Abstract ID: 5

Global Climate Change, The Forest Architecture Concept and the Sustainable Forest Management of Tropical Forests at Large Geographical Areas Using Market Forces – The Brazilian Amazon Forest Corridor

Global Climate Change affects every square meter of our planet. Tropical forest’s burning represents the main Brazilian GHG source, together with the estimated 20 million ha of degraded land. Brazilian native forests represent a major stock of carbon, but portray a lower contribution for mitigating those effects, if compared with plantations world-wide. Increasing the level of forest plantation and promoting the use of timber, are GHG mitigation activities, within the UNFCCC framework and considered within the IPCC guidelines. Strong policies and institutions, focusing on cultivation of different timber species, were the main responsible for India success on adopting Sustainable Forest Management practices. 20 different timber species are being cultivated on a significant level within the country. This work suggest a model for cultivating different tree species within the Brazilian Amazon, towards establishing species cultivation zones, according with local social, economical and environmental conditions, applying forest design concepts and forest architecture principles, and approaching the markets as drivers, to create ideal conditions for the use and conservation of trees biodiversity. Forest Architecture follows local social, environmental and biodiversity indicators, combining them with the application of a Forest Design that translates population’s expectations from forest sites into a concept which increases the chances of peaceful co-existence between forests and people. The Amazon Forest Corridor is the resulting structure, promoting ecological process towards a large spatial scale approach, creating a regional biodiversity cultivation strategy, for producing timber and non-timber forest products, and promoting aesthetic and carbon mitigation services. This strategy can lower Brazilian contribution to global warming, increasing forest products participation within country’s accountability of GHG, using reforestation, sustainable forest management and rehabilitation of degraded areas, promoted towards a Rural Carbon National Service and a Rural Carbon National Fund, and taking advantage of the opportunities within carbon credits markets to support the initiative.

Session:  Public Policies and Sustainable Development - Development, conservation, and policy-making in Amazonia: contributions from scientific programs.

Presentation Type:  Oral