GEO Brasil - UNEP

the state of the atmosphere
the state of the environmet in Brazil
In Brazil, there are two types of economic instruments used to control
deforestation: forest fees and tax compensations Since 1968 Minas Gerais State
has applied, a fee on forest products This is an example of the successful
deforestation control in Brazil However, itis difficult for the Brazilian for the
Institute Environment and Renewable Natural Resource (IBAMA) to manage
Figure4- CO2emissionsfromheavyvehicles
60000
58000
56000
54000
52000
50000
GgCO2
48000
46000
1990 1991 1992 1993 1994
boundary present a great vegetation
diversity They are forests, and Cerrado
areas In this last case, the carbon
content is lower than 70 tons of carbon
by hectare (tC/ha)
That variety explains the difficulties of
preparing the national inventory A
wide range of controversial data is
found in the literature The first
estimates by REIS (1992) use a strip
of biomass volume between 270 to 400
tonnes of wood by hectare in the
Amazon Considering the
composition of wood in
approximately 50 percent of carbon, it
is considered a strip between 135 to
200tC/ha
Table 2 - Deforestation in the Amazon and CO 2
emissions
Period Deforestation (thousand ha/year) Emissions ( Millions tCO 2 /Year)
1978-1988 2113 543-931
1989 1786 458-785
1990 1381 356-609
1991 1113 286-491
1992 1379 356-605
1993-1994 1490 381-656
1995 2906 744-1280
1996 1816 466-799
1997 1323 341-583
1998 1738 447-766
1999 1726 444-759
Source: La Rovere - 2000
Emission level
forest fess at federal level (SEROA OF MOTTA 1996)
The tax compensations for the limitations in soil use were implemented in the
states of Paraná, São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Minas Gerais SEROA DA MOTTA
(1996) observes that, in the case of Amazon boundary areas, the application of
fees is very difficult, due to the dimension of the territory, lack of infrastructure
and low population density Tax compensation, on the other hand, involves low
administrative costs and creates incentives to those engaged in preservation
measures
The deforestation in the Amazon Region has been occurring mainly in the states
of Mato Grosso, Pará and Rondônia Those areas of expansion of agricultural
Those numbers have already had
several reviews In more recent work,
inferior values of carbon content by
hectare were adopted Even the IPCC
Report (2000), for instance, adapts an
average value of 120tC/ha to tropical
forests In the present work, the
emissions are only indicated in order
of greatness A strip of 70 to 120tC/ha
of emissions by deforested area was
considered The table below presents
the estimates from INPE (National
Space Research Institute) on the
annual deforested area in the Amazon
and the carbon emissions estimates
a year, due to deforestation
It is important to remember that these
estimates aim to supply an order of
the phenomenon greatness only A
more refined study is being corried out
for the National Communication,
mentioned previously That study
includes estimates on the biomass
volume in the Amazon based on aerial
photographic images done in the
1970s That methodology compares
the current deforested areas, obtained
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