Priorização espacial para implantação de Programas de Pagamento por Serviços Ambientais (PSA) na bacia hidrográfica do Ribeirão do Feijão, São Carlos (SP)

Abstract

Ecosystem services, in addition to being fundamental for the maintenance of life on Earth, have economic value, as they are scarce goods subject to appropriation by human beings. Despite this, the value of these services can be lost as land users generally do not receive compensation for the benefit their land produces to others and therefore do not account for environmental services in land use decisions. As an alternative solution to this problem, the economic instrument of Payment for Environmental Services (PES) appears, which consists of voluntary trade between users and providers of environmental services in order to produce positive externalities. Based on this concept, this work aims to develop and apply a methodological approach in order to identify priority areas for the implementation of PES programs in the Ribeirão do Feijão Watershed (BHRF), São Carlos (SP), Brazil. For this, a map of natural vulnerability to soil loss was created based on the reinterpretation of the information available in thematic maps that characterize the physical, biotic and anthropic environments of the BHRF, which was carried out applying the methodology developed by Crepani et al. (2001) in a Geographic Information Systems (GIS) environment. At the same time, based on the land cover and use map and the Net Present Value (NPV) and Equivalent Annual Annuity (EAA) methods, the economic valuation of the productive activities developed in each property included in the Rural Environmental Registry (CAR) was carried out. Finally, based on the crossing of information on environmental vulnerability and economic value, it was possible to carry out the spatial prioritization of the basin for the purpose of implementing PES programs. As a result, the priority area of 1,382.97 hectares was obtained, with a EAA of R$ 417,760.66, which corresponds to the crossing between the areas of greater natural vulnerability to soil loss and the pasture areas, which are those that have lower opportunity cost.