Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística

About the publication - 2000-2018 Land Use in Brazilian Biomes

Natural capital accounting allows measuring and comparing, over time, the contribution of natural resources and ecosystems to the social and economic aspects of a given territory. It also provides dynamic and standardized statistics for planning and decision making, so that more efficient and sustainable choices can be made in resource management.

The importance of integrating environmental data into the System of National Accounts - SCN lies on the fact that the use of ecosystem services and the flow of these services by the economic system affect the environmental assets. In view of that, the IBGE presents, in this publication , the results of the Ecosystem Extent Account, prepared within the scope of the System of Environmental-Economic Accounting - SEEA. This first edition has as main objective to offer an analysis on the extent of different ecosystem types within the country in terms of area and provide a profile of their state of conservation based on the changes observed in the period from 2000 to 2018. In order to do that, the official environmental approach was adopted, compatible with the ecological concept of basic spatial units used in the United Nations Experimental Ecosystem Accounting methodology: terrestrial biomes. In the Brazilian case, the Amazon, Cerrado, Atlantic Forest, Caatinga, Pampa and Pantanal Biomes were considered.

As a starting point for future editions, a summary of the data from the Monitoring of Land Use and Land Cover in Brazil, also prepared by the IBGE, is presented, based on the interpretation of the natural and anthropic areas identified by the study and the changes that occurred throughout the time series, thus, showing the evolution of environmental territorial dynamics. In addition, the main changes in land use within each biome are also analyzed by the interpretation of the vectors of change responsible for the transformations of each portion of the National Territory.

The present study, also available on the IBGE website, is part of an effort to apply the international recommendations contained in the System of Environmental-Economic Accounting 2012: Experimental Ecosystem Accounting  (SEEA-EEA manual), developed by the United Nations within the scope of Natural Capital Accounting and Valuation of Ecosystem Services - Ncaves, in partnership with the European Union.

The results presented here will hopefully be a starting point for future analyses of the extent of the environment, encompassing further scales of analysis and indicators of ecosystem condition to portray the diversity of landscapes in Brazil. This way, the numerous relevant and crucial environmental issues on the national and international agenda can be addressed. As a result, we will have a dynamic portrait of the country's natural resources.