Conserving Brazil's Atlantic forests--response.

Abstract

Buckley and Pegas claim that it would be politically difficult to reallocate agricultural subsidies to conservation. In our Report, we compare the economic costs of a strategy in which land is set aside for restoration to what is currently spent on agricultural subsidies. We do not suggest that agricultural subsidies be reallocated to conservation, but we also do not believe that such a strategy is improbable, as this has already been implemented in the United States ([ 1 ][1], [ 2 ][2]) and is currently being discussed in Europe ([ 3 ][3]). Buckley and Pegas then suggest that creating more Private Natural Heritage Reserves would be a more cost-effective strategy to protect the biodiverse regions of the Atlantic Forest. However, as we explained in our Report, preserving the Atlantic Forest is not enough; this biome needs to be restored to fully protect biodiversity. Private Natural Heritage Reserves are essentially a mechanism to preserve existing areas of pristine habitat inside private property and are only rarely used to set aside land to reforestation. The reserves are often managed to attract ecotourism, but it is unclear how degraded land undergoing restoration would serve such a purpose. Private Natural Heritage Reserves would protect additional, pristine land, but the most biodiverse regions of the Atlantic Forest are already protected. One of our main conclusions is that 30% is the minimum amount of habitat needed to preserve biodiversity, and that restoration should be focused on landscapes that currently have between 20 and 30% forest cover. To this end, the protection of remaining Atlantic forest areas through private or public reserves has to be complemented with incentives for forest restoration. 1. [↵][4] 1. S. S. Batie, 2. A. G. Sappington , Am. J. Agricult. Econ. 68, 880 (1986). [OpenUrl][5][CrossRef][6] 2. [↵][7] 1. R. A. Kramer, 2. S. S. Batie , Agricult. Hist. 59, 307 (1985). [OpenUrl][8] 3. [↵][9] 1. H. van Zeijts 2. et al ., Greening the Common Agricultural Policy: Impacts on Farmland Biodiversity on an EU Scale (PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, 2011). [1]: #ref-1 [2]: #ref-2 [3]: #ref-3 [4]: #xref-ref-1-1 View reference 1 in text [5]: {openurl}?query=rft.jtitle%253DAm.%2BJ.%2BAgricult.%2BEcon.%26rft.volume%253D68%26rft.spage%253D880%26rft_id%253Dinfo%253Adoi%252F10.2307%252F1242134%26rft.genre%253Darticle%26rft_val_fmt%253Dinfo%253Aofi%252Ffmt%253Akev%253Amtx%253Ajournal%26ctx_ver%253DZ39.88-2004%26url_ver%253DZ39.88-2004%26url_ctx_fmt%253Dinfo%253Aofi%252Ffmt%253Akev%253Amtx%253Actx [6]: /lookup/external-ref?access_num=10.2307/1242134&link_type=DOI [7]: #xref-ref-2-1 View reference 2 in text [8]: {openurl}?query=rft.jtitle%253DAgricult.%2BHist.%26rft.volume%253D59%26rft.spage%253D307%26rft.genre%253Darticle%26rft_val_fmt%253Dinfo%253Aofi%252Ffmt%253Akev%253Amtx%253Ajournal%26ctx_ver%253DZ39.88-2004%26url_ver%253DZ39.88-2004%26url_ctx_fmt%253Dinfo%253Aofi%252Ffmt%253Akev%253Amtx%253Actx [9]: #xref-ref-3-1 View reference 3 in text