Recovery of tropical rain forest in Gogol Valley, Papua New Guinea was monitored for 2 years following clear-fel1ing in the wet and dry seasons. Further redevelopment, reconstructed by measurements of regrowth of known ages from 1.5-10.8 years, were compared with forest heavily disturbed by fire 55 years ago and primary forest. The vegetation, survey was assessed principally by Counting and measuring trees. Because of the importance of soil seed bank in influencing vegetation recovery processes, special attention was given to the spatial and temporal changes in the soil seed bank and the seed rain which supplies it. The major findings were: (1) vegetation recovery was rapid and 97% of all colonizing trees regenerated from seeds while 3% were resprouts; (2) regrowth after felling in the dry-season differed from that following wet-season felling in having lower density, slower growth and mostly comprised resprouting tree species; (3) after 10 years, regrowth is composed principally of large pioneer trees (65% of basal area or 64% of stems); (4) the 55 year-old forest also had many (48%) pioneer trees: much of the forest in the area is of this kind and may be classified as advanced secondary forest; (5) forest soil seed bank following felling was rapidly depleted due to germination, but was rapidly replaced as early pioneer herbs matured and set seed. Trees in soil seed bank do not approach that of primary forest until after 10 years of regrowth; (6) the intensity of pioneer trees' seed rain was correlated with the fecundity of nearby parent trees and clearly controlled soil seed bank redevelopment. There was evidence of dispersal of pioneer seeds several hundred metres into an isolated area of closed forest; (7) trees left uncut following felling contribute significantly to seed rain and therefore to soil seed bank.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-26T20:26:03Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Luis Fernando de Freitas Penteado.pdf: 691795 bytes, checksum: 803fd93930323302ac5d26921cf12a66 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2007-10-08 / Although the problem related to the weather change has been widespread only in the last decades, it is not recent the concern of the international community in the adoption of measures for the mitigation of this change in the ecosystem balance. The Kyoto Protocol, however, comes as the concrete awareness of the need of acting towards the reduction of the greenhouse effect, which causes such changes in our weather, noticed, mainly, through the global warming. The main means designed by that international treaty is the possibility of compensating the emissions of the gases accountable for the greenhouse effect (GEG Greenhouse Effect Gases), which is possible only through the transaction of the Credits of Emission Reduction - CERs, commonly known as Carbon Credits. Its example was followed, individually, by several other countries, being its idea adopted, even by Brazil, most accurately by São Paulo Estate, which improved its concept in the reduction of the concentration in the atmosphere of some polluting gases and of particulated material. However, a lot is asked about the compatibility of the above mentioned Protocol inside the principles and main regulations of our Environmental Law, and also, about what would be the environmental civil responsibility of the people engaged in the projects, related to a possible not fulfilling of the reduction of the emissions, as declared in each case. In this paper, we will demonstrate the perfect compatibility among the projects that give rise to the getting of the Credits of Reduced Atmospheric Emissions and our main laws related to the environment protection, as well as to the Environmental Law Principles. Finally, we will also, as an important part of this paper, analyses the environmental civil responsibility of the people in charge of keeping the commitments made when a project is implemented, aiming at obtaining the Credits of the Reduced Atmospheric Emissions / Apesar de somente nas últimas décadas o problema relativo às mudanças climáticas ter ganhado a repercussão que lhe é devida, não é de agora a preocupação da Comunidade Internacional na adoção de medidas para mitigação dessa alteração ao equilíbrio ecossistêmico. O Protocolo de Quioto representa a concretização da necessidade de se agir de modo a reduzir o chamado efeito estufa, causador de tais mudanças em nosso clima, sentidas, principalmente, com o aquecimento global. O principal instrumento idealizado por este Tratado Internacional encontra-se na possibilidade de se compensar as emissões dos gases responsáveis pelo efeito estufa (GEE Gases de Efeito Estufa), ato que é possível apenas via transação das Certidões de Redução de Emissões - RCEs, popularmente conhecidas como Créditos de Carbono. Seu exemplo foi seguido ainda individualmente, por outros diversos países, chegando sua idéia a ser adotada inclusive pelo Brasil, mais precisamente pelo Estado de São Paulo, que aprimorou seu conceito na redução da concentração na atmosfera de alguns gases poluentes e de material particulado. Entretanto, muito se questiona doutrinariamente acerca da compatibilidade do referido instrumento com nosso Direito Ambiental, princípios e principais normas, e ainda sobre qual seria a responsabilidade civil ambiental daqueles envolvidos nos projetos, frente a um eventual não cumprimento da redução das emissões, conforme declarado em cada caso. Demonstrar-se-á, ao longo do texto, a perfeita compatibilidade entre os projetos que dão ensejo à obtenção dos Créditos de Emissões Atmosféricas Reduzidas e as nossas principais leis relativas à proteção do meio ambiente, bem como aos princípios de Direito Ambiental. Por fim, sendo ainda o foco principal do presente estudo, será analisada a responsabilidade civil ambiental dos responsáveis pela manutenção dos compromissos acordados quando da implementação de um projeto visando à obtenção dos Créditos de Emissões Atmosféricas Reduzidas