Trees, Forests and People (Jun 2024)

Characterization of technical and legal irregularities in management plans in the Brazilian Amazon

  • Vinicius Otavio Benoit Costa,
  • Henrique Soares Koehler,
  • Renato Cesar Gonçalves Robert

Journal volume & issue
Vol. 16
p. 100548

Abstract

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A Sustainable Forest Management Plan (SFMP) is essential for promoting the appropriate use of forest resources in the Brazilian Amazon. However, in contrast to technical and legal precepts, some plans can be used to hide environmental crimes. Therefore, based on 184 administrative processes, this study aimed to analyze the main technical and legal irregularities found in the SFMP filed by the Federal Environmental Agency between 2006 and 2021. These plans are located in eight states of the Brazilian Legal Amazon, covering an area of ​​746 thousand hectares of forest management and involving the authorization of 4.1 million cubic meters of round wood. It was found that 82.3 % of these SFMPs were authorized by single annual production units (APU), which contradicted the precepts of forest management and tended to facilitate the commission of illegal acts. The analysis identified 27 variables, resulting in 1,003 technical and legal nonconformities identified by the Brazilian Institute of the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (IBAMA), a federal agency responsible for environmental protection. Multivariate cluster analysis demonstrated the relevance of the main factors throughout the analyzed period, highlighting problems in the chain of custody, irregular forestry transport, unauthorized forestry exploitation, and fraudulent movement of credits; the latter was present in 72.8 % of the SFMP analyzed. The factor analysis grouped ten factors that explained 74.3 % of the total variance. The importance of forest management and the sustainable use of forests in the Amazon is irrefutable; however, the results suggest that SFMPs, when misused, can act as vectors for environmental crimes, mainly by incorporating and hiding wood without legal origin. Addressing these deficiencies may contribute to improvements in forest control mechanisms to curb unfair competition and ensure the sustainability of this activity.

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