Abstract
The purpose of the study was to evaluate the use of and suggest possible adjustments to indicators of biodiversity loss for LCA proposed by Chaudhary and Books (2018). For this, we analyzed soybean production in Brazil. Potential damage to biodiversity has been determined for all Brazilian ecoregions: the Amazon; the Atlantic forest; Caatinga; Cerrado; Pampas; and the Pantanal. Two dimensions of assessment were considered – global and regional – in addition to Average-country. An adjustment was proposed for the vulnerability coefficient to the indicators Average-country Brazil: the Regional Species Fragility Index (FI). Two inventories were created using two different functional units: area of production of soybean by ecoregion (year m2); and area corresponding to production of 1 kg of soybean (year m2). Thus, we observed that when the indicators of aggregate values were adopted, the Atlantic Forest was the ecoregion most affected by the crop. Regarding the assessments of the Potential Biodiversity Damage (BD) Global and Regional indicators, the Atlantic Forest and the Amazon were the ecoregions that suffered the highest impacts, mainly on plants, birds and amphibians taxa. Besides, the impacts at the global level were always more expressive than the regional ones. Due to this, we noticed that the results were influenced by the Vulnerability Score (VS). The suitability of the VS for FI is relevant and the adjustment in the equation can be suggested for other regions. Considering the results found here, to prevent regional impacts, technical measures such as extensive farming and crop rotation should be prioritized as impact mitigation actions. However, political measures tend to be more effective at geographic levels when addressing more than one ecoregion, due to the standardization of preservation procedures. Thus, from the results reported here, we conclude that the FI is relevant to diagnose measures at the administrative geographic levels of the ecoregions present in a single country, and the applied indicators reinforce that the Atlantic Forest ecoregion is the most vulnerable due to the replacement of wild forest for cultivated areas, which includes soybean crops.
Highlights
In Brazil, the agricultural sector contributed 21.4% to the gross do mestic product (GDP) and 43% of the country’s exports in 2019 (CNA, 2020)
In order to test the degree of biodiversity damage at country level, we propose the Regional Species Fragility Index (FI)
The results found in this study evidence that the potential damage to species per taxa according to the BDGlobal due to soybean cultivation, regardless of the functional unit adopted, was more relevant in the Atlantic Forest ecoregion, in which the highest values of total species richness (Sorg) were observed, followed by the Amazon
Summary
In Brazil, the agricultural sector contributed 21.4% to the gross do mestic product (GDP) and 43% of the country’s exports in 2019 (CNA, 2020). Brazil occupies a prominent position in the global supply and demand of products of the soybean agro-industrial complex. Agriculture intensification demands agricultural inputs and some times agricultural practices that may lead to the destruction of ecosys tems and depredation of natural resources. Environmental issues are considered to be of relatively low priority to the productive sector. Concern about environment destruction has been growing around the world, and discussions on sustainability are presently on the agenda. Changes in land use is one of the main topics in the scientific field due to their impacts, such as degradation of ecoregions, depletion of natural resources and biodiversity loss (Foley et al, 2005)
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