is the most popular and profitable use of forest (Azevedo-Ramos et al 2005) and has a significant effect on the biological functioning of the forest (Malhi et al 2008). Industrial logging has been dramatically increasing in the Amazon , with expansion rates of 12,000-20,000 km 2 .year -1 , a value that is very similar to deforestation rates (Malhi et al 2008).…”