Pagamento por serviços ambientais: uma alternativa para a preservação das áreas de mangue do estuário Rio Paraíba

Abstract

As the mangrove areas of the Paraíba river estuary correspond to more than 6 thousand hectares. Those areas are constantly being degraded both by urban expansion and by pollution dump. With this, it is necessary to make a diagnosis and an assessment of the services provided by such areas, as well as to investigate if it is capable to participate the initiatives of Payment for Environmental Services (PES) in order to guide public policy actions aimed at preserving/conservation and better economic performance. In order to achieve this central objective, the following specific objectives were delineated: a) to estimate the Willingness to Pay (WIP) for the environmental services provided by the mangrove areas and to verify the determinants of that; B) identify the perception of economic agents regarding the importance of mangrove areas; C) to draw the profile of people regarding to the level of knowledge about the environmental and economic importance of mangrove areas; and d) discuss the suitability of these mangrove areas to participate in PES initiatives. From the use of the Method of Contingent Valuation and the Referendum Method it was possible to achieve the objectives previously listed. Despite the limitations of the research, the results obtained with the estimation of the binary logit model for the WIP were satisfactory and efficient to explain the main determinants of such a disposition. The average monthly WIP was R$ 37.16. In that the annual conservation benefits of the mangrove areas of the Paraíba River estuary for the population of João Pessoa and Cabedelo correspond to R$ 102,634,285.00. With regard the perception of the economic agents regarding the mangrove areas of the Paraíba River Estuary, the results indicated that the environmental, economic and social importance attributed by the majority of the people was considered high, while the environmental behavior of the people who use the mangrove and the presence of environmental oversight in the site were considered low. People with a high level of knowledge about the environmental and economic importance of mangrove presented a very similar profile: 39 years of age, incomplete higher education, individual income of R$ 4,227.48, family income of R$ 7,359.58 with 3 dependents of family income, an interest in environmental issues, an effort to conserve the average environment, and that the need to create and maintain environmental conservation areas is high. Finally, it was found that such areas are able to participate in PES initiatives in the current and economical way if, and only if, the annual costs are lower than the annual conservation benefits.