Reservas particulares do patrimônio natural e a conservação ambiental voluntária em terras privadas: desafios para a sustentabilidade frente à expansão sucroalcooleira

Abstract

The volitional institution of private protected areas is recognized as an important tool for the conservation of biodiversity, complementing the public efforts of environmental protection. In Brazil, such areas are called Private Reserves of Natural Patrimony (RPPNs), which are perpetually created areas, at the initiative of their owners, and are recognized and audited by the Government. The management of the reserve, however, remains the owner of the property. In the State of Goias, there are currently 63 (sixty-three) RPPNs created, and in some parts of the State, as in the South Goiano, there are no such environmental reserves. It can be seen that in the microregions where agribusiness and the sugar and alcohol industry prevails, there is no RPPN. Thus, the dissertation problematizes the imperative necessity of the voluntary institution, by the owners of rural properties, of the Private Reservation of Natural Patrimony on their agrarian properties, especially those located in the South of the State of Goiás. It is highlighted the unique importance of volitional creation of these reserves as a mechanism for the fulfillment and effectiveness of the socio-environmental function of the land and also for the preservation of the Cerrado biome. It is analyzed the growing process of unsustainable expansion of the sugar and alcohol sector, a phenomenon that represents a new cycle of the agricultural frontier, and its social and environmental impacts. In spite of Decree No. 6.961, of September 17, 2009, creating the agroecological zoning of sugarcane, with the general objective of providing technical subsidies for the formulation of public policies aimed at the expansion and sustainable production of sugarcane in Brazilian territory, this does not happen in practice. Several social and environmental implications are already felt on account of this fact. Thus, public environmental policies should be implemented by the Public Power in order to encourage rural landowners to create, register in the competent body and sustainably manage the RPPNs, so that the rural scenarios and the memories of the rural man do not be completely eradicated by the indiscriminate advance of the sugar industry.