Biofuel production and land use in Brazil
Agro-ecological zoning (AEZ), practised in Brazil for sugar cane production since 2009, appears to offer many enefits for the environment and biodiversity and promotes the rational utilisation of natural resources, technology and financial capital.
Certain areas are excluded from AEZ, such as those with native vegetation, indigenous land and that located in the Amazon and Pantanal biomes. Such exclusions mean that the expansion of sugarcane8 AEZ will include areas already under agricultural production. Thus, potential conflict between food and biofuel production via direct land use change in sugarcane AEZ areas will be avoided.
Indirect land use change – when crops displaced by sugarcane encroach on other land – is being addressed by policies to complement sugarcane AEZ such as the Soy Moratorium and the Forest Code, among others.