scholarly journals Defending public interests in private lands: compliance, costs and potential environmental consequences of the Brazilian Forest Code in Mato Grosso

2013 ◽  
Vol 368 (1619) ◽  
pp. 20120160 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claudia M. Stickler ◽  
Daniel C. Nepstad ◽  
Andrea A. Azevedo ◽  
David G. McGrath
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Net Present Value ◽  
Regulatory Compliance ◽  
Economic Benefits ◽  
Agricultural Landscapes ◽  
Conservation Strategies ◽  
Forest Governance ◽  
Private Lands ◽  
Mato Grosso ◽  
Forest Code

Land-use regulations are a critical component of forest governance and conservation strategies, but their effectiveness in shaping landholder behaviour is poorly understood. We conducted a spatial and temporal analysis of the Brazilian Forest Code (BFC) to understand the patterns of regulatory compliance over time and across changes in the policy, and the implications of these compliance patterns for the perceived costs to landholders and environmental performance of agricultural landscapes in the southern Amazon state of Mato Grosso. Landholdings tended to remain in compliance or not according to their status at the beginning of the study period. The perceived economic burden of BFC compliance on soya bean and beef producers (US$3–5.6 billion in net present value of the land) may in part explain the massive, successful campaign launched by the farm lobby to change the BFC. The ecological benefits of compliance (e.g. greater connectivity and carbon) with the BFC are diffuse and do not compete effectively with the economic benefits of non-compliance that are perceived by landholders. Volatile regulation of land-use decisions that affect billions in economic rent that could be captured is an inadequate forest governance instrument; effectiveness of such regulations may increase when implemented in tandem with positive incentives for forest conservation.

scholarly journals Assessing the bird guild patterns in heterogeneous land use types around Jammu, Jammu and Kashmir, India

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Asha Sohil ◽  
Neeraj Sharma
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Natural Habitat ◽  
Habitat Preferences ◽  
Ecological Integrity ◽  
Bird Species ◽  
Agricultural Landscapes ◽  
Conservation Strategies ◽  
Feeding Guilds ◽  
Guild Structure ◽  
Jammu And Kashmir

Abstract Land-use sprawl in the Himalayas has caused the conversion of natural habitat into human-modified habitats, thus degrading ecosystem health. Adaptation of birds to changing physical environment can be well understood by analyzing their habitat preferences, and foraging dynamics explored to a limited extent in the Himalayan region, as yet. To achieve a comprehensive understanding of avian guild structure, we used multivariate statistical techniques to classify bird species according to their similarities in foraging patterns and habitat preferences. Observations based on habitat and diet affinities accounted for rich avian diversity with a total of 208 bird species (about 15% of country’s avifauna) recorded from six different sites during 1 year survey. Unweighted pair-group average cluster analysis performed on the families revealed ten feeding and fifteen habitat guilds among 63 bird families observed. Subtropical forests harbored more species followed by urban forests and agricultural landscapes. Insectivorous and omnivorous outnumbered other feeding guilds in the study area. Bird assemblages were richer in protected areas and semi-disturbed landscapes and did not show significant variation between the seasons. Results of the study revealed that different functional groups of birds behaved differently, primarily induced by choice of food. The site heterogeneity favored avifaunal persistence by providing favorable foraging, roosting, and nesting opportunities to birds. Composition of avian guilds indicated level of intactness and ecological integrity of ecosystems studied. This outcome thus sets the background for long-term analysis of bird-habitat relationship and their foraging dynamics. The study has the relevance for decision-makers to integrate avian guild structure as an essential ingredient in formulating conservation strategies.

scholarly journals AGRICULTURAL APTITUDE OF LANDS AND CONFLICTING USES IN PERMANENT PRESERVATION AREAS OF RIBEIRÃO JACOBINA BASIN IN CÁCERES / MATO GROSSO STATE, BRAZIL

GEOGRAFIA ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 42 (3) ◽  
pp. 41-56
Author(s):  
Larissa Espinosa de FREITAS ◽  
Sandra Mara Alves da Silva NEVES ◽  
Maria Cândida Moitinho NUNES ◽  
Milson Evaldo SERAFIM ◽  
Diego Galvão de PAULA
Keyword(s):  
Water Quality ◽  
Land Use ◽  
Land Cover ◽  
Agricultural Activities ◽  
Land Use Land Cover ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Mato Grosso ◽  
Land Use Conflicts ◽  
Forest Code ◽  
Water Resources Protection

The expansion of agricultural activities in areas of high environmental sensitivity results in negative effects on the environment. The objective of this work is to evaluate by geo-technologies the agricultural aptitude of lands and the conflicts of use in Permanent Preservation Areas (PPAs) along rivers and springs in the Ribeirão Jacobina Basin in Cáceres municipality / Mato Grosso State. Using a Geographic Information System, it was possible to intersect those maps referring to soil classes, relief, agricultural aptitude, land use/land cover. The Brazilian Forest Code and its determinations were used as basis for the evaluation of land use conflicts in PPAs. It was verified that 67.47% of the territory of the basin is suitable for livestock/agricultural activities. There are conflicts of land use in areas with occurrence of Humic Cambisols, Haplic Luvisols and Litholic Neosols in hilly relief with predominance of livestock. Land use/land cover within the APPs, demonstrated that 1,802 hectares of the basin correspond to areas of water resources protection, and from this total, 459 hectares are being used for livestock activities and 23 hectares for reforestation, and there are conflicts between current use and current legislation. It was concluded that work is needed to recover PPAs in the basin, aiming at maintaining water quality and availability

scholarly journals Heterogenization of remaining biodiversity in fragmented tropical forests across agricultural landscapes

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cristina Yuri Vidal ◽  
Diogo Souza Bezerra Rocha ◽  
Marinez Ferreira de Siqueira ◽  
Ricardo Ribeiro Rodrigues ◽  
Tadeu Siqueira
Keyword(s):  
Species Richness ◽  
Protected Areas ◽  
Tropical Forests ◽  
Agricultural Landscapes ◽  
Conservation Strategies ◽  
Southeastern Brazil ◽  
Forest Fragments ◽  
Long Term Effects ◽  
Private Lands ◽  
Β Diversity

AbstractThe increasing worldwide interest on the conservation of tropical forests reflects the conversion of over 50% of their area into agricultural lands and other uses. Understanding the distribution of remaining biodiversity across agricultural landscapes is an essential task to guide future conservation strategies. To understand the long-term effects of fragmentation on biodiversity, we investigated whether forest fragments in southeastern Brazil are under a taxonomic homogenization or heterogenization process. We estimated pre-deforestation species richness and composition based on a Species Distribution Modelling approach, and compared them to the observed patterns of α- and β-diversity. In particular, we asked (i) if changes in β-diversity reveal convergence or divergence on species composition; (ii) if these changes are similar between forest fragments in Strictly Protected Areas (SPAs) (n=20) and within private lands (n=367) and in different regions of the state (West, Center, and Southeast). We detected steep reductions in observed local species richness in relation to our modeled predictions, and this was particularly true among forest fragments in non-protected private lands. The higher observed β diversity indicated an overall biotic heterogenization process, consistent with the idea that the originally diverse vegetation is now reduced to small and isolated patches, with unique disturbance histories and impoverished communities derived from a large regional species pool. Since conservation of biodiversity extends beyond the boundaries of strictly Protected Areas, we advocate forest fragments are valuable for conservation in agricultural landscapes, with particular relevance for private lands, which represent the most exposed and neglected share of what is left.

Economic benefits of establishing honeybee hives on solar parks in agricultural landscapes

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alona Armstrong ◽  
Lauren Brown ◽  
Gemma Davies ◽  
Duncan Whyatt ◽  
Simon Potts
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Land Use ◽  
Renewable Energy ◽  
Crop Yields ◽  
Energy System ◽  
Economic Benefits ◽  
Agricultural Landscapes ◽  
Potential Contribution ◽  
Ecosystem Impacts ◽  
Field Crops

<p>To mitigate climate change, land take for renewable energy is accelerating at a time of increasing land use pressure and environmental degradation. Given land use change is the dominant driver of nature decline, over and above that of climate change, inclusion of local ecosystem consequences of land take for renewable energy decisions is critical. However, consideration of ecosystem impacts is hindered by lack of understanding and robust quantification methodologies. Here, we quantify the economic benefits of installing honeybee hives in solar parks by estimating the potential contribution to crop yields. We estimated that if honeybee hives were installed in all existing solar parks within England, pollination service benefits for pollinator dependent field crops, top fruits and soft fruit would have been £5.9 million in 2017, grounded in honeybee pollination crop values of £4.81-£75.04 ha<sup>-1</sup> for field crops and £635-£10,644 ha<sup>-1</sup> for fruit. If crop distributions were optimised to maximise solar park honeybee pollination, economic benefits could reach up to £80 million per year. However, this indicative of the maximum possible return and is unlikely to be viable given the other factors that influence crop distribution. Quantification of ecosystem co-benefits and costs of land take for renewable energy could inform location and management decisions, with the potential to improve ecosystem health in addition to energy system decarbonisation.</p>

scholarly journals Limits of Brazil’s Forest Code as a means to end illegal deforestation

2017 ◽  
Vol 114 (29) ◽  
pp. 7653-7658 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea A. Azevedo ◽  
Raoni Rajão ◽  
Marcelo A. Costa ◽  
Marcelo C. C. Stabile ◽  
Marcia N. Macedo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Financial Incentives ◽  
Forest Restoration ◽  
Economic Benefits ◽  
Sustainable Land Use ◽  
Mato Grosso ◽  
Full Compliance ◽  
Forest Code ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Over Time

The 2012 Brazilian Forest Code governs the fate of forests and savannas on Brazil’s 394 Mha of privately owned lands. The government claims that a new national land registry (SICAR), introduced under the revised law, could end illegal deforestation by greatly reducing the cost of monitoring, enforcement, and compliance. This study evaluates that potential, using data from state-level land registries (CAR) in Pará and Mato Grosso that were precursors of SICAR. Using geospatial analyses and stakeholder interviews, we quantify the impact of CAR on deforestation and forest restoration, investigating how landowners adjust their behaviors over time. Our results indicate rapid adoption of CAR, with registered properties covering a total of 57 Mha by 2013. This suggests that the financial incentives to join CAR currently exceed the costs. Registered properties initially showed lower deforestation rates than unregistered ones, but these differences varied by property size and diminished over time. Moreover, only 6% of registered producers reported taking steps to restore illegally cleared areas on their properties. Our results suggest that, from the landowner's perspective, full compliance with the Forest Code offers few economic benefits. Achieving zero illegal deforestation in this context would require the private sector to include full compliance as a market criterion, while state and federal governments develop SICAR as a de facto enforcement mechanism. These results are relevant to other tropical countries and underscore the importance of developing a policy mix that creates lasting incentives for sustainable land-use practices.

scholarly journals Conserving predators across agricultural landscapes in Colombia: habitat use and space partitioning by jaguars, pumas, ocelots and jaguarundis

Oryx ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 54 (4) ◽  
pp. 554-563 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valeria Boron ◽  
Panteleimon Xofis ◽  
Andres Link ◽  
Esteban Payan ◽  
Joseph Tzanopoulos
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Habitat Use ◽  
Oil Palm ◽  
Agricultural Landscape ◽  
Agricultural Landscapes ◽  
Conservation Strategies ◽  
Space Partitioning ◽  
Natural Habitats ◽  
Positive Effect ◽  
Felid Species

AbstractLoss and degradation of natural habitats continue to increase across the tropics as a result of agricultural expansion. Consequently, there is an urgent need to understand their effects, and the distribution and habitat requirements of wildlife within human-modified landscapes, to support the conservation of threatened species, such as felids. We combined camera trapping and land cover data into occupancy models to study the habitat use and space partitioning by four sympatric felid species in an agricultural landscape in Colombia. Land use in the area includes cattle ranching and oil palm cultivation, the latter being an emerging land use type in the Neotropics. Factors determining species occupancy were the presence of wetlands for jaguars (positive effect); water proximity for pumas (positive effect); and presence of pastures for ocelots and jaguarundis (negative effect). Only ocelots were occasionally recorded in oil palm areas. Our results suggest that to align development with the conservation of top predators it is crucial to maintain areas of forest and wetland across agricultural landscapes and to restrict agricultural and oil palm expansion to modified areas such as pastures, which are of limited conservation value. Because there is no spatial segregation between the felid species we studied, conservation strategies that benefit all of them are possible even in modified landscapes.

scholarly journals Toward a Dualistic Growth? Population Increase and Land-Use Change in Rome, Italy

Land ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (7) ◽  
pp. 749
Author(s):  
Leonardo Bianchini ◽  
Gianluca Egidi ◽  
Ahmed Alhuseen ◽  
Adele Sateriano ◽  
Sirio Cividino ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Land Use Change ◽  
Population Growth ◽  
Mediterranean Basin ◽  
Urban Expansion ◽  
Arable Land ◽  
Central Italy ◽  
Agricultural Landscapes ◽  
Population Increase ◽  
Per Capita

The spatial mismatch between population growth and settlement expansion is at the base of current models of urban growth. Empirical evidence is increasingly required to inform planning measures promoting urban containment in the context of a stable (or declining) population. In these regards, per-capita indicators of land-use change can be adopted with the aim at evaluating long-term sustainability of urbanization processes. The present study assesses spatial variations in per-capita indicators of land-use change in Rome, Central Italy, at five years (1949, 1974, 1999, 2008, and 2016) with the final objective of quantifying the mismatch between urban expansion and population growth. Originally specialized in agricultural productions, Rome’s metropolitan area is a paradigmatic example of dispersed urban expansion in the Mediterranean basin. By considering multiple land-use dynamics, per-capita indicators of landscape change delineated three distinctive waves of growth corresponding with urbanization, suburbanization, and a more mixed stage with counter-urbanization and re-urbanization impulses. By reflecting different socioeconomic contexts on a local scale, urban fabric and forests were identified as the ‘winner’ classes, expanding homogeneously over time at the expense of cropland. Agricultural landscapes experienced a more heterogeneous trend with arable land and pastures declining systematically and more fragmented land classes (e.g., vineyards and olive groves) displaying stable (or slightly increasing) trends. The continuous reduction of per-capita surface area of cropland that’s supports a reduced production base, which is now insufficient to satisfy the rising demand for fresh food at the metropolitan scale, indicates the unsustainability of the current development in Rome and more generally in the whole Mediterranean basin, a region specialized traditionally in (proximity) agricultural productions.

Importance of meteorological and land use parameters for insect diversity in agricultural landscapes

2021 ◽  
pp. 148159
Author(s):  
Jakub Horák ◽  
Patrik Rada ◽  
Ludwig Lettenmaier ◽  
Michal Andreas ◽  
Petr Bogusch ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Agricultural Landscapes ◽  
Insect Diversity

scholarly journals Historical Changes in Land Use and Suitability for Future Agriculture Expansion in Western Bahia, Brazil

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. 1088
Author(s):  
Fernando Martins Pimenta ◽  
Allan Turini Speroto ◽  
Marcos Heil Costa ◽  
Emily Ane Dionizio
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Land Cover ◽  
Land Suitability ◽  
Agricultural Area ◽  
Landsat Images ◽  
Historical Changes ◽  
Cropland Area ◽  
Irrigated Area ◽  
Agriculture Expansion ◽  
Forest Code

Western Bahia is a critical region in Brazil’s recent expansion of agricultural output. Its outstanding increase in production is associated with strong growth in cropland area and irrigation. Here we present analyses of Western Bahian historical changes in land use, including irrigated area, and suitability for future agricultural expansion that respects permanent protection areas and the limits established by the Brazilian Forest Code in the Cerrado biome. For this purpose, we developed a land use and land cover classification database using a random forest classifier and Landsat images. A spatial multicriteria decision analysis to evaluate land suitability was performed by combining this database with precipitation and slope data. We demonstrate that between 1990 and 2020, the region’s total agricultural area increased by 3.17 Mha and the irrigated area increased by 193,480 ha. Throughout the region, the transition between the different classes of land use and land cover followed different pathways and was strongly influenced by land suitability and also appears to be influenced by Brazil’s new Forest Code of 2012. We conclude that even if conservation restrictions are considered, agricultural area could nearly double in the region, with expansion possible mostly in areas we classify as moderately suitable for agriculture, which are subject to climate hazards when used for rainfed crops but are otherwise fine for pastures and irrigated croplands.

scholarly journals Analysis of spatiotemporal changes of agricultural land after the Second World War in Czechia

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Vít Zelinka ◽  
Johana Zacharová ◽  
Jan Skaloš
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Agricultural Land ◽  
Population Change ◽  
Temporal Analysis ◽  
Second World War ◽  
Agricultural Landscapes ◽  
German Population ◽  
World War ◽  
Landscape Type ◽  
Second World

AbstractThe term Sudetenland refers to large regions of the former Czechoslovakia that had been dominated by Germans. German population was expelled directly after the Second World War, between 1945 and 1947. Almost three million people left large areas in less than two years. This population change led to a break in the relationship between the people and the landscape. The aim of the study is to compare the trajectories of these changes in agricultural landscapes in lower and higher altitudes, both in depopulated areas and areas with preserved populations. This study included ten sites in the region of Northern Bohemia in Czechia (18,000 ha in total). Five of these sites represent depopulated areas, and the other five areas where populations remained preserved. Changes in the landscape were assessed through a bi-temporal analysis of land use change by using aerial photograph data from time hoirzons of 2018 and 1953. Land use changes from the 1950s to the present are corroborated in the studied depopulated and preserved areas mainly by the trajectory of agricultural land to forest. The results prove that both population displacement and landscape type are important factors that affect landscape changes, especially in agricultural landscapes.

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