Investing in Sustainable Use of Biodiversity for Social Benefit in Brazil

Abstract

Brazil is a megadiverse country of continental dimension, with a wide range of distinct biomes and aquatic zones and cultural patterns associated with the use (and misuse) of nature. It is simultaneously the world’s largest producer and consumer of tropical timber, for example, and its beef cattle enterprises occupy over 70 % of all land cleared for production, which accounts for half of all tropical deforestation. With rapid loss of remaining biodiversity, conservation must rely increasingly on strategies to integrate biodiversity use and protection into the rural production landscape. The authors here appraise investment opportunities associated with sustainable use of components of biodiversity. Official data on existing uses of non-timber forest product raw materials are valued by the market at less than $500 million/year though they involve several million forest-dwelling people. Only one cosmetics corporation, Natura, has over $2 billion in annual revenues with growing sales based on a biodiversity-friendly image including community investment and equitable distribution of benefits to recognize traditional knowledge. Such business strategies create value but as yet little of these benefits trickle down. The use of native oilseeds and essences in natural cosmetics, for example, has foundered by over-concentration by producers in one or two oilseeds or essences (e.g. Brazil nut oil, rosewood essential oil) that may also result in species extinctions due to overharvest. Strategies proposed for greater integration of biodiversity within regional development processes include the adoption of a territorial perspective in which clusters of interlinked enterprises can achieve more positive feedback on local employment and income distribution by finding uses for a range of biodiversity components rather than specializing in a narrow band of species, technologies, product or service types. Small-scale natural product enterprises are most viable when upward linked with partners at a larger scale and/or have the potential to innovate in diversified product development. Research and development should stimulate entrepreneurial innovation along with basic enterprise capacity building, legal and technical support and certification of sustainable origin.

Research for this chapter was undertaken under a programme of Brazil’s National Bank for Economic and Social Development-BNDES, as part of a wide-ranging exploration into potential areas for social and environmentally appropriate investment (May and Vinha 2010).