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Ecological fiscal transfers (EFT) transfer public revenue between governments within a country based on ecological indicators. EFT can compensate subnational governments for the costs of conserving ecosystems and in principle can incentivize greater ecological conservation. We review established EFT in Brazil, Portugal, France, China and India, and emerging or proposed EFT in ten more countries. We analyse common themes related to EFT emergence, design and effects. EFT have grown rapidly from US$0.35 billion yr−1 in 2007 to US$23 billion yr−1 in 2020. We discuss the scope of opportunity to expand EFT to other countries by ‘greening’ intergovernmental fiscal transfers. The transfer of public funds between governments within a country based on ecological indicators is an emerging tool in environmental policy. A review of extant and proposed schemes identifies challenges and opportunities to expand the use of this instrument.

In international debates on climate change mitigation and forests, there is increased recognition of the importance of a landscape approach to effectively address tropical deforestation. Such an approach, although increasingly promoted, remains only loosely defined and requires further development in order to effectively integrate different interventions at landscape level. In particular, it is important to understand the possible interactions between different landscape interventions at local level—where they are intended to have effect—and the challenges associated with them. Inspired by the complexity of policy mix analysis, this article seeks to shed light on these interactions by analysing how different policies and measures for reducing deforestation and degradation have played out in a jurisdiction with wide-ranging actors and interventions aimed at shaping their behaviour. Focusing on smallholders, we examine the Sustainable Landscapes Pilot Programme in São Félix do Xingu, looking at how different policies interact—categorising interactions as “complementary,” “mutually reinforcing” (synergistic), “in conflict,” “interdependent,” and/or “redundant”—and explain how proponents of this pilot programme seek to integrate them. Most analysis is based on primary data collected through quantitative (i.e., random stratified sampling and surveys) and qualitative (i.e., observation and focus groups) methods. The São Félix do Xingu case shows that understanding effects of different policies and measures on people's behaviour requires a deeper look at local perceptions and reactions to such policies and measures, something most studies on the topic have overlooked. Ultimately, the heterogeneity and complexity of social practices that permeate landscapes must be recognised in order to integrate diverse measures to reduce deforestation.

Land tenure and carbon rights constitute critical issues to take into account in achieving emission reductions, ensuring transparent benefit sharing and determining non-permanence (or non-compliance) liabilities in the context of REDD+ strategies and projects. This is so because tenure systems influence who becomes involved in efforts to avoid deforestation and improve forest management, and that land tenure, carbon rights and liabilities may be linked or divorced with implications for rural development. This paper explores these issues by looking at tenure regimes and carbon rights issues in Mexico, Brazil and Costa Rica. It is effectively shown that complex bundles of rights over forest resources have distinct implications for REDD+ design and implementation, and that REDD+ strategies in selected countries have to date failed in procedurally addressing land-use conflicts and carbon rights entitlements and liabilities.

A governança ambiental é peça-chave para atingir a Agenda 2030 da Organização das Nações Unidas (ONU). Este artigo explora o potencial do Brasil de aproximar-se dos Objetivos do Desenvolvimento Sustentável (ODS) da Agenda 2030. Para tanto, apresenta seus avanços e retrocessos, em particular após a Constituição Federal de 1988 enfocando: licenciamento ambiental; vegetação nativa; recursos pesqueiros; recursos hídricos; unidades de conservação; e mudanças climáticas. Concluímos o artigo apontando que os retrocessos impostos ao sistema de governança ambiental na última década, e principalmente no último ano, indicam que o país caminha em direção oposta ao futuro almejado pela Agenda 2030.

The Brazilian Amazon forest is tremendously important for its ecosystem services but attribution of economically measurable values remains scarce. Mapping these values is essential for designing conservation strategies that suitably combine regional forest protection with sustainable forest use. We estimate spatially explicit economic values for a range of ecosystem services provided by the Brazilian Amazon forest, including food production (Brazil nut), raw material provision (rubber and timber), greenhouse gas mitigation (CO2 emissions) and climate regulation (rent losses to soybean, beef and hydroelectricity production due to reduced rainfall). Our work also includes the mapping of biodiversity resources and of rent losses to timber production by fire-induced degradation. Highest values range from US$56.72 ± 10 ha−1 yr−1 to US$737 ± 134 ha−1 yr−1 but are restricted to only 12% of the remaining forest. Our results, presented on a web platform, identify regions where high ecosystem services values cluster together as potential information to support decision-making. This study spatially maps the economic value of some major ecosystem services provided by the Brazilian Amazon. It also estimates changes in these values under scenarios of degradation and low-impact logging.

Highlights At this moment of profound ecological and health crises, there is an urgent call for a fundamental rethinking of hegemonic anthropocentric attitudes. Recent responses to the COVID-19 pandemic have unleashed debates in the scientific and policy arenas on conservation, human-nature relations, animal rights, and efforts to alleviate global poverty among forest-dependent peoples. In this perspective article we seek to make sense out of the ensuing debate and consider possible solutions. We couch this debate first off as a question of who is invading whom? The most serious pandemics in recorded history have their causes rooted in unsustainable anthropic intervention on land and biodiversity. With the world on lockdown, rapid social changes have increased the opportunities to re-think human-nature relations. We argue that transitioning from the current crises demand that we first renew our relationship with nature, recognizing interdependence and finding ways to cushion the overwhelming pressures of teeming humanity while we adapt to nature's response in the guise of a pandemic. We show examples of different cultures in the Amazon that could inspire a future rooted in a respectful and intuitive relationship with the natural world. We discuss the possibilities of how to get there considering the current threatening scenario to the indigenous peoples of the Amazon. We conclude by showing that in the process of transitioning from the current crises we may enable a relational cosmopolitics, where humans and other-than-humans are no longer seen as being in opposition but rather as interdependent.

Recent research on deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon has rarely included empirical observation of how land managers perceive and respond to forest governance rules. In this case study, we consider how two decades of pilot projects for integrated conservation and sustainable development (ICDPs) variously influenced forest governance across three agrarian reform settlements in northwestern Mato Grosso state. The analysis combines: i) remote sensing of deforestation from 1997–2015; ii) land use and economic data for individual settler farms and cooperatives; iii) settlers' perceptions regarding legitimacy and relevance of state policies, including land use regulations under the Brazilian Forest Code. Deforestation across settlements varied in association with synergies – or lack thereof – between policy instruments and socially embedded rules organizing economic alternatives to the dominant regional pattern of cattle ranching. In two of the settlements deforestation surpassed or was approaching 80% of their total area. In the third settlement deforestation stabilized at 45%, corresponding with the initiation of ICDP support for a pilot project focused on Brazil nut extractivism to consolidate community management of the settlement's collective forest reserve. The latter process involved a ‘policy mix’ or sequence of overlapping components: technical assistance, cooperative organization, environmental licensing, infrastructure, equitable contracts with surrounding indigenous communities and market development. Comparing with the two counterfactual cases, we suggest a framework for analysis of systemic socio-ecological change in settlements in the Brazilian Amazon, and reconsider the role of ICDPs in landscape approaches to environmental governance in tropical forests. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment

Ecological fiscal transfers in Brazil, the so-called ICMS-Ecologico or ICMS-E, redistribute part of the state-level value-added tax revenues on the basis of ecological indicators to local governments. We analyze whether the introduction of this economic instrument in a state offers incentives to municipal responses in terms of further protected area (PA) designation. We provide a microeconomic model for the functioning of ICMS-E and test the derived hypothesis empirically. Employing an econometric analysis on panel data for two decades we estimate the correlation of the introduction of ICMS-E in Brazilian states with PA coverage. We find that the introduction of ICMS-E correlates with a higher average PA share. While the introduction of ICMS-E schemes may be a compensation for a high share of federal and state PA, we also find an incentive effect for municipalities to designate additional PA. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment

Reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD+) in tropical countries is an important and contested element of the post-Kyoto climate regime. For policy options which generate controversy between diverse actor groups, such as REDD+, mass media plays an important role in defining and supporting policy possibilities. Analysis of the way in which national media frames issues of climate change and deforestation can offer insights into the nature of the contested domains of the REDD+ policy process. Here, we examine the Brazilian national media discourses surrounding REDD+ because it contributes to setting the tone of policy debates at the federal level. Specifically, we ask the following: (i) How was REDD+ portrayed in the Brazilian national print media and whose opinions and perceptions were represented? and (ii) How have media frames on REDD+ in the national print media changed over time? Our results contribute with new knowledge for understanding the observed progress of REDD+ in Brazil. We identify two main themes that dominate the focus in the national media coverage of REDD+, specifically “politics and policymaking” (representing half the coverage) and “economics and market” (with over a third). Results show that discussions around carbon markets were amongst the most contested and that optimism in relation to REDD+ effectiveness declined over time. The analysis suggests that positions adopted on the national REDD+ strategy were shaped by state and federal collision of interests. We demonstrate an evolution of national concerns from an initial focus on efficiency (e.g. finance and carbon markets) to a recentred focus on equity issues (e.g. implementation of safeguards). We conclude with some thoughts on the implications of these features for REDD+ interventions and implementation in Brazil.

The Convention on Biological Diversity and the Nagoya Protocol display a broad international consensus for biodiversity conservation and equitable benefit sharing. Yet, the Aichi biodiversity targets show a lack of progress and thus indicate a need for additional action such as enhanced and better targeted financial resource mobilization. To date, no global financial burden‐sharing instrument has been proposed. Developing a global‐scale financial mechanism to support biodiversity conservation through intergovernmental transfers, we simulate three allocation designs: ecocentric, socioecological, and anthropocentric. We analyze the corresponding incentives needed to reach the Aichi target of terrestrial protected area coverage by 2020. Here we show that the socioecological design would provide the strongest median incentive for states which are farthest from achieving the target. Our proposal provides a novel concept for global biodiversity financing, which can serve as a starting point for more specific policy dialogues on intergovernmental burden and benefit‐sharing mechanisms to halt biodiversity loss.

Inadequacies of the current agriculture and food systems are recognised globally in the form of damages to environment and human health. In addition, the prevailing economic and policy systems do not reflect these damages in its accounting systems and standards. These shortcomings lead to perverse and pervasive outcomes for society at large. Our proposal is to consider all social and environmental externalities – both negative and positive, in global agriculture and food systems and reflect them in an economic system by evaluating comprehensive costs and benefits. This can be done by adopting an innovative, universal, and inclusive framework (the ‘TEEBAgriFood’ framework) in order to stimulate appropriate policy responses. Refereed/Peer-reviewed

The Brazilian agricultural sector is a major source of greenhouse gas emissions, but climate-smart practices combined with degraded land restoration can result in a more resilient landscape contributing to integrated climate change mitigation and adaptation efforts. The Sustainable Rural Development Program of Rio de Janeiro (RIO RURAL) has been supporting the transition of degraded rural areas to sustainable productive systems by providing technical assistance and incentives to small-scale family farmers. RIO RURAL promotes reforestation and sustainable agriculture practices, which can boost productivity as well as carbon stocks in the agricultural landscape. Using estimates of carbon mitigation potential for such practices, we identified methodologies eligible for certification in the voluntary markets. We estimated transaction, implementation, and certification costs and calculated potential revenues associated with RIO RURAL’s activities. This did not only allow us to discuss the constraints and identify opportunities and co-benefits from RIO RURAL’s contribution to climate mitigation, adaptation, and environmental integrity but also to food security as it targets family farms. We propose a bundling approach to carbon, where multiple benefits are measured and certified including water, food systems, as well as social and cultural benefits. This would allow accessing resources from both mitigation and adaptation programs in addition to markets that value ecosystem integrity as well as water and food security.

This chapter reviews the evolution of state policies and institutions responsible for land use policy and conservation incentives to landowners in Rio de Janeiro, with emphasis on the areas involved in implementing agro-environmental programs. We refer to some of the efforts underway to create private patrimony reserves, biological corridors, and PES instruments based on water resource protection and sustainable land use practices. We discuss the impacts of those policy interventions on regional efforts to motivate landscape protection and restoration along with possible alternatives. The discussion is couched within the framework of national and global debates regarding participatory landscape management and poverty amelioration in developing countries.

O Brasil é geralmente considerado como ator soberano essencial para envolver nos esforços de atingir os objetivos globais de conservação da biodiversidade, mesmo se for unicamente devido à proporção da biodiversidade terrestre que cabe dentro das suas fronteiras, em grande medida divido à hospedagem da área mais extensa de florestal tropical no mundo. Tal importância leva, inevitavelmente, ao surgimento de certa mitologia sobre a proteção da biodiversidade no Brasil, com respeito ao volume insuficiente dos recursos alocados e a necessidade de ações governamentais mais eficazes dedicadas a tais objetivos no país. Este trabalho busca expor alguns destes mitos e relacioná-los às falhas de políticas públicas que impedem o alcance de uma “governança verde”. Tais falhas incluem, entre exemplos discutidos, a falta de destinar receitas existentes para este propósito, assim como o desempenho fraco na utilização de incentivos pelo setor agropecuário para alavancar investimentos complementares na gestão do uso do solo por atores privados.

This interdisciplinary article draws from the radical ideas of global political ecology (GPE), environmental politics, ecological economics and the sociological analysis of social movements. It seeks to help bridge the research gap regarding non-state actors' (NSAs) influence on the role of the nation-state and the United Nations in global political ecology and environmental policy, including emission reductions, such as antideforestation measures, and environmental justice. We consider NSAs as consisting of two heterogeneous global coalitions: a) civil society organizations (CSOs) and environmental non-governmental organizations, and b) peak corporate organizations with green economy objectives, here denominated green business organizations, representing transnational corporations (TNCs). After a review of prior studies, we present a version of an advocacy coalition framework; identify a timeline of changes in UN architecture and simplified NSA influence categories. We only begin to test very broad hypotheses on relative agency and to compare NSA narratives with UN documents. We show that the architecture of the UN has gradually shifted from favoring civil society to corporations. There is evidence that, in the late 1990s, in comparison with CSOs, TNCs increased their access to nation-states and UN agencies. The TNC narrative changed from a) denying climate change and ignoring the UN to b) recognizing change and guiding negotiations. These shifts in UN architecture, TNC agency and narrative appears to have influenced changes in UN documents towards a corporate global environmental framework, reducing their references to the regulatory and enforcement roles of the state and global binding agreements, shifting global debate towards a voluntary corporate orientation. This may have reduced prospects for reducing emissions and increasing environmental justice. Combining market mechanisms with strong regulatory frameworks is best practice for environmental policy. When nation-states have the will and capacity to command and control, they can reduce environmental degradation. Stronger national government competence and enforcement capacity and binding UN agreements are essential for the effectiveness of market incentives, which may be enhanced by business and civil society initiatives. If CSOs can reunite and regain their strength, maybe they could negotiate with TNCs on a more equal footing. Perhaps UN members could once again become comfortable with the idea of strong states and non-hegemonic global governance. Key words: Global political ecology, Nation-state, earth system governance, UN architecture, UN agency, green economy, non-state actors, UNCED, Rio+20, Climate convention

Pervasive tenure insecurity in developing countries is a key challenge for REDD+. Brazil, a leader in REDD+, has advanced efforts to link forest tenure reform and environmental compliance. We describe how these policies have shaped sub-national interventions with detailed data on land tenure and livelihoods in four REDD+ pilot sites in the Brazilian Amazon. Despite different local contexts, REDD+ proponents have converged on a similar strategy of collaborating with government agencies to clarify tenure and pave the way for a mix of regulatory enforcement and incentive-based REDD+ mechanisms. This polycentric governance model holds promise for effective and equitable REDD+ implementation.

In this commentary we critically discuss the suitability of payments for ecosystem services and the most important challenges they face. While such instruments can play a role in improving environmental governance, we argue that over-reliance on payments as win-win solutions might lead to ineffective outcomes, similar to earlier experience with integrated conservation and development projects. Our objective is to raise awareness, particularly among policy makers and practitioners, about the limitations of such instruments and to encourage a dialogue about the policy contexts in which they might be appropriate.

Este trabalho representa uma atualizacao do perfil do Brasil no contexto global e nacional, relativo a elaboracao e implementacao da estrategia nacional de Reducao de Emissoes de Gases de Efeito Estufa oriundos do Desmatamento e Degradacao Florestal (REDD+), como parte do Estudo Global Comparado REDD+ do CIFOR. Desde de 2007, o Brasil vem desenvolvendo propostas para valorizar as florestas em pe no âmbito da Convencao do Clima. Nesse periodo, os governos federal e estaduais vem adotando politicas publicas direcionadas a reducao do desmatamento, preconizados atraves de diferentes medidas e sucessivas revisoes do Plano de Prevencao do Desmatamento da Amazonia Legal (PPCDAm) desde 2004, resultando num declinio significativo das taxas do desmatamento em 79% entre 2005-2013. Mas o desmatamento ainda representa mais de 5 mil km2 de florestas tropicais por ano. A presente arena politica nacional promove atividades que geram desmatamento, incentivadas em parte pelas alteracoes promovidas no Codigo Florestal em 2012. O estudo descreve os atores, instituicoes e estrategias adotadas ao longo deste periodo, avaliando o contexto da implantacao de REDD+ no pais. Em conclusao, o estudo indica o potencial para atingir uma reducao continua no desmatamento de uma maneira eficiente, eficaz e equitativa, visando atingir a meta de desmatamento ilegal zero assumida pelo pais nos Acordos de Paris em 2015.

The study estimated, for the first time, the greenhouse gas emissions associated with cattle raising in Brazil, focusing on the period from 2003 to 2008 and the three principal sources: 1) portion of deforestation resulting in pasture establishment and subsequent burning of felled vegetation; 2) pasture burning; and 3) bovine enteric fermentation. Deforestation for pasture establishment was only considered for the Amazon and Cerrado. Emissions from pasture burning and enteric fermentation were accounted for the entire country. The consolidated emissions estimate lies between approximately 813 Mt CO2eq in 2008 (smallest value) and approximately 1,090 Mt CO2eq in 2003 (greatest value). The total emissions associated with Amazon cattle ranching ranged from 499 to 775 Mt CO2eq, that of the Cerrado from 229 to 231 Mt CO2eq, and that of the rest of the country between 84 and 87 Mt CO2eq. The full set of emissions originating from cattle raising is responsible for approximately half of all Brazilian emissions (estimated to be approximately 1,055 Mt CO2eq in 2005), even without considering cattle related sources not explicitly estimated in this study, such as energy use for transport and refrigeration along the beef and derivatives supply chain. The potential for reduction of greenhouse gas emissions offered by the Brazilian cattle industry is very high and might constitute Brazil’s most important opportunity for emissions mitigation. The study offers a series of policy recommendations for mitigation that can be implemented by public and private administrators at a low cost relative to other greenhouse gas reduction options.

The recent prolonged drought in Melbourne, Australia has had a deleterious effect on the urban forest, resulting in the premature decline of many mature trees and a consequent decline in the environmental services that trees are able to provide to urban residents. Measuring the severity of tree stress and defoliation due to various climatic factors is essential to the ongoing delivery of environmental services such as shade and carbon sequestration. This study evaluates two methods to assess the vitality of drought stressed Elm trees within an inner-city environment—bark chlorophyll fluorescence measured on large branches and an urban visual vitality index. Study species were Ulmus procera Salisb. (English Elm) and Ulmus × hollandica (Dutch Elm), which are important character and shade tree species for Melbourne. Relationships were identified between leaf water potential and the urban visual vitality index and between leaf water potential and bark chlorophyll fluorescence measured on large branches, indicating that these methods could be used to assess the effect of long-term drought and other stressors on urban trees.

Evaluation and monitoring are critical to agroforestry (AFS) project management, especially if they aim to contribute to use and conservation of biodiversity and plant genetic resources. A methodology to analyze information used in decision-making processes was developed and applied in a biodiversity conservation project in the Brazilian Amazon. Quality of information gathered at landscape, AFS, species (Bactris gasipaes Kunth, both wild and cultivated varieties) and genetic diversity levels in three dimensions was analyzed. The information at the landscape level was good, while that in the organizational-institutional and socio-economic dimensions was acceptable; information gaps were serious in the genetic-ecological dimension. Ecological and economic functionality assessment based on indicators built upon reported administrative actions suggests that information related to conservation played a greater role in decision-making and management than information associated with use and development. The application of the methodology proved instrumental for enhancing efficacy of decision-making within an adaptive management approach to plant genetic resources use and conservation.

The recent accelerated growth rates or efforts to emulate countries that have achieved a rapid pace of economic growth are widely acclaimed as means to uplift millions from poverty. In so doing, however, this rapid economic growth is most likely to coincide with unsustainable levels of consumption, place excessive pressure on life support systems and terrestrial sinks and foreshorten options for the future. Rather than pursuing the “Environmental Kuznets Curve” (EKC) hypothesis that higher income will bring with it the means to reduce the impacts of greater consumption, ecological economists assert that buying our way out of future scarcity with fast growth is indeed contradictory with sustainability. To better understand these contradictions and explore potential institutional innovations that may enable developing nations to better confront them (in effect, “tunneling under” the EKC), this article refers to recent experience in the BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa)...

This paper aims to contribute new insights globally and regionally on how carbon forest mitigation contributes to sustainable development in South America. Carbon finance has emerged as a potential policy option to tackling global climate change, degradation of forests, and social development in poor countries. This paper focuses on evaluating the socioeconomic impacts of a set of forest based mitigation pilot projects that emerged under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The paper reviews research conducted in 2001–2002, drawing from empirical data from four pilot projects, derived from qualitative stakeholder interviews, and complemented by policy documents and literature. Of the four projects studied three are located in frontier areas, where there are considerable pressures for conversion of standing forest to agriculture. In this sense, forest mitigation projects have a substantial role to play in the region. Findings suggest however, that all four projects have experienced cumbersome implementation processes specifically, due to weak social objectives, poor communication, as well as time constraints. In three out of four cases, stakeholders highlighted limited local acceptance at the implementation stages. In the light of these findings, we discuss opportunities for implementation of future forest based mitigation projects in the land use sector.

Key pointsDespite significant efforts towards the coordination of governance related to REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation), it remains a major challenge in Brazil. This challenge is pervasive whether between government levels (as evidenced in the differences in REDD+ perspectives and interests between federal and state governments), civil society or between government and the private sector.Despite their clear mandate to do so, state actors exchange only limited information on REDD+ policy with non-state actors.Domestic NGOs play an important mediating role in the limited REDD+ coordination that does take place.Private-sector actors, one of the main forces driving deforestation and forest degradation, are largely absent from the REDD+ policy domain, and the few who do participate are relatively isolated from other REDD+ policy actors.

For sustainable, equitable nutrition we must count the true global costs and benefits of food production, urge Pavan Sukhdev, Peter May and Alexander Muller.

The prevailing corporate trend regarding development of energy resources in the tropics emphasizes financial gain over long-term societal benefits. Some corporations are beginning to find a competitive advantage linked to proactive relations with host communities and adequate protection of fragile ecosystems. Herein, we describe a case study where an international energy production company worked with stakeholders to achieve social capital and sustainable development. The strategies aimed to strengthen local capacity to improve social welfare and to ensure conservation and wise use of biodiversity. We provide examples, discuss lessons learned and make recommendations for future development projects.

Key lessonsWhile the constitutional rights (e.g. property rights) of indigenous peoples (IP) are strong in Brazil and may help to overcome their vulnerability, they are rarely enforceable and do not offer sufficient safeguards.Informed consultation and a structured free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) process that considers cultural issues are fundamental to ensuring acceptance and consent by IP.Local environmental funds can be a tool for increasing autonomy and decentralization while sharing benefits with IP and financing long-term and specific demands that can change over time.Safeguard strategies implemented by the Amazon Fund to avoid conflicts of interest may result in restrictions on the participation of IP, having implications related to the legitimacy of decision-making in the distribution of benefits.The absence of timely financial flows to meet IP needs may be a considerable risk since it can encourage environmentally damaging activities.Relying on the voluntary market may be risky for IP initiatives because of market instability and possible lack of funding.

This paper surveys the current state of knowledge concerning the value of the Amazon rainforest, including a survey of work to date to quantify changes in economic values when the rainforest cover changes. The focus is on local and regional impacts of forest loss or protection, including both gross values of forest protection and opportunity costs of converting the forest to other uses including agriculture. Important gross value items surveyed are timber and non-timber product extraction from a sustainably maintained rainforest; local values of eco-tourism; biological resources including bio-prospecting; a range of hydrological impacts including watershed protection, hydropower production, and changes in rainfall patterns; and impacts of forest fires and their control. Mapping such values in geographical space is of high value for implementing efficient and effective (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation ) programs for protecting the remaining forest. The current data basis for such mapping is found to be quite weak and in need of improvement for all value elements.

Brazil is a megadiverse country of continental dimension, with a wide range of distinct biomes and aquatic zones and cultural patterns associated with the use (and misuse) of nature. It is simultaneously the world’s largest producer and consumer of tropical timber, for example, and its beef cattle enterprises occupy over 70 % of all land cleared for production, which accounts for half of all tropical deforestation. With rapid loss of remaining biodiversity, conservation must rely increasingly on strategies to integrate biodiversity use and protection into the rural production landscape. The authors here appraise investment opportunities associated with sustainable use of components of biodiversity. Official data on existing uses of non-timber forest product raw materials are valued by the market at less than $500 million/year though they involve several million forest-dwelling people. Only one cosmetics corporation, Natura, has over $2 billion in annual revenues with growing sales based on a biodiversity-friendly image including community investment and equitable distribution of benefits to recognize traditional knowledge. Such business strategies create value but as yet little of these benefits trickle down. The use of native oilseeds and essences in natural cosmetics, for example, has foundered by over-concentration by producers in one or two oilseeds or essences (e.g. Brazil nut oil, rosewood essential oil) that may also result in species extinctions due to overharvest. Strategies proposed for greater integration of biodiversity within regional development processes include the adoption of a territorial perspective in which clusters of interlinked enterprises can achieve more positive feedback on local employment and income distribution by finding uses for a range of biodiversity components rather than specializing in a narrow band of species, technologies, product or service types. Small-scale natural product enterprises are most viable when upward linked with partners at a larger scale and/or have the potential to innovate in diversified product development. Research and development should stimulate entrepreneurial innovation along with basic enterprise capacity building, legal and technical support and certification of sustainable origin.

Under REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) and related initiatives for avoided deforestation, a system of payments may act as an incentive to landowners to retire land that would otherwise be deforested. This study describes how potential socio-environmental benefits of forest conservation in the humid Amazon tropics might be captured from a combination of policy instruments under development aimed at compensating for the conservation of remaining forests through payments for environmental services (PES). Specifically, payments for REDD would be channelled towards the expansion and structuring of a state system of protected areas in Mato Grosso, Brazil. This area of Brazil is responsible for half of all deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon and is thus the largest contributor to global deforestation and CO2 emissions from tropical forest clearing and burning, chiefly due to agricultural and livestock expansion. The study evaluates the potential that reduced deforestation and compensation for legal reserves in new protected areas could be achieved within the context of a proposed state ecological-economic zoning plan. As a case study in the development and appraisal of potential benefits from this combination of policy instruments, the study highlights the political and economic forces that mediate policy effectiveness in this complex arena. It also shows how ecological economics can contribute to the integration of biophysical and socio-economic information and the identification of priority areas for investment. The idea of PES has captured the attention of many actors seeking so-called “win-win” strategies for resource conservation, in which the costs of land retirement or preservation are borne by downstream beneficiaries, who directly or indirectly compensate those who have adopted more appropriate land use practices. Such strategies are not without problems, but as economic instruments, they may be more cost-effective when combined with more generalized command and control measures.

This Editorial presents the focus, scope and policies of the inaugural issue of Nature Conservation, a new open access, peer-reviewed journal bridging natural sciences, social sciences and hands-on applications in conservation management. The journal covers all aspects of nature conservation and aims particularly at facilitating better interaction between scientists and practitioners. The journal will impose no restrictions on manuscript size or the use of colour. We will use an XML-based editorial workflow and several cutting-edge innovations in publishing and information dissemination. These include semantic mark-up of, and enhancements to published text, data, and extensive cross-linking within the journal and to external sources. We believe the journal will make an important contribution to better linking science and practice, offers rapid, peer-reviewed and flexible publication for authors and unrestricted access to content. The journal Nature Conservation was established within the framework of the European Union's Framework Program 7 large-integrated project SCALES: Securing the Conservation of biodiversity across Administrative Levels and spatial, temporal, and Ecological Scales, www.scales-project.net (grant 226852; Henle et al. 2010).

This report provides an overview of the contextual conditions that affect the REDD+ policy environment in the Brazilian Amazon. Based on reviews of existing literature, national and international data, legal opinions and selected expert interviews, it provides the background and the preliminary analysis of the context in which national REDD+ strategies are being developed. This document is organized into 5 main sections. First, it reviews the main forest and land use trends, investigating the main country-specific drivers of deforestation and degradation. The second section reviews major institutional factors linked to governance and rights, with particular emphasis on access rights to forestland and forest resources, as well as on decentralization of governance, which has a crucial role in Brazil's REDD+ strategy. The third section encompasses political-economic factors, depicting the broader context in which drivers of deforestation and degradation operate. The fourth section moves more specifically to the development of national REDD+ policy strategies. The final section then draws on the implications of the preceding sections for prospective REDD+ outcomes by conducting an assessment of the efficiency, efficacy and equity (3Es) of execution of REDD+ strategies

The prevailing corporate trend regarding development of energy resources in the tropics emphasizes financial gain over long-term societal benefits. Some corporations are beginning to find a competitive advantage linked to proactive relations with host communities and adequate protection of fragile ecosystems. Herein, we describe a case study where an international energy production company worked with stakeholders to achieve social capital and sustainable development. The strategies aimed to strengthen local capacity to improve social welfare and to ensure conservation and wise use of biodiversity. We provide examples, discuss lessons learned and make recommendations for future development projects.

Stands of babassu palms (Orbignya martiana) occupy an area of Brazil estimated at nearly 200,000 km2, concentrated in the states of Maranhao, Piaui and Goias. Babassu’s cryptogeal germination, establishing the apical meristem of the plant below ground for its early growth and development, enables it to survive human disturbance, making the palm an integral part of shifting cultivation and pastoral farming systems. People obtain a multitude of products from babassu throughout the palm’s life cycle: leaves are used widely for thatch, basketry, and construction; trunks for palmito and bridges; the fruit for feed, oil and, charcoal. As many as 450,000 subsistence-level households rely on the sale of babassu kernels, used in a regional vegetable oil industry, for an important share of their cash incomes. Deforestation pressures and technological innovation toward an industry based on mechanical processing of whole babassu fruit threaten to reduce benefits the palm provides to the region’s rural poor. Understanding how babassu is used by rural families who depend upon it will help to make current efforts at “domesticating” the palm and whole-fruit processing more responsive to human needs.

This paper outlines the importance of the small-scale extractive sector to extremely impoverished households in rural areas of tropical Brazil. Extractive activities are important as inputs to household reproduction, and are critical as a source of cash income. In the case study we analyze, small-scale extraction was roughly equivalent to wage labor and to agriculture in its contribution to household income. We suggest that in rural development analysis, a significant source of both use and exchange values has been overlooked. This issue is of particular concern for three main reasons. First, the importance of small-scale extraction is more pronounced among the more impoverished. Second, extraction is a major source of cash for women, who are often denied access to alternative means of acquiring income in rural areas. Finally, current rural development programs are actively undermining access to the resources and often imply their destruction. Through a detailed social and ecological analysis of the babas...

Contains fulltext : 90003.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Closed access) This article provides an alternative and novel theoretical approach to the conceptualization and analysis of payments for environmental services (PES). We devote special emphasis to institutional and political economy issues, which have been somewhat neglected in the literature on PES. We argue that the Coasean and pure market approach dominating the conceptualization of PES in the literature cannot be easily generalized and implemented in practice. By contrast, taking into account complexities related to uncertainty, distributional issues, social embeddedness, and power relations permits acknowledging the variety of contexts and institutional settings in which PES operate. The alternative approach presented in this introductory article to the special section may be more appealing to PES practitioners, since while avoiding restrictive and prescriptive standpoints, it allows some key sources of complexities they usually deal with on the ground to be more easily understood.