The Importance of G.I.S.
(Geographic Information System) in the context of climatic
changes.
Summary: The
destruction of forests as well as its excessive use, mainly fossil fuel as
energetic source for several sectors of the world economy have been altering the
climate of the Earth in such way that, effective measures to control the
quantity of CO2 (carbon dioxide) emitted had to be taken. Historically, the
north hemisphere has contributed with 80% of the GHE (greenhouse gases)
currently in the atmosphere. In the south hemisphere, the emissions have been
increasing rapidly, forecast indicates that, kept the current level of growth,
the emissions of GHE can overtake the north countries by 2015. As for the
anthropogenic emissions, 70% would come from the burn of fossil fuels and 30%
from the change of the Earth use. (Schwartzman & Moreira apud
Ferretti,2001). The Kyoto Protocol, signed in 1997 by
COP (Conference of Parts) in the Climate Changes Convention, set maximum
quantities of GHE emissions (Greenhouse gases) in the Earth atmosphere, for many
developed countries in the north hemisphere. One of the alternatives created to
reach the necessary reductions work as a compensatory measure, the CDM (Clean
Development Mechanism), where developed countries can invest in projects to
reduce de CO2 in the developing countries. Thus, the incentive to CDM projects
in the developing countries meet the interests of these countries to avoid the
reductions of GHE emissions come to prejudice the world growth targets
forecasted to 2015. In
Key words: SIG,
MFT, Clean
Development Mechanism -
CDM, carbon credits.
1
– The CDM in the carbon credit generation through
reforestation
The
Clean Development Mechanism created by COP (Conference of Parts) permits to
transform tons of carbon that were not emitted, or which were kidnapped in the
developing countries, into carbon credits. These credits could compensate the
exceeding tons allowed by the
The
carbon market is represented by the CER´s (Certified Emission Reduction), which
are issued certifications, for projects related to CDM in the developing
countries, by tons of CO2 equivalently avoided or sequestrated (forested
projects). The cost to implement a CDM project and the amount of reduction or
sequestration
of CO2 reached will determine the cost and consequently the
viability to issue the CER.
The
actions which would cause greater CO2 reduction would be the ones coming from
reforms in the energy sector, transportation, incentives to alternative energies
use, management of residues and reforestation of forests and ecosystems
considered carbon sinks.
As
the Brazilian energy source is fundamentally based in hydroelectric power
stations, these are cheaper and less pollutant compared to the ones base in
fossil fuel. Therefore, CDM projects in the energy sector, in the case of
The
organic residue sectors, either
dumpsite or pig farming have been seen interesting to CDM projects, there
already are approved methodologies and CER’s issued for those activities in
Brazil.
The
CDM projects for reforestation are the ones which present more economical
viability with attractive return rates, nevertheless there is not a consensus
regarding its efficacy for avoided deforestation.
To
exchange industrial emission for credits generated by forest preservation
(reduction of deforestation) seems risky, as the proposal for emission reduction
in the industrialized countries would be prejudiced. These countries would buy
the right to pollute, and being the Forest Carbon more economically attractive,
corporative interests could approve projects that would result in more losses
for the environment and local populations.
Initially
the
The
Foreign Ministry of Brazil is against the inclusion of forests in the CDM, for
conflicting, in a way, with the Brazilian sovereign over the Amazonas and other
national ecosystems, such as mangroves and scrublands. These areas would be
under the control and surveillance of the CDM Project certifiers, becoming
untouchable during the validity of the project. The sequestrated carbon would be
transforming into “carbon credits” on sale in the market. We also can not forget
that there is distrust by the Brazilian government about a conspiracy to take
Amazonas from
The
main environmental European NGO’s, among them the Greenpeace, are against the
inclusion of the avoided deforestation in the CDM, whereas the NGO’s located in the United Stated are in
favor.
The
European NGO’s justify themselves in their natural resistance to the cultural
and economical North America’s domination, but they can not forget that, what is
at stake is the global warming caused by the greenhouse
effect.
The
majority of Brazilian environmentalists are favorable to the carbon credit
generation with the avoided deforestation, in special
the NGO’s located in Amazonas.
In
this sense it is undeniable to affirm that keeping the tropical forests, besides
avoiding aggravation of the greenhouse effect, it preserves biodiversity, the
hydrologic cycle, local population and the sustainable use of natural
resources.
After
many negotiations, in July 2001, it was approved the inclusion of “carbon
sequestration”, for the reforestation and outcrop
of CDM projects, without including the already existing forests, at least
during the first period of validity of the Kyoto Protocol, up to
2015.
2 –
International Environmental Right and the definition of
polluter-payer
By
understanding the term “carbon sequestration” it becomes clearer when
considering the definition of polluter-payer of
the economic environmental right e the neoclassical economic theory. It refers
to the solution of world environmental problems, within the cooperation
principle,
sharing responsibilities, of the polluter
payer’s principle,
paying by its use or the precaution principle, preventing
damages.
1
- Reforestation – planting tress in deforested areas with less than 50 years –
and outcroppings – planting in deforested areas with over 50 years, starting
from 1990
The
cost for a company to
decrease its emissions, through the improvement of its equipments and using
latest technologies is extremely expensive. For example, it is worth mentioning
the BP-AMOCO petroleum platforms that, in order to reduce one ton of carbon
would cost U$ 150, whereas a reforestation project in
In this kind of trading it is interesting
to analyze the fact that someone is profiting with this trade, but this issue is
not being taken into consideration.
The
creation of a carbon market, in the polluter-payer’s principle, should meet the
international environmental right, where the certification cost would compensate
the harm caused to the environment and the global society.
The
flexibility of ways to reduce the CO2 emissions, through the creation of a
carbon market, has showed clearly the interest of potentially polluting
companies, located in the north hemisphere, to transform what would be an
environmental-political issue into an economic issue.
Unfortunately,
the compensation principle through carbon sequestration is not enough to
compensate the harm already caused. Only through a preventive policy, based in
the protection of natural resources we could minimize the human effects over the
environment.
Preventive
actions will lead us to the issue of sustainability, the principle of
sustainable development, that, according to major entrepreneur institutions and
financing institution are not economically viable.
3 – Carbon
sequestration in
In
a)
the ones
which are favorable to the carbon market, related to industry and commerce. The
timber sector and energetic of biomass, for example, which expect financing from
GHE emission industries for reforestation projects. These would be
mercantilist projects;
b)
the conservatives, who seek for secondary
environmental benefits, but like the timber sector, also seek international
corporations to finance their preservation projects for carbon credits
generation;
c)
the ones
who have a developmental sight, concerned with CDM’s
main principle that would be to promote sustainable development, in which social
and environmental issues are priorities.
The
carbon credits, generated through carbon sequestration or from reduction of
emissions, represent a big environmental market that is coming up. It is
impressive the presence of the private sector leading and anticipating decisions
of Kyoto Protocol. The flexibility of the environmental management policies,
such as the possibility of using the payer-polluter
principle, for
example, have been generating great interests by international corporations to
approve policies for carbon sequestration and market of
emissions.
The
trend of approving mercantilist projects, where the generation of bonus would
come from plantation of fast growth exotic plants e for the use of timber
industries is alarming, for they would be occupying areas that could be giving
priorities to conservationist projects, where the preservation of the local
environment, the biodiversity and the populations’ social needs would be
priorities. The chart 1 shows the several ways to obtain forestial
carbon.
Chart 1 –
Brazilian Forestial Projects for CDM Credits
The
generation of reduced carbon credits, that is, coming from the reduction of
emissions, in
Chart
2 – Brazilian Energy Opportunities for CDM market
The
forestial carbon and the one originated from emission’s reductions in the energy
sector have their viability based mainly with the prices of land and petroleum.
For that reason the market is variable, and it can, according to the situation,
make viable one sector to the detriment of the other. Nowadays the sustainable
handling of national forests is more attractive to the carbon market than the
others, but in the case of a carbon’s price devaluation, the MDL market will
migrate to industrial cogeneration.
Taking
into consideration the secondary benefits, there are more attractive options,
the handling of native forests and eolic energy could provide more meaningful
benefits to environment and contribute to the development of
4 – The
potential for MDL in
The
dimension that MDL will reach is of interest for all
The
impacts generated by the several options of MDL project applications are
represented in the chart 3, there is a hope that these researches would help
governs to define national priorities for MDL projects.
Chart 3 –
General Indexes of Brazilian’s Main Options for MDL
5
–
Emission's reduction forecasts
The
investors in carbon credits, even knowing the costs of several options for
emission’s reduction, will invest up to the limit of their own costs to reduce
in the source of their emissions. This generates a correspondence between the
cost for obtaining CER’s and their market price, and the market is ruled by the
value of the last emission reductions demanded by developed countries. The chart
4 shows the projections for 2010 of the emission reduction activities.
Chart 4 –
Projections for 2010 for emission reduction
6 – The
territorial Management and difficulties found in
The
approval of a CDM Project goes through many stages, called cycles, since
presenting the project to the Executive Committee then going through
Validation/Registration, Monitoring, Verification/Certification and Issuing. The
length of this cycle varies according to the kind of project, and the minimum
time is around two years.
The
base scenery, or base line (deforested areas up to
The
lack of MTF (Multifinalitary Technical Filing), in great part of Brazilian
territory, will make it difficult to
The
use of S.I.G technology to define and limit potential areas to receive
investments through the carbon credit generation should be part of the
methodology for validation and management of a CDM project for
reforestation.
7- SIG and
Territorial Management
The social and
economical development presuppose the need to have full knowledge of the
territory and its spatial arrangement, so to allow action planning, besides
making it possible to organize the society’s relations with its respective
territory. To know the territory aiming its management should be the priority of
planning. In this way the need for a consistent, efficient, updated technical
file becomes vital before any management action.
In order to have
consistency in this file, it is necessary to create a safe and reliable
cartographic base, through the use of equipments and know how which permit the
properties’ georeferencing in an accurate way. In this context there is the need
to establish standards and norms in the use of equipments for data collection
regarding the territory physical lay-out. With the technology evolution in
producing these equipments, it is vital to establish norms for precision in the
gathered data, in order to guarantee quality in the generated information, thus
assuring reliability in the use of generated information.
With the technological advance of equipments to territory’s spatial
approach, allowing in such way a variety of gathering techniques, it makes
necessary to clarify some pertinent questions to these gathering techniques
before coming to the matter of equipments and methods for georeferencing.
The conventional techniques are the ones which use angular, linear and
difference in level measurements using, respectively, theodolite, level and
distant meters and their several combinations and calculations
associated.
Although these
conventional techniques are generically called topographies, this classification
does not wish to generate ambiguity related with its finality. In this seminar,
topographic surveys will be understood as operations aiming to gather
topographic surface information, its natural and cultural accidents, the land
lay-out and its precise location. It is not justified, therefore the
counterposing between topographic and geodesic survey have these distinct
finalities.
With the advent
and popularization of surveys using artificial satellites this distinction loses
its meaning. Once the obtained results by this technology are located at
geodesic dominium, this means that, implicitly, the coordinates obtained in such
way have already undergone to ellipsoidal reductions, whether expressed in
Cartesian coordinates, geographic or any geodesic or cartographic
projection.
Its is also
usual to refer to topographic survey the ones that are done taking as reference a local
topographic plan in opposition to geodesic surveys. this is one of the biggest cartographic mistakes, once we
miss the single referential. In the case of rural estate’s georeferencing, the
use of a local topographic plan as reference to the development of coordinate
calculus, area, azimuth and distance are not adequate, independently to the
dimension of a given estate.
8-
Identification and Recognizing the Estate Limits
The
rural estate limit’s identification and recognition is a task that necessarily
precedes the measurement stage. Its aim is to make sure there are no mistakes
along the way.
The
estate’s limit identification process should start by collection and rigorous
evaluation of its documentation, especially the estate’s description at the
Estate Notary Office and the technical documentation from INCRA, especially
eventual coordinates already determined and certified by this autarchy,
according to law 10.267/01. This evaluation should extend to all neighbor
estates.
Common
vortices to two or more rural estates should keep, at the end of services, their
respective locations described by the same pair of coordinates.
8.1 – Limit identification
Following up are some definitions which help to delimitate a rural
estate, where the existing documentation does not allow establishing its perfect
identification, existing many kinds of limits:
a-
Dry
line:
It is
characterized by border among estates not defined by geographical or physical
accidents. Its materialization comes from human intervention through fences,
canals, walls and others.
b-
-
Roads
In the rural
estates bordering federal, state or municipal roads, the identification of its
limits should be according to the dominium strip set by a competent institution
(DNIT, DER etc) or specific legislation.
c -
Railroad
At estates
bordering railroads, there should be observed the dominium strip of the given
road, set by a competent institution (RFFSA, FEPASA etc).
d – Transmission
Power Line, Oil pipeline, Gas pipeline, Optical Cables and
Others.
At estates cut
by or bordering these artificial accidents should be observed the dominium area
characteristics with its respective concessionaire.
e – Rivers and
streams
The
identification of streams will have to rigorously comply with the current
Forestial Code (Law 4771/65 and its alterations), observing their reflexes in
the estate dominion.
f –
Vortex
It is the local
where estate’s boundary changes its direction or where there is an intersection
in this line with any other boundary line of nearby estates.
They can be
represented in three different ways:
I) Landmark
(occupied and materialized)
II) Point
(occupied, but not materialized)
III) Virtual
Vortex (not occupied nor materialized)
Picture
1
– Vortices representation scheme
Many years of
soil and forests’ degradation is considered one of the most serious Brazilian
environmental problems. Deforestations and burning down are responsible for
about 60% to 70% of CO2 emissions in
The CDM and the
sequestrated carbon market, come to meet the need to revert this situation, the
financial support from these projects could speed up the georeferencing of
degraded areas up to 1990. A Geographic Information System model to identify and
delimit areas with potential to generate carbon credits would help to determine
priorities regarding reforestation. But we have to take care when approving
merely mercantilist projects, because they may harm even more the environment.
As
Anyway, this is
an international market, the cheapest options in terms
of carbon credits generated by each sector in each country will have priorities.
In this sense, silviculture and industrial co-generation are more attractive
nowadays, as the secondary impacts from co-generation are mostly positive and
silviculture may generate negative impacts.
To take
advantage of this moment and generate a great number of forestial credits
possible from a sustainable management of Brazilian forests is our
challenge.
In order to
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