The main objective of this work was to identify and analyze the potential of forest biomass of Eucalyptus sp. such as thermal energy source for industrial use in place of fossil fuels. Two cases were analyzed: the first one estimated the total demand for forest biomass to replace the main fossil fuels in Brazilian industrial sector, with scenarios of 100, 75 and 50% replacement; in the second, it was calculated the cost of each fuel for producing ton of industrial steam (thermal energy) for a dairy industry, in order to verify the competitiveness of forest biomass compared to fossil fuels. The results showed that the areas demanded to replace 100, 75 and 50% of the analyzed fossil fuels were, respectively, 2.9, 2.2 and 1.5 million planted forests hectares, and the steam ton cost ratio using the woodchips was at least 34% lower than with other fuels, which corroborates the substitution potential in this sector.

O enfoque da conservação e manutenção dos recursos naturais, assim como os mecanismos de reconhecimento e compensação, tem ganhado aceitação no ambiente de políticas públicas. Uma ação que demonstra isso é a criação do Imposto sobre Circulação de Mercadorias e Prestação de Serviços Ecológico (ICMS Ecológico). Partindo-se do pressuposto de que vários municípios têm se aproveitado desse instrumento para aumentar suas receitas, sem aplicar corretamente esses recursos em medidas de preservação ambiental, o objetivo geral deste trabalho foi analisar a relação entre as variáveis socioeconômicas e ambientais com o montante de ICMS ecológico repassado pelo estado e recebido pelos municípios. Para tanto, dez municípios do estado de Minas Gerais foram selecionados e tiveram seus dados analisados durante o período de 2005-2010. As variáveis consideradas para análise foram: Investimento em Saneamento, Gestão Ambiental, População, Receita Total e Índice FIRJAN de Desenvolvimento Municipal - IFDM. Para verificar as relações entre as variáveis foi utilizada a análise de componentes principais (PCA), que é uma técnica matemática da análise multivariada. Os resultados mostraram que o ICMS Ecológico não tem correlação com a aplicação de recursos em gestão ambiental e saneamento, bem como não apresenta relação com o desenvolvimento social dos municípios avaliados. O município de Extrema possui a menor arrecadação de ICMS Ecológico e, ao mesmo tempo, os maiores índices de desenvolvimento social e investimentos em gestão ambiental. Desta forma, conclui-se que a maior arrecadação do ICMS Ecológico não se traduz em maiores investimentos em saneamento e gestão ambiental, tampouco melhorias sociais.

The main objective of this study was to analyze the contribution of forestry sector for the increase of revenues of Minas Gerais state municipalities during the period 2008-2013, using appropriate statistical analysis. Forestry is an important economic activity of this state, mainly through reforestation of Eucalyptus and Pinus genres. According to the work’s hypotheses, statistical procedures were performed comparing groups of municipalities with 5% and 10% or more of their area destined to forest plantations. The main results showed that: for 134 municipalities with 5% or more of forestry area, a linear relationship was observed between the Production Value of Silviculture and the collection of Tax on Rural Territorial Property (ITR), with the Gross Added Value of Agriculture in the period 2008-2013. Greater participation of forestry revenues on the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of those municipalities was also observed. For 57 municipalities with 10% or more of forestry area, there was an improvement in the Tax and Economic Development Index (IDTE). Therefore, it can be affirmed that silviculture caused positive impacts for taxes collection and revenues related to the productive sector for the municipalities with larger area of forest plantations.

The objective of this work was to evaluate the technical and economic cutting age of forest plantations considering the wood market under volumetric and gravimetric measurement units. Volumetric production and wood basic density for Eucalyptus urophylla clones stands were obtained from a forest company in the Jequitinhonha’s region, Minas Gerais State, for ages of 3 to 9 years. It was estimated: mass per hectare; technical cutting age (TCA) for volume and mass; and economic viability at different interest rates. Data was divided by three clones, being the denser (C), passing through (B) median density, and less denser (A). The results showed that in alternating volumetric for gravimetric unit, the TCA occurs at least one year later. For the economic analysis, the results demonstrated that projects for wood commercialization by gravimetric measurement are economically viable when using high-density clones, due to the higher amount of mass per volume. For clones with low density and high volumetric productivity, the analysis must be done from a volumetric point of view, as the economic results were 23% higher than in the mass analysis. It was concluded that the adoption of the gravimetric unit of measure in the forest sector tends to cause significant changes in project management, improving wood characteristics for energy by postponing the cutting age and making more sensible the genetic material selection.