Restoration Challenges and Opportunities for Increasing Landscape Connectivity under the New Brazilian Forest Act

Abstract

First paragraph: Conservation government policies are main legal mechanisms directly sharping landscape ecology. In Brazil, the two main environmental public policies are the National System of Conservation Units (Sistema Nacional de Unidades de Conservação, SNUC), which regulates the establishment and management of public and sometimes privately owned Protected Areas, and the Brazilian Forest Act (Federal Law 12,651, May 25, 2012 (Brasil 2012), the former Código Florestal, BFA), which regulates the conservation, restoration, and natural vegetation clearing in privately owned lands. As more than 70% of the Brazilian territory is privately owned (IPEA 2011), the present article discusses the recent substitution of the BFA of 1965 by Law 12,651 of 2012 (heretofore referred to as new BFA: NBFA) and their potential effects on ecosystem conservation, restoration, and landscape integrity. These changes have been justified by agricultural lobbyists stating that compliance with the previous policies would supposedly harm several agricultural business sectors. However, studies have shown this is not necessarily the case (Brancalion & Rodrigues 2010; Sparovek et al. 2011).