**1. Introduction**

A region's species diversity is an important factor, resulting as a component of social and economical development when used wisely. The correct commercialization of a region's natural resources guaranties the preservation of local culture and habitat maintenance by means of the obtained income. Hence, the idea of sustainability arises, a widespread theoretical theme which is beginning to gain force in Brazil's consumer market.

The principal conceptual shift was the erroneous notion that timber resources from forests are inexhaustible, since the processes of recomposition/restoration naturally occur after exploration. Indeed a system is capable of regeneration, but this is tied to a series of factors that are usually not respected in areas illegally explored. According to a conference realized in Melbourne by Raison et al. (2001), the concept of sustainability must encompass social and economic conditions such as: respect the forest growth rate; legislation based control; productive capacity; ecosystem's health and vitality; soil and water resource protection; carbon balance and preservation of biological diversity.

Under this scenario, Brazil presents great potential for the use of its natural resources. This is due to the country's vast territorial extension (8.5 million km2) and high diversity of recurrent vegetation physiognomies. The country possesses about 5.2 million km2 of forest land (60% of its territory), of this total, 98.7% consists of natural forest formation and 1.3% of planted forests. The forest types found in Brazil can be classified as Cerrado (Brazilian savanna), Amazônia (tropical rainforest), Mata Atlântica (Atlantic rainforest), Pantanal (wetlands) and Caatinga (semi-arid forest) as well of transition areas which promotes a mixture of habitats. In many cases, the deforestation of these environments is associated with illegal logging practices coupled with agriculture and cattle-raising. The damage caused by this include modifications of the carbon cycle and consequential rise of CO2 emissions; forest fragmentation; alteration of the hydraulic cycle; species extinction; rural exodus and loss of local fauna and flora diversity.

Possibly the most logical use of these forests is the application of sustainable forest management for wood production destined for fire wood, charcoal and logs for industrial purposes. The motives for this strategy are evident, involving aspects attached to the reduction

<sup>\*</sup> Fausto Weimar Acerbi Junior, José Roberto Soares Scolforo, José Márcio de Mello,

Antônio Donizette de Oliveira, Luis Marcelo Tavares de Carvalho, Natalino Calegário and

Antônio Carlos Ferraz Filho

*Federal University of Lavras, Brazil* 

Sustainable Forest Management of Native Vegetation Remnants in Brazil 79

species of plants, 837 species of birds, 67 genera of mammals, 150 species of amphibians and

It is estimated that the Cerrado biome occupies an area of 203 million hectares, with about 66.4 million hectares remaining, with a population of 29 million inhabitants (SFB, 2010). The vast majority of the population lives in urban areas, the other fraction in rural areas, whose main activity is agriculture (soy, rice, wheat and livestock). Reforestations of *Eucalyptus* spp. can be found, intended for the production of coal, pulp, sawn wood among other uses. The Brazilian Cerrado's colonization process was stimulated by the government, starting from the 60's, where the development of intensive agriculture, mineral production and extraction of native vegetation was encouraged. This process was made possible by the construction of new highways. During this period, the Cerrado became target of deforestations and fires, being gradually replaced for other uses, and in more extreme cases, areas were abandoned after intense degradation. For example from 2002 to 2008 the

120 reptile species, of which 45 are endemic.

deforestation area was 85,074 km2 (SFB, 2010).

Fig. 1. Spatial distribution of the Cerrado biome in Brazil (IBGE, 2004).

Despite the great interest in the use of these environments for farming, Cerrado's soil has high acidity (aluminum saturation) and low chemical fertility (phosphorus, potassium, calcium and magnesium), with average annual rainfall of 1500 mm (ranging from 750 mm to 2000 mm) and of concentrated nature. The average annual temperature fluctuates between 21ºC to 25 ºC. However, due to its flat topography, its lands became valuable since low

of environmental impacts during exploration; preservation of areas not economically productive; adequacy to local productive capacity by the quantification of present available stock; reduction of costs and rise of income; achievement of continued production; market expansion through forest certification; compliance of current laws; creation of employment opportunities and most importantly to legalize the activity. Forest management can be understood as the administration of a forest resource by a set of principals, techniques and norms. Its objective is to organize the actions necessary to determine production factors and to control its efficiency and productivity in order to reach pre determined objectives. According to Blaser et al. (2011) in International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO) Brazil has presented great advance in the sustainable management of natural forests, expanding the areas subject to these practices as have other countries such as Peru, Malaysia, Gabon and Guiana.

A few explications that account for this expansion are: enhancement of technologies used for forest monitoring; improvement of administration systems; forest certification and stricter demands from consumer markets concerning timber origin.

Amaral and Neto (2005) comment that sustainable forest management has conquered increasing space as an alternative for Latin Americas' rural communities, driven by governments, donors, NGOs and community organizations. According to the authors, the main problems encountered in the implementation of forest management in the Amazon are: (a) establishment of mechanisms for land regularization; (b) strengthening of local social organization; (c) credit access; (d) forestry technical assistance and (e) the need for market access mechanisms. These problems can easily be extrapolated to the other physiognomies besides the Amazon in Brazil.

Law 11.284/2006 drafted by the Brazilian Government regulates forests management in public areas; creates the Brazilian Forest Service (SFB) as the regulator agency of public forest management and at the same time the promoter of forestry development; creates the National Forest Development Fund to promote technological development, technical assistance and incentives for the development of the forestry sector. The law also defines three types of management: (a) Conservation units for forestry production; (b) Community Use and (c) Paid forest concessions in Conservation Units of Sustainable Use and in public forests. Forest concession in Brazil is still a new experience.

A sustainable cutting plan is only feasible when it respects the time needed to close the exploration cycle, i.e. the time it takes the forest to grow biomass to equal before harvest levels. The amount of biomass required determines the duration of the cycle, since it depends on the forest growth rate. Thus, an increased growth rate through silvicultural treatments promotes shorter cutting cycles, and consequently a lower demand of forest area, reducing impacts on other forest areas. For example, the cutting cycle (polycyclic) in the Amazon can be 30 years long considering a selective exploration of marketable species, removing a maximum of 30 m3/ha (IBAMA, 2007), which could represents up to 5 trees/ha (Putz et al., 2008). The determination of the cycle duration depends on the forest type and its growth rate (Braz, 2010), this information is presented in the Brazilian legislation.
