São Paulo – On Tuesday afternoon (7th) in the Brazilian capital Brasília, the Brazilian Ministry of the Environment and the United Nations Environment Programme (Unep) presented the results of the study “Contribution of Conservation Units to the National Economy.” Conducted using data from federal government organisations, the report shows the importance of conservation units to the country, not only as a guarantee of environmental preservation, but also as a source of revenues.
The study shows, for instance, that wood production alone at federal and state forests in the Amazon, from areas where the handling follows the forestry concession model, has the potential to generate annual revenues ranging from 1.2 billion to 2.2 billion reals (US$ 757 million to US$ 1.4 billion). That is more than earned at present with all of the native wood extracted in Brazil.
The study takes into consideration the amount of revenues that can be genereated by five goods and services resulting from the conservation units: forestry products, public use, carbon, water and the splitting of tax revenues. At a later stage of the project, the potential in fishing areas and water collection will be evaluated.
Another conclusion of the study is that in catchments and water catchment areas with greater coverage from forests, the cost associated with treating the water is lower than in areas with less forest coverage. Conservation areas are established by the government aiming precisely to protect important natural resources, and are not untouchable. On the contrary, they can generate dividends if well utilized.
The federal government and the state governments are now aware of the costs related to conservation units, but there is still progress to be made. Brazil has the fourth largest extension of conservation units in the world (1,278,190 square kilometres): the first three are the United States (2,607,132 square kilometres), Russia (1,543,466 square kilometres) and China (1,452,693 square kilometres).
It is, however, one of the countries that invest the least in its conservation units, which in turn do not benefit the society as they should: whereas the United States invests 156.12 reals (US$ 98.5) per hectare of conservation units, Brazil invests 4.43 reals (US$ 2.79). Whereas South Africa has one person in charge of managing 1,176 protected hectares, in Brazil, one person is entrusted with protecting 18,600 hectares.
According to the professor at the Federal Rural University of the State of Rio de Janeiro (UFRRJ), Rodrigo Medeiros, one of the merits of this study is to provide the federal and state governments with figures and sizes that will help them manage the conservation units. “Now we will be able to monitor the progress [of projects at conservation units] year-on-year,” claims Medeiros.
In order for conservation units to be able to supply products and services to society, the Ministry of Environment estimates that 550 million reals (US$ 347 million) will be required for the federal system, 350 million reals (US$ 221 million) for state-level systems, 600 million reals (US$ 378 million) will be needed in infrastructure investment and planning on the federal level, and another 1.2 billion reals (US$ 757 million) on the state-level. “The investment pales in comparison with the potential that the units have,” says Medeiros.
In addition to the Ministry of Environment and the Unep, the Institute for Applied Economic Research (Ipea), the British Embassy and International Cooperation also participated in the study’s launch.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
