Agribusiness Opportunity Costs and Environmental Legal Protection: Investigating Trade-Off on Hotspot Preservation in the State of So Paulo, Brazil

Prior to deforestation, So Paulo State had 79,000 km(2) covered by Cerrado (Brazilian savanna) physiognomies, but today less than 8.5% of this biodiversity hotspot remains, mostly in private lands. The global demand for agricultural goods has imposed strong pressure on natural areas, and the economic decisions of agribusiness managers are crucial to the fate of Cerrado domain remaining areas (CDRA) in Brazil. Our aim was to investigate the effectiveness of Brazilian private protected areas policy, and to propose a feasible alternative to promote CDRA protection. This article assessed the main agribusiness opportunity costs for natural areas preservation: the land use profitability and the arable land price. The CDRA percentage and the opportunity costs were estimated for 349 municipal districts of So Paulo State through secondary spatial data and profitability values of 38 main agricultural products. We found that Brazilian private protected areas policy fails to preserve CDRA, although the values of non-compliance fines were higher than average opportunity costs. The scenario with very restrictive laws on private protected areas and historical high interest rates allowed us to conceive a feasible cross compliance proposal to improve environmental and agricultural policies.

Environmental development in Brazilian companies: The role of human resource management

Specialized literature states that proper environmental management at companies requires support from human resource management. This occurs because the more efficient and effective human resource management is, the more it tends to contribute towards the organization's objectives. Considering that environmental management is an emerging organizational objective, human resource practices, when efficient and effective, tend to incorporate environmental goal and to become greener. In order to contribute to this emerging field of research, this paper reports on an empirical study about the relationship between human resources and environmental management at 75 Brazilian companies. The data collected were analyzed statistically using Structural Equation Modeling. The main results indicated that human resource management practices tend to statistically significant relate to environmental management at analyzed companies, through validation of H 1, but his relationship can be considered weak. © 2012 Elsevier B.V.

Indicadores do potencial de gestão municipal de recursos hídricos

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

O processo GEO na cidade de São Paulo e a Gestão Ambiental Urbana: uma análise a partir da Política Municipal de Áreas Verdes

Pós-graduação em Geografia - IGCE

A geração de resíduos sólidos urbanos e sua influência na gestão urbano-ambiental municipal de Sorocaba/SP

In Brazil, rates of urban solid waste generation increase proportionally more than the annual growing of the population. The government, from its federal authority to the municipal spheres, faces increasing challenges for Urban and Environmental management regarding to solid waste in general and, in particular, municipal solid waste. Financial problems added to public health problems that worsen with the serious environmental impacts generated every year. In August 2010 Brazil the PNRS (National Policy on Solid Waste) was approved and sanctioned in which represented a true watershed in the country as a legal framework extremely ambitious and visionary. This work presents the successes and challenges that the municipality of Sorocaba/SP is facing after more than three years of PNRS sanctioned to conduct an Urban and Environmental management suited to the new legal bases towards the subject of solid waste. The results show a large gap between the content proposed by the law and the technical, financial and temporal reality to practical implementation by the municipal government. New legislation and federal incentives, consortiums among the cities, flexible deadlines and environmental education at all levels are certainly some proposals to catalyze processes that aim to solve and overcome the challenges of solid waste

A política nacional de resíduos sólidos e o plano diretor municipal de Rio Claro/SP: o uso como instrumento para a gestão urbano-ambiental municipal

Due to the large economic development associated with the growing consumerist lifestyle of our capitalist society, the problem of uncontrolled solid waste generation worsens, which one is considered to be one of the main responsible factors for environmental degradation. As a case study and in order to solve the problem of large generation of municipal solid waste, this work aims to study the “plano diretor” of Rio Claro city, São Paulo. The “plano diretor” is a municipal law that provides guidelines for the administration of the city, which include guidelines for the management of solid waste generated in the city. The guidelines required in order to write the “plano diretor” are provided by the national law “estatuto da cidade”, providing information for the planning and development of the cities, as well as the management of the urban environment. However, only the “estatuto da cidade” does not provide enough instructions for creating management plans in order to solve the many problems from the urban environment. Thus, studies have been done about urban and environmental management, to understand how municipal management plans should be structured. As a form of seeking information that can complement the “plano diretor” to the creation of policies for managing solid waste of the city, the “Política Nacional de Resíduos Sólidos”(PNRS) emerges in 2010 as a document which provides principles, objectives and guidelines to create plans for Solid Waste Management at the national, state, regional and municipal levels. Therefore, it was possible to make a joint analysis of the “plano diretor” of Rio Claro with the PNRS to identify what is already done within the municipality about the solid waste management, and identify which aspects are most significant in the municipal solid waste management that the national policy provides. Yet studies have been done on the current municipal solid waste management...

Stream sediments analysis for geochemical mapping of Romagna Apennines (Northern Italy): monitoring and management tool of environmental resources at various scales

Geochemical mapping is a valuable tool for the control of territory that can be used not only in the identification of mineral resources and geological, agricultural and forestry studies but also in the monitoring of natural resources by giving solutions to environmental and economic problems. Stream sediments are widely used in the sampling campaigns carried out by the world's governments and research groups for their characteristics of broad representativeness of rocks and soils, for ease of sampling and for the possibility to conduct very detailed sampling In this context, the environmental role of stream sediments provides a good basis for the implementation of environmental management measures, in fact the composition of river sediments is an important factor in understanding the complex dynamics that develop within catchment basins therefore they represent a critical environmental compartment: they can persistently incorporate pollutants after a process of contamination and release into the biosphere if the environmental conditions change. It is essential to determine whether the concentrations of certain elements, in particular heavy metals, can be the result of natural erosion of rocks containing high concentrations of specific elements or are generated as residues of human activities related to a certain study area. This PhD thesis aims to extract from an extensive database on stream sediments of the Romagna rivers the widest spectrum of informations. The study involved low and high order stream in the mountain and hilly area, but also the sediments of the floodplain area, where intensive agriculture is active. The geochemical signals recorded by the stream sediments will be interpreted in order to reconstruct the natural variability related to bedrock and soil contribution, the effects of the river dynamics, the anomalous sites, and with the calculation of background values be able to evaluate their level of degradation and predict the environmental risk.

Texas electronics waste management: A policy analysis for the 21st century

Electronic waste is a fairly new and largely unknown phenomenon. Accordingly, governments have only recently acknowledged electronic waste as a threat to the environment and public health. In attempting to mitigate the hazards associated with this rapidly growing toxic waste stream, governments at all levels have started to implement e-waste management programs. The legislation enacted to create these programs is based on extended producer responsibility or EPR policy. ^ EPR shifts the burden of final disposal of e-waste from the consumer or municipal solid waste system to the manufacturer of electronic equipment. Applying an EPR policy is intended to send signals up the production chain to the manufacturer. The desired outcome is to change the methods of production in order to reduce production outputs/inputs with the ultimate goal of changing product design. This thesis performs a policy analysis of the current e-waste policies at the federal and state level of government, focusing specifically on Texas e-waste policies. ^ The Texas e-waste law known, as HB 2714 or the Texas Computer TakeBack Law, requires manufacturers to provide individual consumers with a free and convenient method for returning their used computers to manufacturers. The law is based on individual producer responsibility and shared responsibility among consumer, retailers, recyclers, and the TCEQ. ^ Using a set of evaluation criteria created by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, the Texas e-waste law was examined to determine its effectiveness at reducing the threat of e-waste in Texas. Based on the outcomes of the analysis certain recommendations were made for the legislature to incorporate into HB 2714. ^ The results of the policy analysis show that HB 2714 is a poorly constructed law and does not provide the desired results seen in other states with EPR policies. The TakeBack Law does little to change the collection methods of manufacturers and even less to change their production habits. If the e-waste problem is to be taken seriously, HB 2714 must be amended to reflect the proposed changes in this thesis.^

Management of small waste flows /

Mode of access: Internet.

Storm water management model : level I, comparative evaluation of storage-treatment and other management practices /

Mode of access: Internet.

Planning wastewater management facilities for small communities : draft /

Mode of access: Internet.

Level III: Receiving water quality modeling for urban stormwater management /

Mode of access: Internet.

Evaluation of the refuse management system at the Jersey City operation breakthrough site /

Mode of access: Internet.

Department of Energy programmatic spent nuclear fuel management and Idaho National Engineering Laboratory environmental restoration and waste management programs : record of decision /

"May 30, 1995"--Letter of transmittal.

Significance of size reduction in solid waste management /

Mode of access: Internet.