How much is Bonito (MS, Brazil) worth: the contribution of forest conservation to the regional economy

Abstract

The municipality of Bonito is a prominent nature tourist destination in Brazil, geographically located on the banks of the Serra da Bodoquena, with true sanctuaries of plants and animals, crystalline rivers and unique views. The work aims to demonstrate the importance of forest conservation for nature tourism and other socioeconomic benefits of the microregion of Bonito (MS). For this, a valuation exercise was carried out according to methodologies present in the literature on Economics of the Environment and contrasted with the benefits associated with deforestation, which shows a growing trend in the micro-region and constitutes a threat to the natural attractions that made Bonito a nature tourism pole. Tourism in Bonito is highly representative of formal jobs in the region and raises the municipal GDP. But this activity is threatened by pressure from the conversion of native vegetation areas to agricultural areas, since the loss of vegetation in the region (Bonito, Jardim and Bodoquena) between 2019 and 2020 was 1.9 thousand hectares, which means an increase in soil erosion of more than 20,000 tons/year and emissions between 213,000 and 354,000 tons of CO2 and if you choose to recover this lost vegetation, you would spend more than R$38 million on all the expenses necessary to replace the forest. The estimated gains with the expansion of the agricultural frontier through deforestation are not greater than the gains from maintaining the forest remnants that make tourism possible, since the existence of a balanced environment allows Bonito to develop several activities related to nature tourism. Visitation in Bonito has an economic impact ranging from R$130.78 million to R$368.2 million. This visitation is also important for the municipal tax collection through the ISSQN and when this collection is associated with the ecological ICMS, which comes from the existing protected areas in Bonito, they represent a significant portion of the municipal revenue, in 2019, this value was 12 % of municipal revenue. The loss of forest remnants can be privately advantageous, but losses with ecosystem services put at risk the support base of the development model that brought to Bonito a greater capacity to generate income, jobs and taxes than municipalities that do not have the same tourist potential.