The environmental vulnerability and the territorial planning of the sugarcane cultivation

Abstract

Environmental vulnerability is crucial to understanding the sustainability and feasibility of human activities. In light of this, a problem is now emerging in Brazil, specifically in the state of São Paulo. It relates to the expansion of sugarcane cultivation as a monoculture, with consequential negative impacts that decrease the systemic resilience of the affected territories. Bearing this in mind, the present study analyzes to what extent environmental vulnerability was taken into account in the spatial planning of the expansion of this farming activity, focusing on the agro-environmental zoning of São Paulo's sugarcane industry as the main public policy currently guiding the state's industry. The analysis shows that this zoning, overall, considers only the edaphoclimatic potentials in planning the expansion of sugarcane farming, and disregards the restrictions related to the existing environmental vulnerability. Thus, agro-environmental zoning could ultimately increase the territorial environmental vulnerability of the state of São Paulo.