Brazilian Agriculture and Environmental Legislation: Status and Future Challenges
Artikel i vetenskaplig tidskrift, 2010

Brazilian agriculture covers about one-third of the land area and is expected to expand further We assessed the compliance of present Brazilian agriculture with environmental legislation and identified challenges for agricultural development connected to this legislation We found (i) minor illegal land use in protected areas under public administration, (ii) a large deficit in legal reserves and protected riparian zones on private farmland, and large areas of unprotected natural vegetation in regions experiencing agriculture expansion Achieving full compliance with the environmental laws as they presently stand would require drastic changes in agricultural land use, where large agricultural areas are taken out of production and converted back to natural vegetation The outcome of a full compliance with environmental legislation might not be satisfactory due to leakage, where pristine unprotected areas become converted to compensate for lost production as current agricultural areas are reconverted to protected natural vegetation. Realizing the desired protection of biodiversity and natural vegetation, while expanding agriculture to meet food and biofuel demand, may require a new approach to environmental protection New legal and regulatory instruments and the establishment of alternative development models should be considered

ethanol-production

biofuels

expansion

land-cover change

climate-change

cerrado

sugarcane

deforestation

amazon

prospects

Författare

G. Sparovek

Universidade de Sao Paulo (USP)

Göran Berndes

Chalmers, Energi och miljö, Fysisk resursteori

Israel Klug

Universidade de Sao Paulo (USP)

Agop Barretto

Universidade de Sao Paulo (USP)

Environmental Science & Technology

0013-936X (ISSN) 1520-5851 (eISSN)

Vol. 44 16 6046-6053

Ämneskategorier

Annan naturresursteknik

DOI

10.1021/es1007824

Mer information

Skapat

2017-10-08