Pagamentos por serviços ambientais para conservação e gestão de recursos hídricos: proposta baseada no programa bolsa floresta

Abstract

Recognition of the economic value of water is one of the bases of the National Water Resources Policy, and this assessment is based on the measurement of the services provided by this natural resource, which should reflect the importance of the service to man and the ecosystem. In the state of Amazonas, the Bolsa Floresta Programme (PBF) a model for payment for environmental services (PSE) contributes to the conservation of about 11 million hectares of Amazon forest by financial compensation for the residents of protected areas (PA) that adopt conservationist practices in forest management. However, despite of its presence in strategic basins, the PBF still does not have a focus on water resources, which is an opportunity to promote, through the programme, conservation beyond the forest. In this context, the main goal of this work is to propose the PES for the conservation of water resources based on the implementation model of the PBF. For this, it was necessary to study the socioeconomic aspects of the beneficiaries of the PBF related to water, sewage and energy, having as study area the PAs participating in the program upstream of Manaus; identify the opportunity costs and estimate the avoided costs due to the environmental services provided by the beneficiaries; and finally, to propose an arrangement for the conservation and management of water resources based on the PBF. The study was carried out on three state PAs of Amazonas: the Rio Negro Sustainable Development Reserve (RDS), the Rio Negro Environmental Protection Area (APA) and the Puranga Conquista RDS. In the three PAs, there is a deficiency in water, sewage and energy services, and the Rio Negro RDS is the only PA that has access to constant electricity through a public distribution network in part of the reserve, and the generation of energy by diesel generators is predominant in Puranga Conquista RDS and Rio Negro APA. Agriculture is the main source of income, with manioc being the most exploited and banana the most profitable, but due to conservation practices and compliance with the rules of PBF, the inhabitants of PAs do not explore large-scale agriculture, renouncing the maximum profitability of the area. The forest conservation promoted by the beneficiaries of the PBF can thus generate a number of positive externalities to Manaus, especially regarding to the climatological and qualitative aspects of water. The proposed arrangement for the conservation and management of water resources based on the PBF sought to integrate key beneficiaries into the process of recognizing environmental services, for example the company responsible for sanitation services, industry, and downstream residents and/or city hall, and the river basin committee as a technical support for the arrangement. The monitoring, besides realized by satellite images, would also count on the quali-quantitative analyzes of water in strategic points of the basin. The proposal goal was to integrate a tool for forest conservation and improvement of the quality of life, with the management of water resources for the conservation and recognition of the importance of the hydrographic basins in the region. Water resources management in the state is in its initial stage, with the implementation of national and state policies. Developing alternatives that encourage the management of water resources through organizational alternatives is probably the most viable path for the region.