Custos e benefícios da implementação de um mercado de cotas de reserva ambiental (CRA) no Brasil

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to estimate the costs and benefits associated with the implementation of a market for Environmental Reserve Quotas (CRA) according to different marketing rules. Two different scenarios are contemplated, national scale and at the geographical biome level, with estimates for quantities and prices of the titles transacted, as well as their associated ecosystem services (CO2 capture and avoided erosion), and the recovery of Legal Reserve deficit areas. The biome-restricted CRA market is the strategy with the highest environmental benefit per unit of cost, with a transaction value of R$ 63.9 billion in securities and a compensated area of 15.3 million hectares. If the CAR market is national, without restriction per biome, the total cost is reduced (R$ 52.6 billion, with 18.5 million hectares transacted), but there would be a 37% less CO2 emissions captured, and 40 % of soil erosion avoided. The resulting cost/benefit ratio suggests that environmental compensation via the CRA market is a preferable strategy to recover RL deficit areas. This indicates that it is more important to avoid the clearance of forest remnants than to recover natural liabilities in areas already deforested.