GEO Brasil - UNEP

the state of forests
products, mainly by industries in the
region
the state of the environmet in Brazil
3 3
Table 8 - Consumption of industrial timber in logs in B razil - 2000(10 m )
P roduct Native P lanted T otal % native
Cellulose and paper 0 32,000 32,000 0.0
Charcoal 11,800 33,400 45,200 26.1
Industrial wood 16,000 13,000 29,000 55.2
Sawn 34,000 15,100 49,100 69.2
Blade and Plywood 2,050 3,960 6,010 34.1
Restored Panels* 0 5,000 5,000 0.00
T OT A L 63,850 102,460 166,310 38.4
*included: Agglomerate, Fiber Plate and MDF
Source: ABRACAVE, STCP, ABIPA, ABIMCI, BRACELPA, SBS - 2001
T able 9 - P articipation of w ood in the energy matrix and industries
dependent on fores t res ources in four s tates of the N ortheas t R egion -
1993
State
Energy
Matrix (%)
Industry
(%)
Pernambuco 23 –
R.G. do Norte 24 40
Paraíba 41 26
Ceará 32 28
The complementary nature of forest
activities in relation to cattle-raising
activities should also be stressed,
since it is one of the few economic
alternatives that the rural producer has
during drought periods, which are
frequent in the Brazilian Northeast
The diagnosis of the Forest Sector in
the States of Paraíba, Rio Grande do
Norte, Ceará and Pernambuco has
identified a strong relation of
dependence between regional
development and forest resources
Most of the States in the Northeast
Region present a reasonable rate of
forest cover, and they can maintain this
situation for a long time However, the
social effect of this rate is more
worrisome, once 60 percent of the
energy used by the Northeastern
population to cook their food comes
from firewood
Source: Project UNDP/FAO/IBAMA/BRA/87/007 IBAMA - 1998
the remainder still comes from remaining native forests Since this sub-sector’s
industries are largely concentrated in the State of Minas Gerais, it exerts pressure
mainly on native forests in the States of Bahia and Goiás, once the Forest Law in
Minas establishes serious restrictions on the use of firewood material from native
sources
There are no recent studies on the Northeast Region, but data from 1993 show
that firewood and vegetal charcoal are responsible, in average, for 30 percent of
the energy matrix in the States of Pernambuco, Paraíba, Rio Grande do Norte and
Ceará In the State of Paraíba, it is the most used energy source, even more than
electricity and petroleum by-products, accounting for a percentage of 41 percent
of the energy matrix In the States of Ceará, Rio Grande do Norte and Pernambuco,
forest-based energy is second (IBAMA, 1998)
Biomass accounts, in average, for 35 percent of the energy used by the industries
in the states, and firewood is the primary source (Table 9) For that reason, the
future situation of the trade balance in the region’s states is alarming, should this
energy source be replaced (IBAMA, 1998)
It is undeniable that biomass-originated energy has a low cost which, associated
with its capacity for renewal, contributes to increasing the demand for forest
As it was previously observed, the
volume of wood destined to varied
energetic means (mainly domestic
consumption and grain drying)
represents, at the national level, 44
percent of the annual Brazilian
production of roundwood Therefore,
this is a pressure over the forest
originated from participants (rural
population and productive agents of
the agribusiness) external to the
productive forest activity
The main impacts of forest
production activities are associated
with unsustainable practices of access
to and use of forest resources, lack of
adequate technologies, insufficient
specific sectorial policies, dissonance
between forest policies and other
policies (agricultural, agrarian,
industrial, environmental, etc) and the
fragility of the institutions in charge
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