Impacts of deforestation on some orchids of São Paulo State, Brazil

Abstract

Countries that are home to high levels of biodiversity need to address a fundamental question: which is more important, conservation of valuable – but unexplored – biodiversity, or deforestation for economic development? Brazil is one prominent and typical example of this struggle, finding itself at a crossroad because it is one of the major biodiversity centers in the world (∼20% of Earth’s biodiversity) with one of the largest centers of endemism (Government of Brazil, 2012a). Brazil is also a nation with record-breaking deforestation, having led to the removal of more than 165,000 km2 from the Amazon, the Cerrado, Mata Atlântica and other biomes within a period of five years, from 2000 to 2005 (Hansen et al., 2010). This is equivalent to double the total area of Austria. Brazilian deforestation was responsible for 30% of carbon emissions, between 2000 and 2010 mainly from replacement by cattle (71%) and soybean production (29%) in deforested areas (Karstensen et al., 2013). In situ conservation in Brazil is inefficient because government policies encourage the economic use of forests (Moran, 2011), similar to other countries such as