A curva de Kuznets ambiental (CKA) para o bioma caatinga no estado de Pernambuco

Abstract

Environmental problems happen when it interferes with any part or phase of an ecosystem by changing it. In Brazil, deforestation caused by hot spots makes the country a major emitter of carbon dioxide, one of the gases causing the greenhouse effect. There is a concern that, with the progress of development, the pressure on the environment increases. When looking at the Caatinga biome, one realizes that it is endemic and the importance it is given by presenting a diverse flora and fauna and their degradation causes, and the loss of biodiversity, defragmentation of the formation of the region. Within this context, this study investigated the hypothesis of the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) for the Caatinga biome, in the municipalities of the state of Pernambuco, that is, if there is a relationship in the form of inverted "U" between environmental degradation index (deforested area in hectares) and economic growth (indicated by GDP), at the municipal level, in the period 2002-2008 using a model for panel data. The econometric results indicate the presence of unobserved effects and are more suitable for estimating fixed effects. A further issue addressed was the impact of environmental public policies for the economic growth of the studied biome. The basic model and with the insertion of dummy environmental policy have the EKC relationship as "N" inverted, indicating that the annual deforested area is larger for low levels of GDP per capita, and decreasing as the GDP increases, then to grow back, and higher income levels, it is decreasing. Public policy variable was not considered significant at 5%. Thus, it is necessary to institute specific environmental policies to the biome, so that strengthen coexistence practices. In addition, the results show different relationships between deforestation and municipal GDP, as well as different relations of deforestation with other explanatory variables, notifying the presence of heterogeneous spatial effects.