A governança das florestas urbanas: análise do município de Juiz de Fora, Minas Gerais

Abstract

Historically, urban expansion has led to the replacement of natural landscapes with urban landscapes. Changes in land use and land cover have led to the environmental degradation observed nowadays by making cities and urban and peri-urban forests (UPF) vulnerable to climate change, emphasizing the formation of heat islands. Therefore, environmental management models are necessary to mitigate such impacts, helping to improve society’s quality of life, since the UPFs provide various ecosystem services. In this context, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are important tools for decision making. Therefore, in the first chapter, a qualitative bibliographic review was carried out, collecting important considerations about the governance processes in the UPFs and their different social actors. Subsequently, the second chapter investigated the governance processes of UPFs in the municipality of Juiz de Fora, Minas Gerais, Brazil. The objectives were: (1) to revise the environmental governance policies of UPFs in force until December 2020; (2) to compare and implement the programs “Sustainable Cities” and “Tree Cities of the World”, supported by the United Nations (UN); (3) to estimate ecosystem services provided by UPFs in the sequestration of atmospheric pollutants and to account for the financial benefits of annual sequestration and carbon stock in vegetation and (4) to verify the municipality's potential towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The reviews, comparisons, and verifications were carried out through bibliographic analyzes. For estimates related to ecosystem services, the software i-Tree Canopy v. 7.0. was used as well as the value of Future Carbon Credit (CFI2Z1) as a monetary proxy. The results show that the municipality has a solid set of legal instruments related to forest governance, including tax benefits for sustainable actions. In the context of the “Sustainable Cities”, the analyzes reveal a green area of 188 m2 per person, evaluating only the circumscription of the urban district, and an expressive 918 m2 of green area per inhabitant when the entire legal urban area is included (urban and rural districts). Regarding the “Tree Cities of the World”, it is shown that the municipality meets most of the requirements for the application to the title. However, it is pointed out that some information is still unknown, making further studies related to urban afforestation necessary, among other demands. The results show an average total amount of removal of 4.45 thousand tons of pollution annually by the UPFs. The average annual total carbon storage was 158 thousand tons, and the equivalent CO2 was 580 thousand tons, with an estimated total value of R$ 155 million per year. Significant values of the gross carbon stock (3.98 million tons) and equivalent CO2 (14.59 million tons) were found, being valued at R$ 3.89 billion. The data explain that, in the context of the UN’s SDGs, forest governance policies in the municipality of Juiz de Fora meet most of the 17 objectives. Therefore, this study concludes that the city has a notable green area per capita, in addition to a great potential for environmental and economic benefits.