Brazil's Economic Challenge:
Balancing economic growth,
poverty alleviation and
environmental conservation.
Joshua Farley, PhD
Prof, Community Development and Applied Economics
Fellow, Gund Institute for Ecological Economics
205 B Morrill Hall
University of Vermont
Burlington, VT 05405
jfarley@uvm.edu
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Summary of presentation
• Brief intro to ecological
economics
• The Brazilian economy from an
EE perspective
• My research
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Intro to Ecological
Economics
Laws of Physics
• Can’t make something from
nothing or vice versa
• Can’t do work without energy
• Disorder increases
Laws of ecology
• Conversion of ecosystem structure into economic products
degrades and destroys ecosystem services  e.g. biodiversity
• Waste emissions degrade and destroy ecosystem services 
e.g. climate
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Laws of Economics
Goal 1: Sustainable Scale
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Markets do not address scale
Goal 2: Just Distribution
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Markets systematically concentrate wealth
Goal 3: Efficient Allocation
• What is efficient?
• Conventional definition: food and eflornithine
• Ecological economic definition: Satisfying basic
needs at lowest ecological cost
• Essential resources
• Food
• Water
• Energy
• Ecosystem services
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Balancing
Sustainability, Justice
and Efficiency in Brazil
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Sustainable scale
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Forestry code debate
Forest reserves
Energy supply, expansion of dams
Unregulated development
Growing economy, shrinking ecosystems
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Just distribution
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Gini and change over time
Decrease in extreme poverty
Bolsa familiar
Bolsa floresta
Buying on credit
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Efficient allocation
• Public vs. private sector
• Land bubbles and speculation
• Credit and interest rates
• Present vs. future
• Impact of QE on an open economy
• Transactions tax
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Essential resources: Water
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Manaus, Olinda
Essential resources: Food
Soy
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Essential resources: Food
• Fome Zero
• Bolsa Familiar
• PAA (food acquisition program)/Brasil Sem Miséria (Brazil without
misery)
• Secretaria de Segurança Alimentar e Nutricional (SESAN)
• Ministério de Desenvolvimento Social e Combate à Fome (MDS)
• Secretaria de Agricultura Familiar
• More than 200 human milk banks across Brazil - the largest and
most effective programme of its kind in the world
• Already exceeded millennium goal of reducing childhood mortality
by 73%
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Essential resources:
Energy
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Essential resources: Ecosystem
Services
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Agroecology, farmer
livelihoods and ecosystem
services in the Atlantic Forest
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Forest, mountains and family farmers
23% of SC’s Atlantic Forest left
intact, vs. 7% for country as whole
Family farmers produce
87% of agricultural output
Atlantic Forest Biome
• endemism rates ranging from 30% in birds to 44% in plants
(Mittermeier 2005)
Atlantic Forest Biome
• Over 90% of the Atlantic Forest now gone
• This remnants are patchily distributed in 245,173
fragments, 83,4% of are smaller than 50 ha
• Global priority for biodiversity conservation, i.e., a biodiversity
hotspot
• Few tropical biodiversity hotspots are “hotter” than the Atlantic
Forest in terms of existing threats and conservation value
(Laurance 2009, Ribeiro 2011)
Ecological research suggests that the extensive deforestation of
the Atlantic Forest has come at the cost of system resilience,
and the forest may fail to recover from any new disturbances
(Mittermeier 2011)
Ecological Threshold
• Island biogeography: 90% decrease in ecosystem size associated with 50%
decrease in species diversity (MacArthur & Wilson 2001).
• Significant time lags between forest loss and extinction (Brooks & Balmford 1996)
• Strong potential to transition to new ecosystem
• Brief window of opportunity for action
Brazil’s National Forestry Code
• Mandatory conservation and reforestation of critical ecosystems
• Area of Permanent Preservation (APP)
• 30 meters alongside streams, wetlands, small rivers
• 50 meters alongside springs
• Steeps slopes and hilltops
• Legal Forest Reserve 20% of remaining property (small holders can
double count)
Typical farm
Economic Threshold
• Short term
• Small family farms 87% of all properties and 44% of
the land in the SC
• Incomes declining relative to urban areas
• Restoration would leave many farms nonviable
• Long term
• Catastrophic flooding, infrastructure loss
• Contamination of rivers
• Extensive erosion and soil loss, etc.
Current “solution”
• Effects of poverty immediate, of deforestation delayed
• Santa Catarina’s governor: Choice between “crops or slums”
• Declared state forestry code allowing greater deforestation (Souto
2009)
• National government may follow suit
Agroecology as a Potential Solution
• Silvo-pastoral rotational grazing increases ES from ag land
• Reforesting APP and RL with high value native species (e.g.
acai) increases economic benefits from native ecosystem
Agroforestry
• Complies with forestry code
• Estimated IRR of 18% in Atlantic Forest
• Excellent initial results with açai (Euterpe edulis)
• Farmers in SC study site willing to implement if trees
and extension provided
Next project phase
High Biodiversity Voisin Silvopastoralism
From family farmer livelihood to provision of Ecosystem services
Juçara palm - Euterpe edulis
Açai – Euterpe oleracea