Payment for environmental services to promote land aptitude.

Payments for environmental services (PES) consist of a way of promoting conservation by providing a financial reward to landowners. We propose an approach to determine the potential of a region for implementing PES based on the land potential for agriculture. PES is a powerful mechanism able to contribute for at least ten United Nations sustainable development goals. The study area consists of the headwaters of two important basins in Brazil: the Doce and the Jequitinhonha rivers. The potential for agricultural use was determined based on lithology, soil class, and slope of the terrain layers. The land use was classified using Sentinel images between August 2019 and March 2020. The potential of environmental services were mapped overlapping the land use, the protected areas, and the potential for agricultural. We found that 42.9% of the land have low potential; 31.6% have moderate potential, 23.6% have high potential and 1.9% have very high agricultural. Native vegetation and rocky outcrops accounted together for 75% of the area. Pasture occupies another 22.3%, urban area 1.38%, mining 0.83% and agriculture 0.04%. We found that 87.3% of the land classified as low agricultural potential are still covered by native vegetation or rocky outcrops, and are natural candidates to enter a PES program. Livestock farming or agriculture developed in low potential areas are candidates for land retirement and restoration. The livestock farming is the dominant economic activity in the region, with annualized present value of US$ 106.77 per hectare, and should be the reference for the annual payment for natural areas included in a PES program. The annual budget for the PES program implementation aiming at the preservation of the current natural vegetation is US$ 10.8 millions.