Valoração do serviço ambiental de provisão na APA cavernas do Peruaçu, Minas Gerais, Brasil.

The multidisciplinary approach to environmental issues has been integrated as a practice to mitigate ecosystem problems in different areas. Environmental valuation is a methodology capable of measuring and estimating representative values for natural resources, and its results are also used to support public policies for the preservation of ecosystems. Conservation Units are priority areas for the preservation of these ecosystems that act as suppliers of environmental services, these services are understood as the benefits generated by nature. However, these areas constantly suffer from anthropogenic actions that negatively impact the socio-environmental and economic aspects of small communities as well as larger populations. The Peruaçu Caves Preservation Area is located in the northern region of Minas Gerais, and it is also an area that covers other areas of conservation considered more restrictive. In this way, the objective of this work was to estimate the environmental value of the provision services provided by the APA Cavernas of Peruaçu, through the extractive activity of fruits of the Cerrado carried out by the Cooperative of the Family Farmers and Extractivists of the Valley of the Peruaçu. Through the methods of Total Economic Value and Contingent Valuation based on the Provision to Pay, the monetary value representative of the environmental services of fruits enjoyed by the Cooperative was estimated. The project was registered in the SISBio Platform under protocol number 61637 and approved by the ICMBio Coordination responsible for the management of the Caves of Peruaçu. The results show that 80% of the cooperative obtains their main income from extractivism. Therefore, these environmental benefits promote the improvement of the local economy and mitigate some aspects of the poverty of the studied communities, since the fruits extracted for commercial purposes are also used for own consumption and supply the needs of the communities in times of scarcity. Finally, an estimate of the environmental economic value of the provision services of the Caves of Peruaçu was obtained at R $ 189,518,391.30 per year, where socio-environmental values that exceed economic issues were also recorded. These results indicate that the use of natural capital contributes to the improvement of the quality of life of the communities studied while serving as a basis for understanding the importance of maintaining protected ecosystems.