Brazil Update: Protection of the Amazon
Brazil Update: Protection of the Amazon
Just months after the appointment of a new environment minister, Brazil takes new strides to rein in deforestation.
Pressure on the Ministry of Environment
Carlos Minc, Brazil’s new minister of environment and the former environment secretary for Rio de Janeiro state, is facing a set of challenges just a few months into his new post. Topping the list is providing opportunities for economic advancement to the 25 million people in the Amazon region while limiting environmentally detrimental development. The Amazon covers 2.4 million square miles, with 63 percent of its territory in Brazil. About 20 percent of the original forest has been destroyed by ranchers, loggers and developers.
Minister Minc’s term has been marked by sensitive issues such as the international community’s suggestion that protection of the Amazon region is too crucial an issue to rest solely in the hands of Brazilian authorities. Unsurprisingly, this has caused irritation both among the people and within the administration. Earlier this month, President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva declared that Brazil will take “all the responsibility” to protect the region. Added pressure also comes from national and international corporations wishing to reap increasing economic benefits from the Amazon region, particularly in the areas of agriculture and energy.
On August 1, President Lula formally created the Amazon Fund with the signing of a decree. Among other initiatives, money collected will be used to control illegal logging. Brazil's state-run development bank (BNDES) will administer the fund and has already received assurances of a forthcoming $100 million Norwegian donation in addition to assurances that Norway will continue to offer substantial funding over the next five years. BNDES is setting up the fund to receive "hefty donations" from other countries, with the expectation that donations could reach $21 billion in just over 10 years time. The BNDES has previous experience with environment issues, including management of credit lines for companies that develop environmentally clean and energy-efficient projects and respect the Kyoto Protocol.
The Fund’s creation comes shortly after President Lula launched a program designed to promote the sustainable development of the Brazilian Amazon—the so-called Program Amazônia Sustentável (PAS). The program includes several measures already in place, including re-listing land certificates in areas of deforestation, imposing commercial restrictions on farmers that illegally log, and banning agricultural credits for those that disrespect the law. The opposition argues that Lula launched the program because he had come under heavy fire for his government's lack of clear criteria for land occupation and its promotion of indiscriminate agricultural activity.
After three years of decline, deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon accelerated in the last half of 2007. And according to the Real Time Deforestation Detection System, deforestation nearly doubled between August 2007 and June 2008. In response to such reports, Brazil's environmental agency, known as Ibama, has launched a tough enforcement campaign against illegal deforestation known as "Operation Arc of Fire." Millions of dollars in fines have been levied, deforestation suspects arrested, and tons of suspect-origin lumber impounded. Brazilian environmental officials and ecology activists consider the effort critical to slowing further encroachment on the rain forest, protecting the Amazon's major biodiversity, and combating global warming. It also comes as environmentalists and an industry group are reporting greater success in discouraging recently cut forestland from being used to produce soybeans.
