Above-ground carbon and returns to labour
“Best bet” Land-use Systems
Country reports
Alternatives to Slash-and-Burn in Brazil
Tradeoffs Between Objectives
Unique id: IDAIHFXB
Source file: D:\Projects\ASB\ASB Country and Thematic reports\Brazil country report\ASB Brazil Summary Report.xml
Authors: S. Vosti, C. L. Carpentier, J. Witcover, . Carvalho dos Santos, E. Muñoz Braz, J. Ferreira Valentim, S. J. de Magalhães de Oliveira, C. Palm, F. de Souza Moreira, A. Cattaneo, A. Gillison, A. Mansur Mendes, V. Rodrigues, T. C. de Araújo Gomes, M. V. Neves d’Oliveira, E. do Amaral, S. Fujisaka, C. Castilla, T. Tomich, D. Bignell, D. Gonçalves Cordeiro, A. Hermes Vieira, R.S. Correira da Costa, M. Faminow, M. Locatelli, M. Swift, S. Weise, M. van Noordwijk, N. Sampaio, I. L. Franke, H. J. Borges de Araujo, L. M. Rossi, E. Barros, B. Feigl, S.P. Huang, J. Cares, C. Pinho de Sá, . Carneiro, P. Woomer
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Available evidence suggests that the tradeoff between returns to labour and carbon stocks is even more stark (Figure 13). Forests are by far the best way to store carbon, but extracting Brazil nuts from them yields much less income per person-day than manual labour (the wage reference line). Managed forestry, if it were possible to overcome the institutional constraints, looks promising as an intensive system that retains large amounts of carbon. However, the most attractive system in terms of returns to labour—improved pasture/cattle—is the least effective way of storing above-ground carbon. The coffee-based systems occupy intermediate positions. Moving from coffee/rubber to coffee/bandarra improves returns to labour without sacrificing carbon stocks. Coffee/bandarra is also the more attractive system in terms of labour requirements.
Figure 13. Tradeoffs between LUS: above-ground carbon versus returns to labour
Notes:
1. All prices in RS in December 1996
(US$1 = R$1.04).
2. Evaluations for AC and RO systems
use prices and parameters from Pedro Peixoto (
3. Returns do not take into account
known difficulties in marketing.
4. The vertical ‘Wage’ line represents the daily wage for hired labour during the study period.
Source: ASB field data, 1994-97