Ecosystem services in the Brazilian Amazon

Abstract

The Brazilian Amazon is the largest tropical forest in South America and provides an ecosystem plurality that benefits Society. Thinking about the importance of the services that this forest presents, a bibliographical survey was carried out with the objective of identifying the offer of ecosystem services for support, provision, regulation and culture in the Legal Amazon, also constituting a narrative on a local scale about the process of land use and coverage in the municipalities of Sinop and Alta Floresta, from 1990 to 2020. The most discussed ecosystem services were support (27 articles), support, regulation and provision (23), support and regulation (18), regulation (10) and support and cultural (7). Of the total, 48% of the research involved the nine Brazilian states that make up the Legal Amazon. Furthermore, 33% of the studies were carried out in Mato Grosso. The largest number of articles (31%) points to the Amazon Forest as a supplier of three classes of services; (I) maintenance of biodiversity; (II) biological diversity (including genes and species) and (III) nutrient cycling, photosynthesis and access to water. 58% of the articles describe the Amazon in three trade-off classes: (I) selective logging; (II) deforestation for mineral extraction; and (III) clear cutting of the forest. On a local scale, from 1990 to 2020, the municipalities of Sinop and Alta Floresta, located in the arc of deforestation, lost an average of 61% of their native vegetation. While monoculture in Sinop represented 67% of the territory's occupation, in Alta Floresta, livestock farming was responsible for 30% of the transformation of the native vegetation area. In these municipalities, there is a dispute regarding land use, causing permanent conflict due to the exploitation of ecosystem services linked to the native forest. Keywords:.