Pagamento por serviços ambientais e seu efeito na cobertura florestal em Muniz Freire - ES

Abstract

Payments for environmental services (PES) have been widespread in Brazil in the last two decades, emerging as an important economic instrument for nature conservation. These programs provide economic incentives or compensation to land users who undertake activities that promote ecosystem services. However, there are still few studies on the effectiveness of these programs for environmental restoration and preservation. The state of Espírito Santo has stood out at national level with the Reflorestar program, a PES model that has managed to gain scale in recent years, being present in 74 of the 78 municipalities in Espírito Santo. Therefore, the object of this work is to investigate the influence of PSA on the restoration and maintenance of forest cover in the state of Espírito Santo. Land use and coverage maps were prepared in the years 2015 and 2021 in the municipality of Muniz Freire, to evaluate the change in forest cover in rural properties registered in the PSA, compared to unregistered properties. On properties registered in the program, a survey of the characteristics of the modalities chosen by producers was carried out. The results showed that there was a greater proportional gain in forest coverage on properties with PSA (1.3%), compared to properties without PSA (0.2%). The increase in forest cover on properties with PES was influenced by the natural regeneration that occurred in areas that were not designated for the program. Areas for forest conservation were maintained, and agroforestry systems were the modality most chosen by producers. The areas of modalities for restoration with native planting, and conducting natural regeneration, are very small, resulting in an insignificant increase in forest cover.