Elsevier

Environmental Science & Policy

Volume 74, August 2017, Pages 14-22
Environmental Science & Policy

Socioeconomic changes and environmental policies as dimensions of regional land transitions in the Atlantic Forest, Brazil

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsci.2017.04.019Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Forest Transition worldwide has been attributed to similar land use trajectories that occur under different social and environmental conditions.

  • Land use and land cover data show an increase in forest cover in the region since 1962, with the highest growth rate observed from 1985 to 1995.

  • Former pasturelands contributed about 75% to the new forested areas during recent decades (1980–2010) in the Paraíba Valley.

  • 73% of new forest areas occurred on slopes over 20%, unsuitable areas for agricultural mechanization, irrigation systems or even livestock.

  • Societal engagement to ensure policy compliance in cases of deforestation is contributing to the conservation of forest remnants.

Abstract

The industrialization of the Paraíba Valley, Brazil has been driven since the 1950s by an intense urbanization process, while municipalities located far from the valley's economic center stagnated. Despite the economic differences and unequal population distribution in the region, the municipalities share similar topographic characteristics with a predominance of hilly terrains. The depletion of the soils' productive capacity after numerous land use cycles without adequate management practices was a common cause of land use abandonment. This research analyzes land use/cover data, environmental policies, census-based data, and interviews with stakeholders, to understand the factors that account for a forest transition in the Paraíba Valley where gains in forest cover more than offset any remaining deforestation. Local conditions, such as topography, land use history, environmental policies, engagement of society in complying with legal regulations, commodity markets, and the action of enforcement agencies, represent dimensions which, combined, have boosted forest transitions.

Introduction

Land use shapes landscapes and causes direct and indirect impacts on the conservation of natural resources, with consequences for the quality and standards of living, and for the provision and maintenance of ecosystem services (Lambin et al., 2003, Foley et al., 2005, Wu et al., 2013). Several studies have defined empirical and theoretical relationships between demands for land and resources with population dynamics, economy and market globalization (Vanwey et al., 2005, Mora, 2014). Given the importance of forest ecosystems (Ango et al., 2014, Fenning, 2014) and the dynamic relationship of these ecosystems with the economic, cultural and social dimensions of land use, Forest Transition theory (FT) offers valuable insights into the process of deforestation and for the return of forest cover (Rudel et al., 2005). The FT theory uses a theoretical framework to understand the spatio-temporal phenomenon of forest resurgence (forest cover net gain) in areas long characterized by loss of forests.

The FT, as observed in many regions worldwide (Rudel et al., 2005, Lambin and Meyfroidt, 2010, Southworth et al., 2012), has been attributed to similar trajectories of land use, that occur even under different political, social, economic and environmental conditions (Lambin and Meyfroidt, 2010, Azevedo et al., 2014, Silva et al., 2016). The economic FT pathway assumes that forest regeneration is strongly related to economy, industry and urban development, influencing the process of rural depopulation and the consequent abandonment of the rural way of life, followed by positive forest growth rates on abandoned areas that had been occupied by agriculture (Rudel et al., 2005, Baptista, 2008). The scarcity FT pathway states that forest shortage can influence institutions at various levels to develop actions that favor forest recovery in order to restore ecosystem services and to supply timber and non-timber products (Rudel et al., 2005, Meyfroidt and Lambin, 2009).

A given forest's history has important implications in understanding forest ecology and the socioeconomic dimensions of human relationships with these ecosystems (Fairhead and Leach, 1995), both important in developing forest restoration strategies (Melo et al., 2013). Studies have highlighted secondary forests as important sources of ecosystem services, forest products for communities, and the urgent need to understand the proximate and underlying causes (biophysical and social) that affect their regeneration after agricultural land abandonment (Chazdon, 2012, Lira et al., 2012).

The Atlantic Forest has been undergoing losses for centuries and its remnants cover today around 13% of the area before Portuguese settlement of Brazil (Ribeiro et al., 2009). However, regional studies have revealed significant variations in the Atlantic Forest cover, as in the case of the Paraíba Valley with a +74% of relative net change between 1985 and 2011 (Silva et al., 2017). Empirical research on regional scale forest dynamics remain important to unravel the complexity of coupled human and natural systems (Jadin et al., 2013). In this article, we explore the context that has allowed a regional FT to occur, with the control of deforestation over mature forests and secondary successional areas; and how public policies, economic development, population dynamics, and environmental conditions induce FT processes in the Paraíba Valley, in the Atlantic Forest of southeastern Brazil.

Section snippets

Methods

The methodological approach for data acquisition began with structured and semi-structured interviews with stakeholders– agents with professional experience in environmental management, land use or policy enforcement in the study region. Census, land use and land cover, and topographic (slope) data were used in a Geographic Information System (GIS) to support the analysis of forest cover dynamics (for the purposes of this study, forest cover only represents native vegetation of the Atlantic

Socioeconomic changes and forest cover

The rural population of the Paraíba Valley in 2010 (132 thousand inhabitants or 5.81%) held 1.83% of the formal jobs available in the region against the 98.17% in the industry, commerce and services sectors. The rapid expansion of industry and services, since the 1950s, created an intense migration flow from the countryside to urban areas (Bordo, 2005) and from poorer municipalities to the major economic and industrial centers (Vieira and Santos, 2012). In the 1960s, the Paraíba Valley was

Learning from local informants

With basis on the interviews, informants attributed the industrial development (since the 1950s) as the first set of conditions to stimulate rural to urban migration with consequences for agricultural land abandonment, followed by forest regeneration. Given the decreased agricultural importance of the region in the middle of the 20ht century, the federal development polices and the industrial decentralization of São Paulo's metropolitan region, targeted the Paraíba Valley as a new industrial

Broader implications and conclusions

This study explored for the first time how society in interacting with the set of Atlantic Forest conservation mechanisms in São Paulo State (e.g., Environmental system, policies), benefiting forest transition. We highlight that the emerging societal engagement is contributing to forest governance. In the Paraíba Valley, legal norms aiming at environmental conservation have also been essential to promote the triumph of secondary seccession and the conservation of mature forest remnants. To the

Acknowledgments

We gratefully acknowledge the funding support by the São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP), processes 2011/13568-0 and 2013/09243-3. We also acknowledge the help and support provided by the Center for Environmental Studies (NEPAM/UNICAMP), EMBRAPA (Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation), and the Center for Global Change and Earth Observations (Michigan State University). The opinions expressed herein are the sole responsibility of the authors.

Ramon Felipe Bicudo da Silva is a Postdoctoral fellow in the Center for Environmental Studies and Research (State University of Campinas, Brazil). He received Ph.D. in Environment and Society from University of Campinas (2015), B. A. in Biology (2005) and Master Degree in Agronomical Science (2011) both from São Paulo State University, Brazil. Between 2013 and 2014 he worked as visiting scholar in the Center for Global Change and Earth Observations, Michigan State University, USA. He is author

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    Ramon Felipe Bicudo da Silva is a Postdoctoral fellow in the Center for Environmental Studies and Research (State University of Campinas, Brazil). He received Ph.D. in Environment and Society from University of Campinas (2015), B. A. in Biology (2005) and Master Degree in Agronomical Science (2011) both from São Paulo State University, Brazil. Between 2013 and 2014 he worked as visiting scholar in the Center for Global Change and Earth Observations, Michigan State University, USA. He is author of 14 journal articles, 6 book chapters, and materials for education diffusion. His research interests include land use/cover change, remote sensing, human interaction with the environment, and environmental science.

    Mateus Batistella is a researcher at the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa) with formal background in biology, philosophy and environmental science. He is the author of one book, five edited volumes and more than 100 journal articles and book chapters. He works with geotechnologies, landscape ecology, and land change, coordinating projects in distinct Brazilian and international sites. Mateus is also a collaborating professor at the State University of Campinas doctoral program in Environment and Society. He served as the general director for the Embrapa Satellite Monitoring Center (2009–2015) and currently collaborates with the Embrapa’s Secretariat for International Affairs.

    Emilio Federico Moran is John A. Hannah Distinguished Professor at Michigan State University. He is the author of ten books, fifteen edited volumes and more than 190 journal articles and book chapters. He is formally trained in anthropology, geography, tropical ecology, tropical soil science, and remote sensing. His research has been supported by NSF, NIH, NOAA and NASA for the past two decades. His three latest books, Environmental Social Science (Wiley/Blackwell 2010), People and Nature (Blackwell 2006) and Human Adaptability, 3rd edition (Westview 2007) address broader issues of human interaction with the environment under conditions of environmental change. He is a past Guggenheim Fellow, Fellow of the Linnean Society of London, Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and was elected a Member of the National Academy of Sciences in 2010. In 2016, Moran became a member of the National Science Board of the National Science Foundation (2016–2022).

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