1 ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICES AS A BASIS FOR THE SUSTAINABLE USE OF TROPICAL FORESTS IN BRAZILIAN AMAZONIA

Deforestation is rapidly converting Brazil’s Amazon forest to unsustainable land uses such as cattle pasture. Deforestation greatly diminishes the forest’s environmental services such as maintenance of biodiversity, water cycling and carbon storage. These services are worth much more to human society than are the land uses that replace the forest, but mechanisms are currently lacking to convert these values to monetary flows. The biodiversity and carbon storage services are global, while water cycling supplies precipitation to all of Brazil, including population centers such as São Paulo. The forest is seriously threatened by deforestation, fire and by projected precipitation and 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 defining the maximum permitted level of atmospheric CO2 are about to begin. It is in Brazil’s interest to use its diplomatic weight to obtain agreement on a level that assures maintenance of Amazonian forest. It is also in Brazil’s interest for mitigation measures to include carbon credit for maintaining tropical forest, and to take rapid measures to contain deforestation. 1. DEFORESTATION, SUSTAINABLE USE AND ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICE