Environmental services as a basis for the sustainable use of tropical forests in Brazilian Amazonia . pp . 31-36 In :

Deforestntion is rapidly conve.rting Brazil 's Amazon forest to unsustainable land uses such a• cattle pasture. Deforestntion greatly diminishes the forest's environmental services such as mnintcnnnce of biodiversity. wnter cycling and c:irl>oo storage. These services are worth much more to humnn society than are the land uses thnt replnce the forest. bu t mechnnisms are currently lacking to conven these values to monetary flows. The biodiversity and carbon storage services arc global. while water cycling supplies precipitation to all of Brazil. including population ccnte~ such as Sao Pnulo. The forest is seriously threatened by deforesuition. fire nnd by projected precipitation nnd temperature changes from unmitigated global warming. Atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases must therefore be kept at relatively low levels (well below 550 ppmv). Negotiations on defin intt the maximum permitted level of aunosphcric CO! are :ibout to begin. It is in B raziJ' s interest to use its diplomatic weight to obtain attrcement on a level that assures maintenance of Amazoninn forest. It is also in Brazil's interest for mitigation measures to include c:irl>on credit for mnintnining tropical forest. and to take rapid measures to contain deforestation. J. DEFORESTATION, SUSTAINABLE USE AND ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICES Deforestation is advancing rapidJy into the Amazon forest. Most clearing activity is concentr.ited in the "Arc of Deforestation" along the southern and eastern edges of the forest. However, highways opening previously inaccessible po.rtions of the region to the eniry of population and in-yestment have tremendous potential for unleashing the deforestation process in new areas (e. g., Laurance_ et ul. , 2001 ). Much of the deforestation process is outSide of government control. The BR-163 Highway (CuiaM-Santart! m) offers a current example (Feamside. 2005a). Deforestation is driven bo! h by •·old" motives such as land speculation and the role of deforestation in maintaining land-tenure claims. and by . new" drivers such as soybeans and beef production for export. The "new" drivers are added on to the "old" ones the ··old" ones are not replaced, aJthough actors may be physicaJly displaced to new locations in the region (Feamside. 2005b). ·' Use of tropical forests in Amazonia bas been characterized by a long history of failures in tenns of sustainabiUty. SustainabiUty is different from financiaJ profitability and ii: also not necessarily synonymous with minimal environmental impact. Cattle pasture is by far the most widespread land use in deforested ~s in Brazilian Amazonia. The poor record of sustaining pasrure productivity has not impeded the spread of ranching. which is driven by various alternative motives in addition to beef s:iles (notwithstanding the recent arrivaJ of the "hamburger connection" that has given beef sharply increased importance). Small-scale commercial fanning (as envisioned for settlement areas on the Transamazon Highway and in Roodonia) has also proved ephemeral, as have monocultures of cacao. rubber and oil palm. Questions persist regarding large-scale high-input agriculture (such as soybeans). limber management and s ilviculrural plantatiOJlS. Extractive reserves for non-timber forest products a.re potentialJy sustainable, but require linking to the environmental benefits of the forest if they are to resist conversion to logginf and agriculture. This author has proposed a development strategy in the region based on tapping the environmental services of Amazonian forest (Feamside, 1997). Amazonian forest provides a series of environmental services to the Amazon region. to the rest of Brazil and to the