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This study analyzes the willingness of farmers to accept payments for ecosystem services in the Paraíba do Sul River basin applying a contingent valuation methodology. Ecosystem services would be those resulting from forest conservation and regeneration and sustainable and innovative production practices. The results suggest a regressive bias when some variables that capture the income effect positively affect participation in the program and acceptance of the payment offered. There is also evidence of adverse selection when acceptance of the amount offered is more sensitive to the service provision already being suited to the modes of production adopted. The results, on the other hand, indicate that farmers' decisions to join the program depend not only on their opportunity costs, but also on their perceptions about specific issues, such as their environmental knowledge or awareness, inertia to change production modes, fear of additional monitoring, and level of understanding of the program. These results are important to support the program's outreach strategies and the design of mechanisms for the selection of beneficiaries and pricing of payments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The Brazilian Atlantic Rainforest is internationally recognised as one of the most biodiverse and threatened tropical forests in the world [Myers, N., Mittermeier, R.A., Mittermeier, C.G., da Fonseca, G.A.B., Kent, J., 2000. Biodiversity hotspots for conservation priorities. Nature 403, 853–858]. The Seasonal Semi-Deciduous Forest is among the most fragmented and threatened biomes of the Atlantic Rainforest Domain. The largest remnant of this biome (35,000 ha) is protected by the Morro do Diabo State Park (MDSP), situated in the area known as the Pontal do Paranapanema, in São Paulo State, Brazil. Despite its environmental importance, the park is under political, economic and demographic pressure. The main aim of our research was to estimate the population''s willingness to pay (WTP) for the conservation of MDSP and for the Atlantic Rainforest''s remnants in São Paulo State as a whole, by means of the contingent valuation method (CVM). The results featured a high incidence of null WTP and of protest votes. Nevertheless, the population is willing to pay US$ 2,113,548.00/year (R$ 7,080,385.00/year) for the conservation of the MDSP (use and existence values), or US$ 60.39 ha/year (R$ 202.30/ha/year). The results indicate that the preservation value is strongly associated to the population''s ability to pay, increasing with income levels. Qualitative research questions showed that the population considers protected areas to be very important. Still, the valuation of MDSP revealed a gap between the government budget allotted to the park and the value assigned to the area by the public. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Regulation in the sanitation sector in Brazil is facing a great deal of debate regarding the government level at which conceding authority should reside and how private operators can fulfill social objectives. The main objective of this study is to show that these issues are not the crucial barriers to the sector''s development when one looks at the operators'' productivity performance. Therefore, we undertake a detailed analysis of the productivity level of the current structure of the sanitation sector in Brazil. In doing so, we are able to analyze how jurisdiction of operators as well as the nature of the management, either private or public, has affected performance of the current operators. Moreover, we investigate how the absence of tariff regulation has dissipated efficiencies and allowed charging monopolistic tariffs. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This study will analyze the determinants of environmental performance in the Brazilian industrial sector. It uses a database conducted by the Brazilian National Confederation of Industries inquiring about questions on environmental management over 325 medium and large firms referred to the year 1997. We have been able to test a proxy of environmental performance, such as a weighted average number of environmental control practices. Consistent with results in the main literature, our study confirms that, apart from some expected characteristics of the firm, as size, sector and foreign ties, demands from communities and market incentives are also very influential determinants. Cost savings on inputs and subsidized credit are found equally important. Based on that, we recommend flexible instruments on pollution control that capture the firm''s differentials in characteristics and compliance levels as well as dissemination of information on environmental control and related cost saving opportunities. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

We present the results of a contingent valuation study aimed at estimating the monetary value of environmental and cultural/heritage injuries caused by the Fundão (tailings) Dam failure in Brazil in 2015 as perceived by the Brazilian population. While the valuation literature on mining-related externalities is considerable, valuation studies of environmental and cultural/heritage injuries resulting from mining incidents are scarce and most available damage assessments apply market valuation methods, while rarely considering environmental and other nonmarket-valued impacts. The flooding and the release of tailings from the Fundão Dam failure led to injuries to sediments, watercourse opacity, and oxygenation, changes in riparian morphology, damages to cultural/heritage resources, mortality to fish and wildlife, changes in the food chain and more along the 675 km watercourse of the Doce River. This was arguably the greatest environmental and cultural/heritage injury ever caused by a single tailings dam collapse. The study followed state-of-the-art recommendations for the development, administration, and data analysis of stated-preference valuation methods. The survey of a representative sample of 5195 Brazilian urban households revealed that the average lower-bound willingness-to-pay estimate to avoid a similar incident in the near future was 137 USD and the parametric-based estimate was 230 USD per household, which aggregates to 7.96 or 12.91 billion USD, respectively. This corresponds to environmental damages of 176 or 295 USD per m3 of tailings released. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary This paper investigates the effects of political (mis)alignment on public service delivery when mandates are shared between state and local governments. We analyze local sewage treatment policies in the state of São Paulo, Brazil. The Brazilian Constitution divides the mandates related to the control of water pollution. It gives the mayors of municipalities the control of local sanitation services while the governor of the state of São Paulo is responsible for the quality of water bodies (watersheds and rivers). As a result, the state government and municipalities have conflicting objectives. The former is committed to water environmental protection while the latter do not internalize the externalities associated with dumping raw sewage that affect neighboring municipalities. In this paper, we argue that informal arrangements between state and local authorities play a key role in addressing this principal–agent problem or moral hazard issue. Given that constitutional debates have failed to set up a regulatory framework, the de facto solution is a more informal type of regulation anchored in the political leverage of the governor. In particular, the hierarchy within a political party allows the governor to provide aligned mayors with tailored incentives to improve local sanitation infrastructure. As a result, aligned municipalities should, on average, allocate more resources to sewage treatment. Relying on difference-in-differences estimations, we establish a causal relationship between political alignment and higher sewage treatment provision. We find that sewage treatment provision is between 18% and 46% higher in municipalities in which the mayor is aligned with the governor of the state of São Paulo. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recent 70% decline in deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon suggests that it is possible to manage the advance of a vast agricultural frontier. Enforcement of laws, interventions in soy and beef supply chains, restrictions on access to credit, and expansion of protected areas appear to have contributed to this decline, as did a decline in the demand for new deforestation. The supply chain interventions that fed into this deceleration are precariously dependent on corporate risk management, and public policies have relied excessively on punitive measures. Systems for delivering positive incentives for farmers to forgo deforestation have been designed but not fully implemented. Territorial approaches to deforestation have been effective and could consolidate progress in slowing deforestation while providing a framework for addressing other important dimensions of sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this study is to investigate the cost of the use of fire in the Amazon. Burnings are commonplace in the Amazon production process and contribute towards the region''s agricultural expansion. Fire is used by farmers in the land preparation process and in clearing forest areas. It also helps combat plants that overrun pastures. However, fire also generates losses for farmers and landowners when it gets out of control. Since the use of fire from a private perspective obeys an economic rationale, the measurement of losses associated to the use of fire must consider the difference between intentional and accidental fires. This study introduces these important concepts which are fundamental to measure the cost of fire. Losses also reach social proportions. To address this issue, we estimated losses related to the release of carbon into the atmosphere, as well as losses due to respiratory ailments provoked by smoke from fires. Our study covered costs related to accidental pasture fires, fence losses, forest losses, carbon emissions, and impacts on human health. Our most conservative estimates indicate an average cost of around 0.2% of the region''s GDP during the 1996–1999 period. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]