A sustentabilidade ecológica do consumo da população de Minas Gerais no ano de 2008: uma aplicação do método da pegada ecológica

Abstract

This work s main goal is to provide an ecological sustainability assesment of the consumption of Minas Gerais s population in 2008 through the calculation of the Ecological Footprint for the region. The Ecological Footprint is an widely used methodology to assess in which degree a region and its population is ecologically sustainable. For this reason, it can be used to provide directives for public policies targeting a sustainable development. This dissertation is divided in three chapters: i. the first one brings a literature revision on the upcoming and evolution of the concept of sustainable development, as well as a discussion on the Ecological Economics interpretation of the economic scale problem, as a way to provide a theoretical foundation for this work; ii. the second chapter also a literature revision one brings a systematization on sustainability indicators state of the art, focusing on the reason of the choice of Ecological Footprint as this work s methodology; iii. the third chapter brings the Ecological Foot print methodology application, its results as well as the discussion of this results. Among the results, we concluded that in absolute terms the demand for ecossystem services in the state is below its carrying capacity, but in per capita terms it puts too much pressure on the world supply of such services.