How Sustainable Is The Use of Natural Resources in Brazil?

Abstract

The concept of sustainability is that present use of a resource would not prevent it being available for future generations. For exploited biological populations, sustainability is a demographic question. Herein we reviewed studies (released 1987-2010) evaluating presumably sustainable use of timber, hunting and non-timber forest products (NTFP) in Brazil. The studies analysed 239 cases (each case being one species evaluated in one study). Sustainability could be evaluated only in 126 cases studied with a demographic approach, 48% of which (61/126) showed unsustainable exploitations. The situation was worst for timber (24/39), intermediate for hunting (35/78) and best for NTFP (2/9). Cascading effects on other species were detected in 11/66 cases. Our results show that many presumed sustainable natural resource exploitations in Brazil are actually not sustainable. Clearly, sustainability needs more testing; the concept must be used more carefully.