Biodiversity as an environmental service in Brazil's Amazonian forests: risks, value and conservation

The environmental service provided by the great biodiversity of Amazonian f orests is one of several factors leading to the conclusion that much greate r efforts are warranted to reduce the destruction of these forests. Risks t o biodiversity in Amazonian forests include deforestation, logging, fires, fragmentation, depletion of fauna, invasion by exotic species, and climate change. Financial values assigned to biodiversity depend strongly on the pu rposes of valuation. Utilitarian benefits include the values of presently-m arketed and presently-unexploited forest products, and the monetary value o f environmental benefits. Non-monetary values of Amazonian forests are also essential components of decision-making on conservation. Measures of 'will ingness to pay' and 'willingness to accept' can be useful as indicators of potential financial flows, but should not be confused with the true values of the forests to society. Valuation for the purpose of setting penalties f or destruction of biodiversity is an important legal question in Brazil and must take into consideration additional factors. Conservation of biodivers ity in Brazil includes creation of various types of protected areas. The st atus of these areas varies greatly, with practice frequently deviating fron t official requirements. Creating reserves that include human occupants has a variety of pros and cons. Although the effect of humans is not always be nign, much larger areas can be brought under protection regimes if human oc cupants are included. Additional considerations apply to buffer zones aroun d protected areas. The choice and design of reserves depends on the financi al costs and biodiversity benefits of different strategies. In Brazil, rapi d creation of lightly-protected 'paper parks' has been a means of keeping a head of the advance of barriers to establishment of new conservation units, but emphasis must eventually shift to better protection of existing reserv es. Indigenous peoples have the best record of maintaining forest, but nego tiation with these peoples is essential in order to ensure maintenance of t he large areas of forest they inhabit. The benefits of environmental servic es provided by the forest must accrue to those who maintain these forests. Development of mechanisms to capture the value of these services will be a key factor affecting the longterm prospects of Amazonian forests. However, many effective measures to discourage deforestation could be taken immediat ely through government action, including levying and collecting taxes that discourage land speculation, changing land tenure establishment procedures so as not to reward deforestation, revoking remaining incentives, restricti ng road building and improvement, strengthening requirements for environmen tal impact statements (RIMAs) for proposed development projects, and creati ng employment alternatives.