INPUT Brazil
As the world responds to food security and climate change, Brazil holds a unique position of strength. Thanks to technological advances in agricultural practices and the recent success in curbing deforestation, land use is shifting towards more sustainable practices. Increasing its agricultural production needs while promoting environmental regularization and the conservation of its natural resources is a challenging agenda that brings huge opportunities to the country and to the productive sectors.
The Land Use Initiative (INPUT – Iniciativa para o Uso da Terra) brings together Agroicone with Climate Policy Initiative (CPI) in Brazil. It counts on a dedicated team of leading economists, lawyers, mathematicians, geographers and agronomists who work at the forefront of how to increase environmental protection and food production.
INPUT engages stakeholders in Brazil’s public and private sectors and maps the challenges for a better management of its natural resources. Also, it mobilizes agents of the productive chains in order to promote compliance with the new Forest Code. In addition, the project aims at analyzing and influencing the creation of a next generation of low-carbon economy policies in Brazil.
Latest work
Publication
Improving Public Contracting Processes of Socio-Eviromental Studies for Brazil's Land Transportation Projects
In this report, researchers from CPI/PUC-Rio analyze in detail the public contracting process for EVTEA and EIAs for land transport infrastructure projects in the Amazon and reveal: a lack of transparency in the contracting process and a lack of criteria for selection, evaluation and approval of the studies.
Publication
Brazil's Infrastructure Project Life Cycles: From Planning to Viability. Creation of a New Phase May Increase Project Quality
In this brief, researchers from CPI/PUC-Rio and Inter.B collaborated to analyze the instruments available for infrastructure planning – particularly those related to the land transport sector.
Publication
Measuring the Indirect Effects of Transportation Infrastructure in the Amazon
In this Whitepaper, researchers from CPI/PUC-Rio highlights the need for the logistics projects’ EVTEA and EIAs to incorporate and correctly identify the indirect effects that result from the changes in transportation costs induced by improvements. It describes how using a combination of geoprocessing tools and statistical analysis can be used to identify these impacts and provides an example of their importance.
Publication
Ferrogrão: Weaknesses and Lessons Learned in Implementing a Sustainable Infrastructure Agenda
CPI/PUC-Rio has assessed Ferrogrão’s governance, planning, and environmental risks as a way to contribute to the ongoing debate on sustainable infrastructure policies and projects in the country. This executive summary presents three studies conducted over the last year, which: (i) analyze the robustness of Ferrogrão’s planning based on a set of structuring questions, which should be prepared in the pre-feasibility stage; (ii) evaluate the administrative rites and the governance of decision-making related to the project; and (iii) develop an innovative methodology to understand Ferrogrão’s area of influence and deforestation risk.
Publication
The Need to Better Define and Delimit Area of Influence for Infrastructure Projects
In this technical note, researchers from CPI/PUC-Rio (i) analyze how areas of influence are currently defined by government bodies and in the Terms of Reference for EVTEA and EIAs for land transportation infrastructure projects; (ii) present a set of recommendations for the adoption of clearer criteria for the definition and demarcation of areas of influence for new projects, from a perspective that explicitly incorporates where the direct and indirect effects of this type of undertaking will occur; and (iii) propose a dialogue between the EVTEA and the EIA.
Publication
The Role of Cooperatives in Rural Credit: Cooperative Credit Grows During the Economic Crisis and Supports the Inclusion of Small-Scale Producers
This brief analyze cooperatives’ participation in rural credit, addressing both recent developments and potential challenges
Publication
Brazil Needs to Monitor its Tropical Regeneration: Remote Monitoring System is Technologically Feasible, but Needs Public Policy Support
This paper offers recommendations on how to move forward in developing remote systems to monitor secondary vegetation.
Publication
Protected Territories, Though Critical, are Not Enough to Slow Amazon Deforestation: Brazil Requires Coordinated and Targeted Conservation Policies
New work from CPI/PUC-Rio shows that protected territories shielded forests under their domain, but they also appear to have deflected deforestation to unprotected regions. The findings highlight the local effectiveness of these territories, and thereby support their use in protecting high-value areas. Yet, results also reinforce the importance of pursuing protection strategies in combination with integrated conservation policy efforts to reduce deforestation throughout the Amazon.
