The Economics of Food Security: US and Brazil Perspectives

 

 The Future of Food Security on Amazon

Amazonian society faces three major challenges: (1) protecting the most of its area to ensure biodiversity, water resources, and global climate balance; (2) ensuring the survival of the region's population and enabling long-term development; and (3) maintaining sovereignty over an area that accounts for 60% of the nation's territory.

The Amazon's current deforested area (Figure 2), estimated at 74 million hectares (2010), would be more than enough to feed the region's population now and in the future if only a portion of it was used and areas that should not have been cleared were recovered in accordance with environmental law and conservation and preservation principles. Zero deforestation will be dependent on technology advancements in agricultural methods as well as the resolution of poverty and formal education challenges, both of which affect Brazilian culture. Reducing the expenses of recovering degraded areas, which are currently relatively high (US$ 700.00/hectare) and encourage farmers to utilize less expensive and unsustainable practices (US$ 300.00/hectare), could have a positive impact on Amazon conservation and preservation.

To help conserve the Amazon Rainforest, the Brazilian government has expanded Conservation Units and Indigenous Lands in Amazonia (Table 7). There are 405 Indigenous Lands in the Amazon, totaling 103,483,167 hectares and a population of around 309,431 indigenous people, accounting for 20.67% of the Amazon's land area or 98.61% of all Indigenous Land in the country by size. The availability of 334 hectares per capita has aroused words of complaint, with some claiming that there is "too much land for too few

"indigenous people" and others have pointed to starvation and malnutrition in many indigenous villages linked to the commercial economy. The Amazon is home to 61.54 percent of the country's indigenous population, estimated at approximately 502,783 people.

Conservation Units in the Amazon are divided into two types: those that must remain untouched, such as Ecological Stations, National Parks, and Biological Reserves (over 36 million hectares) and those that can allow economic activities, such as National Forests, Environmental Protection Areas, Areas of Relevant Ecological Interest, Sustainable Development Reserves, and Extractive Reserves (over 60 million hectares) (Table 7). Thus, protected areas in the Amazon (Indigenous Lands and Conservation Units) cover more than 40% of the Brazilian Amazon. The establishment of these areas continues, following a complex process influenced by private interests, specific groups, and monitored by national and international institutions, as well as movements of local and foreign public opinion that interact with national public policies at various levels (Miranda et al., 2006; Barreto et al., 2005).

Conservation Units can be effective tools for promoting and maintaining biodiversity, and their current importance has increased as a result of sustainable use conservation units. 

The Sustainable Development Reserves (RDS) category is the most prominent among conservation unit models (Queiroz, 2006). Mamirauá Sustainable Development Reserve (RDSM) was the first RDS established in Brazil. The traditional people has taken part in actions aimed at conserving biodiversity, protecting endangered species, using local natural resources sustainably, and providing riverine communities with sustainable development opportunities. These operations are carried out through a participatory method, with the local population involved at various levels of land and resource management (IDSM, 2006). The primary characteristics of this sort of conservation unit are as follows: maintenance of local population, which participates in natural resource management activities and surveillance of the reserve; the possibility of fauna and flora management based on solid scientific research; flexibility to change strategies according to market; maintenance of private property; implementation of programs to improve living conditions of local population; and establishment of strategic partnerships with governmental and nongovernmental organizations for development. The results of ten years of investment in this area allow an assessment of the benefits of this type of conservation unit, and they show that the results are significant, both in terms of biodiversity conservation and improved quality of life for local residents.

It should be noted that establishing Conservation Units and Indigenous Lands may be a preventative measure in regions where there is no threat of occupation, but it has proven unsuccessful in already occupied areas. Environmental destruction occurs endogenously within Conservation Units and Indigenous Lands, demonstrating that they are as ineffective as the Maginot Line (1931-1936), which was built by the French to counter the advance of German troops during World War II (Miranda, 2006; Barreto et al., 2005; Homma, 2010).

Despite this, it is possible to conduct agricultural activities in the Amazon with minimal deforestation. Some Amazon states, such as Amazonas and Amapá, may easily achieve zero deforestation while continuing to import items from deforested areas in Pará, Mato Grosso, and Roraima. The buffering effect of the Manaus, Macapá, and Santana Free Trade Zones has supported urbanization while significantly reducing deforestation rates. This suggests that the problem of deforestation and burning in the Amazon is linked to poverty in Northeastern Brazil, which drives migration to the Amazon Region. Another aspect is that other parts of the world import lumber from Amazon.

Brazil and the world. This is why Amazon must be viewed through the lens of national policy.

The widespread consensus is that securing Amazon conservation and preservation will require the development of new technology options that focus on the partial usage of deforested areas while also recovering parts that should never have been removed. The following is a list of five kinds of alternatives identified as priorities to secure Amazon's food security and preservation in the future.