Valuation of the distribution and destruction of biological assets: environmental accounting approach applied to a settlement in conflict in the Brazilian Amazon

Abstract

This article establishes procedures for an accounting-based assessment of the wealth composed of environmental assets – land, forest and timber resources – distributed through land reform actions in the Amazon, in context of conflicts and territorial disputes. The study was carried out in an environmentally differentiated land-reform project, located in Anapu, Pará: the PDS (Sustainable Development Project) Virola-Jatobá. The material and monetary measurement of environmental components of the wealth within the space studied was carried out using the accounting method. Initially, values were determined, both for environmental assets considered to be in the domain of the state, and for those rights to use and exploit environmental resources granted to settled families. Then, damages and losses resulting from an invasion of the settlement's forest reserve, which took place in 2017, were assessed. The invasion by third parties resulted in deforestation, pasture formation and illegal wood extraction in an area where a community forest management plan was implemented. Establishing a monetary value of damages attests that distributive public policies do not effectively face the social reality in the countryside, in which settlements are impacted and weakened by conflicts, territorial disputes and environmental crimes. The inclusion of new theoretical and practical approaches of environmental accounting in multidisciplinary studies can thus contribute to expand the understanding of social, environmental and economic phenomena inherent to public active inclusion policies.