A política de pagamentos por serviços ecossistêmicos (PSE): o caso do programa bolsa verde em Minas Gerais (2010-2011)

Abstract

The Bolsa Verde program was established as a recent initiative of environmental policy of the Minas Gerais state, which provides financial incentives to farmers who practice conservation activities and/or restoration of native vegetation within their farms. In late 2010 and early 2011 registrations were made by farmers to participate in the program. Due to its innovative character Minas Gerais is one of the first Brazilian states to create such a state law and its importance as a policy to reverse the degradation process of native vegetation, it is imperative the monitoring of its implementation. In this sense, this thesis aims to analyze the participation of farmers in the state of Minas Gerais in the first phase of Bolsa Verde, and the data analyzed came from the Instituto Estadual de Florestas (IEF), responsible for the operationalization of the program. During the first stage of registration to the program modality of maintenance of existing native vegetation 980 farms were awarded of 2.587 inscriptions, with a total area of 860.835.19 hectares and a total value of R$6.467 million. This means that Bolsa Verde program will provide that amount of financial resources to benefit farmers during five years as a way to reward them for the preservation of native vegetation and, in return, farmers are committed to protect it, thus ensuring the protection of biodiversity and ecosystem services. It is believed the results can be used as initial indications on the first implementation phase of the program, and another contribution that can be pointed out is the support in the policy dissemination, whose knowledge from the audience (farmers) side is still not adequate.