The 270 million hectares of native vegetation preserved by rural landowners (Legal Reserves and unprotected areas) yield Brazil the equivalent of some U.S. $1.5 trillion per year in ecosystem services, such as crop pollination, pest control, water security, rain production and soil quality maintenance.
The calculation is part of a paper published in the journal Perspectives in Ecology and Conservation and endorsed by 407 scientist signatories, including 371 researchers affiliated with 79 Brazilian institutions.
Paper - Vegetation - Obstacle - Development - Part
"The paper is meant to show that preserving native vegetation isn't an obstacle to social and economic development but part of the solution. It's one of the drivers of sustainable development in Brazil and diverges from what was done in Europe 500 years ago, when the level of environmental awareness was different," said Jean Paul Metzger, professor of landscape ecology and conservation at the University of São Paulo's Institute of Biosciences (IB-USP) and first author of the paper.
The above amount derives from research and analysis conducted to compute the value of ecosystem services and apply it to the 270 million hectares of native vegetation in Brazil's biomes. These estimates are consolidated and have been used for years by experts in the field, including the U.N. Intergovernmental Science Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES).
Paper - Information - Arguments - Forest - Code
"It's an important paper because it presents sound information that can be used to refute the arguments of those who want to change the Brazilian Forest Code and do away with the Legal Reserve requirement," said Carlos Joly, one of the paper's scientist signatories.
Joly is a member of the steering committee for the São Paulo Research Foundation—FAPESP Research Program on Biodiversity Characterization, Conservation, Restoration and Sustainable Use (BIOTA-FAPESP).
Joly - Mind - Distinction - Legal - Reserve
According to Joly, it is important to bear in mind the distinction between a "Legal Reserve" (RL) and a "Permanent Conservation Area" (APP) in Brazilian law. They...
(Excerpt) Read more at: phys.org