Reduction of carbon emissions associated with deforestation in Brazil: the role of the Amazon Region Protected Areas Program (ARPA).

The creation of protected areas in the Brazilian Amazon has been playing an important role in biological diversity conservation in the region and in the protection of extensive tropical forest areas. Approximately 50% of the remaining Amazon forests are protected areas. In light of this scenario, the most ambitious biodiversity conservation program is currently the Amazon Region Protected Areas Program (ARPA), which was created by the Brazilian Government in 2003. The program is related to the National Protected Area System (Sistema Nacional de Unidades de Conservacao – SNUC) as part of a strategy for its implementation. Furthermore, it is an important mechanism for the implementation of various strategies and decisions of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD, 1992), especially the Programme of Work on Protected Areas (CBD Decision VII/28; CDB, 20041) and the corresponding Brazilian National Strategic Plan on Protected Areas2. Over a 10-year period (2003–2013), the ARPA intends to protect 500 thousand km2 of natural ecosystems, mainly forests. Despite its clear benefits to the conservation of biological diversity and protection of great forest carbon stocks, little is known about its role in the reduction of greenhouse gas – especially carbon dioxide (CO2) resulting from Amazon deforestation. It is exactly this assessment of ARPA Program’s contribution to the reduction of such emissions that is this study’s central objective. By using analyses of historical deforestation rates between 1997 to 2007, and of estimated future rates obtained from modeling deforestation scenarios for 2050, it was possible to determine wthat, in general, the latu sensu protected areas3 in the Amazon not only work as great obstacles to the advancement of deforestation, but also yield the regional inhibition effect that consequently significantly contributes to the reduction of associated emissions of greenhouse gas. The results especially indicate that the 61 protected areas supported by ARPA are preserving a forest carbon stock of about 4.6 billion tons of carbon (18% of the total stock protected in the Amazon), which is almost twice the efforts for emissions reduction of the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol’s if fully implemented. By using simulations of future deforestations, the protected areas (including those supported by the ARPA) created by the federal government between 2003 and 2008 will, until 2050, yield reduction of emissions resulting from deforestation by about 3.3±1 billion tons of carbon. From this expected reduction, 12% can be attributed to protected area created after ARPA Program was started and through its support (13 protected areas4). Notwithstanding, if the expansion of ARPA Program’s protected area, which is expected to occur in 20085, actually takes place, an additional reduction of 1.1±0.2 billion tons of carbon can be expected by 2050. The recent and future contribution of protected areas in the Amazon and of the ARPA Program is therefore crucial for the reduction of deforestation patterns in the Amazon and of its associated carbon emissions and for the planet’s biodiversity conservation. Such efforts shall be internationally acknowledged and valued, especially within the context of international negotiations in the scope of the Convention on Biological Diversity and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. 1. The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) considers that a great part of the world-wide advances in terms of new protected areas since the 2004 approval of the “CBD PoW PAs” has been attained by Brazil, and that great part of this achievement is a result of the ARPA Program (CBD-WGPA, 2008). 2. The National Strategic Plan for Protected Areas (Plano Estrategico Nacional de Areas Protegidas PNAP), according to Decree 5.758, of April 13, 2006. 3. Here includes strict preservation areas and sustainable use reserves, both stricto sensu nature protected areas, as well as indigenous people’s lands and military areas. 4. Considering that the protected area that counted on ARPA Program support for their creation, but only as of 2003 when the Program was officially begun. Another parcel of protected areas supported by the ARPA are considered new (total of over 230 thousand km2 since 2000) because they counted on support for their initial stages, including – in some cases – for their creation, even if this occurred during the Program’s planning stages. 5. According ARPA Program’s Annual Operations Plan for 2008, prepared by the governmental authorities.