25 Feb Brazil: example of productivity and protection of the environment
Brazil has everything to prove that it is possible to be an agro-environmental power, capable of reconciling production and forest preservation. With the expansion of technology and advanced productivity tools, the country has developed a model of sustainable tropical agriculture, recognized worldwide for its excellence in the development of Low Carbon Agriculture (ABC) techniques.
The Brazilian rural world uses, on average, only half of the surface of its properties (50.1%). The area dedicated to the preservation of native vegetation in rural properties – registered and mapped in the Rural Environmental Registry (CAR) – represents a quarter of the national territory (25.6%).
The recognition of this essential role of Brazilian agriculture in preserving the environment can be seen, thanks to the geocoded treatment of the CAR data, by Embrapa Territorial.
Areas dedicated to the preservation of native vegetation
From the CAR data, the territorial dimension of the contribution of agriculture to environmental preservation was quantified. Brazilian rural producers (farmers, foresters, ranchers, extractivists, etc. registered in the CAR) preserve a total of 218 million hectares within their rural properties.
Areas dedicated to the protection of native vegetation
The areas dedicated to the preservation of native vegetation by the Brazilian rural world compose a relevant and large-scale environmental mosaic with the country’s protected areas: the integral conservation units (national parks, ecological stations, etc.) and indigenous lands.
The limits of integral conservation units are well known. They protect 10.4% of the national territory and represent less than half of the area dedicated to preservation by the rural world. The 600 indigenous lands occupy 13.8% of the country. The total protected areas (integral conservation units and indigenous lands) represent 206 million hectares and 24.2% of Brazil.
Areas dedicated to the protection and preservation of native vegetation
Together, the protected and preserved areas in the rural world total 423 million hectares or 49.8% of Brazil.
Total areas dedicated to native vegetation in Brazil
When the protected and preserved areas are added to those of native vegetation of the unoccupied and military lands, and of the rural properties not yet registered or available in the CAR, a total of 632 million hectares is reached. In other words, 66.3% of the national territory is destined and / or occupied with the various forms of native vegetation, whose nature and state vary considerably between the different biomes.
Territorial quantification of land occupation and use in Brazil
Thanks to the mapping of the areas destined to the preservation of the native vegetation registered in the CAR by the rural world and of the protected areas of Brazil it was possible to move towards a totalizing vision of the use and occupation of the land throughout the national territory. Based on satellite images and cartographic sources from several federal and state agencies, the Embrapa Territorial team completed the quantification of other forms of land use and occupation. This national synthesis is presented below in the form and graph.
The graph above represents, in a short and summarized way, the different proportions of the different uses and occupation of land in Brazil, highlighting the large size of the total areas dedicated to the preservation and protection of native vegetation (66.3%).
Sources:
Síntese Ocupação e Uso das Terras no Brasil. Embrapa, 20/01/2018. Disponível em: Síntese Ocupação e Uso das Terras no Brasil | Embrapa (embrapa.br). Acesso em 22/02/2021.
‘Precisamos destacar o Brasil como potência agroambiental’. Agência Safras, 04/11/2020. Disponível em: ‘Precisamos destacar o Brasil como potência agroambiental’ | Canal Rural (canalrural.com.br). Acesso em 22/02/2021.
Potencial agro-ambiental do Brasil é ressaltado em painel na COP 23. ILPF Agricultura de Baixo Carbono, 15/11/2017. Disponível em: Potencial agro-ambiental do Brasil é ressaltado em painel na COP 23 | Embrapa (embrapa.br). Acesso em 22/02/2021.