Abstract

Legal Reserve Analysis Tool
Track: Parks and Natural Reserves
Author(s): Marcelo Matsumoto

Environmental legislation in Brazil mandates that a certain percentage of land in rural areas be preserved for natural, native vegetation; these areas are called "legal reserves". Since most of the agricultural regions are not in compliance with this legislation, an analytical tool has been developed to facilitate the implementation of legal reserves more efficiently on a large scale while emphasizing conservation. The "Legal Reserve Analysis Tool" is a customized application developed for the ArcGIS suite to identify areas for legal reserves in a landscape context. This tool evaluates three principal aspects for the implementation of legal reserves scenarios--environmental, economic and legal--and calculates the costs associated for each of the possible solutions. Based on an evaluation of the costs and benefits of each scenario, landowners will be able to decide which of the proposed solutions is most appropriate.

Marcelo Matsumoto
University of Redlands
1111 E Central Ave Apt## 3
Redlands , California 92373
United States
Phone: 909 800 7525
E-mail: marcelo_matsumoto@institute.redlands.edu