Payment for Environmental Services (psa) as Capital Driver and Promoter of Environmental Conservation: the Case of Brazilian Livestock

Abdias Garcia Machado and Fábio Alexandre dos Santos

No 244522, 2016 International European Forum (151st EAAE Seminar), February 15-19, 2016, Innsbruck-Igls, Austria from International European Forum on System Dynamics and Innovation in Food Networks

Abstract: This article aims to discuss the power of finance capital as environmental conservation promoter by building Payment for Environmental Services mechanisms, specifically livestock chain Brazilian court, listing the barriers to its full operation. The creation of cattle, started and accompanied the colonization and development of Brazil at first predominated by an extensive model, with animals coming from Portugal and Spain, with low performance in the tropics and without a systematic work of selection and breeding. It is now one of the main value chains of Brazilian agribusiness, with a herd of more than 200 million head and total export around US $ 7.4 billion in 2014. However, the period in years of livestock development in Brazil, it was often linked to pressure on the deforestation of native forests, mainly in the Amazon and Cerrado biomes. While groups linked to the productive sector argue that deforestation was linked to the Forest Code of 1973 and the national sovereignty of policies in food production from the Federal Government, groups linked to civil society organizations claim that the effect of this expansion is due to market interest and it is funded by national and international financial capital. Financial capital and agricultural production, as theoretical objects of research have generally been treated separately in the context of the economy and even the social sciences in general. In the Amazon, the expansion of the agricultural frontier created in March geo-graphic "Arc of Deforestation", which advances the replacement of natural forests for agricultural production. An expensive process that requires huge sums of financing, mostly coming from public financial institutions. In 2012, with the aprovoção the new version of the Brazilian Forest Code, replacing the version 1973, the Federal Government authorized the creation of support programs and incentives for conservation of the environment, as well as adoption of technologies and best practices that reconcile agriculture and forest productivity. Provided through a literature review, it was identified barriers to building an economic arrangement for structuring a permanent mechanism for Payment for Environmental Services, which would meet the demand created by the new federal law. Interviews with actors and significant entities financially and politically to the livestock sector, were held at the beginning and end of the research to understand the barriers and potentials in the use of Payments for Environmental Services - PSA in the targeting and use of finance capital. It was identified that the most frequently cited beneficiaries are owners and land owners, farmers and traditional communities and indigenous peoples. Still, few laws indicate which eligible land supportable categories for projects and actions of PSA. Furthermore, the legal uncertainty caused by the lack of a specific law for paying agents, agent receiver and inspection agent of PSA prevents actions to migrate the level of models and projects on a national scale.

Keywords: beef cattle; payment for environmental services; deforestation; sustainability, payment for environmental services; sustainability; livestock; deforestation; Agribusiness; Agricultural Finance; Livestock Production/Industries (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 14
Date: 2016-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr, nep-env and nep-sog
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:iefi16:244522

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.244522

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