Metabolismo territorial bioeconômico: transformações no sistema de produção pecuário em áreas de proteção ambiental para uso sustentável.

Abstract

In recent decades, significant changes have driven the advancement of agricultural production systems in Brazil. The cultivation of grains, mainly rice and soybeans, replaced areas of natural pasture. Livestock is an important factor in the balance of biogeochemical cycles, and biodiversity. In this perspective, in order to preserve these areas, in the midst of the growth of agricultural production, Environmental Protection Areas (APAs) were delimited, with the objective of reconciling preservation with sustainable exploitation of production systems. In this way, the objective was to analyze how the transformations arising from the change in land use in the territory of the Ibirapuitã APA conservation unit and their influence on the economic and biological flows of the livestock production system over time. Methodologically, the approach is considered mixed, based on quantitative and qualitative techniques, consisting of a case study. To this end, we built two methodological stages. In stage A, we built a database with macroeconomic and agricultural production variables from the four municipalities that make up the APA of Ibirapuitã, including remote sensing images to assess the change in land use between 2000 and 2020. In addition, regression models were used. used to determine trends in agricultural production growth and analyze the impact of land use change on the economic dynamics of the territory. In stage B, we propose a methodological sequence to identify how the land use change scenario altered the economic flows of financial inputs and outputs, as well as the inputs and outputs of nitrogen in a livestock production system in the Environmental Protection Area between 2010 and 2020. Flowcharts and indicators were designed to assess flows over time. Based on economic and nitrogen fluxes, we propose indicators of Territorial Bioeconomic Metabolism for the livestock production system. The methodological proposal of stage A and B was complemented by semi-structured interviews. The results indicated a change in land use in the APA, resulting from the transformation of natural pastures into grain production systems. Production based on economic efficiency is one of the main drivers of land use change. The establishment of pasture areas is not related to the size of the herds, but to the intensification of production aiming at profitability. The Bioeconomic Territorial Metabolism made it possible to carry out a multi-indicator study of livestock systems and contribute with opportunities for theoretical- methodological intervention linked to rural extension. The APA was essential to guarantee the sustainable use of the territory. Therefore, it is necessary to develop a representative public policy for the Pampa biome that offers incentives and encourages the conservation of ecosystem services in agricultural exploitation.