Valuation of environmental services by agricultural and forestry law

• Main Author: Alvaro Boson de Castro Faria
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Universidade de Brasília 2015-04-01
• Series: Sustentabilidade em Debate
• Subjects: pagamento por serviços ambientais; política pública; protetor-recebedor.
• Online Access: http://periodicos.unb.br/index.php/sust/article/view/12188

This study characterizes the right of ownership, and analyzes this right considering the forest as a good included in the permanent preservation areas and legal reserves of the Brazilian Forest Code. It is argued that all landowners can be compensated by the government, when they provide important environmental services to society in the enforcement of forest laws. It is proposed, in this sense, a valuation procedure for payment for environmental services, considering the contingent valuation method, with State willingness to pay, analyzing the Land Statute, the Forest Code, and the Law of Atlantic Forest. A hypothetical case study with two examples is presented, considering the southwest of Paraná State (Brazil) reality, the minimum wage of Paraná, the federal minimum wage, and the amount of remaining areas in secondary and advanced stages. It was established set to pay between US$ 14,54.ha-1.month-1 and US$ 76,16.ha-1.month-1 considering the different procedures. The proposal is an innovative methodology, because it considers the assessment of forest ecological quality, rewarding the country estate by the ratio of the smallest fiscal module of the State, and thus, making possible the valuation and payment for environmental services provided by farmers to society.