Protected Areas

percentage varies between 20% and 80%of the rural properties.Other institutes were slowly created,as for example the forest service areas(áreas de servidão florestal), whichare areas created by land owners on apermanent or temporary basis who areentitled to suppress or exploit the nativevegetation located outside the legalreserve areas or permanent protectionareas, but have the advantage of beingnegotiated through a document of forestreserve quotas.Other instruments are also present inthe legal framework of forests, as forexample the forest development plan,the environmental declaratory act, theplans for controlling and combatingdeforestation and forest fires, forestorigin document, sustainable forestmanagement plans, among others.A description of some of the instrumentsof the Brazilian forestry policies follows.Sustainable Forest ManagementIncentives to practices of sustainableforest management are very importantin light of the awareness that it is onlyby valuing the standing forest that thedeforestation process can be halted.With this, a review of the legal frameworkruling this activity is being promotedso as to make it more competitive asregards the other means of using thesoil. Due to the continental nature of thecountry and the biological diversity ofeach region, legislation for SustainableForest Management shall consider itsapplicability for each Brazilian biome.The Caatinga and Amazon biomeshave been contemplated with thenormatization of technical proceduresfor the elaboration, presentation,execution and technical assessment ofthe Sustainable Forest Management Plan(PMFS), and the rules for the Cerradobiome are being addressed.Other measures supported by theBrazilian government include thediscussion with the society on theparticipatory policies for incentivizingsustainable community forestmanagement and to develop theproduction chains of social-biodiversity.Sustainable Forest Management inthe Caatinga BiomeForest management in the Caatinga isconsidered to be a viable alternative toally the region’s economic developmentwith the guarantee of preserving naturalresources. The Caatinga biome has360,000 Km 2 of remaining forestcoverage, of only 0.26% are under forestmanagement. In order to fulfil the currentenergetic demand, it would be necessaryto place an area of 2.5 million hectares(equivalent to 7% of remaining forestcoverage areas) under management. TheDFLOR supports measures that fosterforest management in the Caatinga forthe following reasons:• Forest management demonstrated thepotential to fulfil the current and futuredemand for forest energy in a sustainablemanner. Wood and vegetable coal supplyone third of the industrial and commercialenergy demands of the country’s northeasternregion;• It is a technical, economic and sociallyviable practice;• Forest management is compatible withother traditional uses of soil, as ranching,apiculture and the obtainment of nonlumberforest products. This allows foranother alterative for the productiveuse of areas with native vegetation and18