Determinants of farm-level land use decisions and perceptions of associated ecosystem services in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest

Abstract

In Brazil, large-scale restoration of native forest vegetation will only be achieved by fostering the effective participation of rural landowners. Understanding the social-ecological factors (e.g. farmer and farm characteristics and government management) influencing farmers' decisions is a prerequisite. To effectively inform policymakers, researchers and farmers must evaluate forest restoration of these agricultural lands and the ecosystem services the forest provides. We determined the underlying reasons for decreasing, maintaining, or increasing native forest cover in farms of different sizes over the past 35 years and the perceived ecosystem services or disservices of forest. We conducted structured interviews with 90 farmers across 13 municipalities with high forest cover turnover between 1985 and 2015 in São Paulo state. The interviews addressed socio-economic and environmental factors. The main reasons for farmers to decrease forest cover were government incentives and to increase agricultural area. In contrast, water conservation and legislation compliance were the main reasons for conserving and restoring forest cover. Large farmers reported more reasons to decrease native forest than small and medium farmers. The benefits most perceived by farmers are related to water resources, while food production and carbon sequestration were the least-perceived benefits, indicating that there is a scale gap in these benefits between farmers, government, and organizations. Large farmers' positive engagement in restoring forests is related to their interest in carbon credit markets. These farm-level results provide necessary input for developing goal-oriented and targeted forest landscape restoration policies that aim to regain ecological functionality and enhance human wellbeing.