Last year was an eventful year for the Amazon rainforest. On one hand, we saw the Brazilian government coming forth with bold plans to tackle deforestation. On the other hand, it was recently revealed that deforestation is again on the increase, after a steady decline between 2003 and 2007.
Originally pledging to eliminate net deforestation by 2015, Brazil's climate change plan was soon revised to set a less ambitious and seemingly more achievable target: 70% over the next 10 years. This plan heralded the aversion of 4.8 billion tons of carbon dioxide up to 2018, and aimed to cut the country's CO2 emissions by 80% over the next four decades.
While deforestation rates had been falling from 27,423 km2 to 11,532 km2 between 2003 and 2007, they rose 3.8% between August of 2007 and July of 2008, reaching nearly 12,000 Km2 of lost rainforest. And, apparently, that means the new conservation measures introduced by the Brazilian government are working to some degree to slow the problem.
In order to achieve its goals, Brazil's Environment Minister Carlos Minc, proposed an aggressive program of restoring native forests, as well as further crackdowns on illegal logging. Among these, WWF-Brazil praises credit restraints for properties not complying with environmental rules on deforestation licenses, legal reserve and permanent preservation areas, strengthened land ownership rules, increased patrolling activity and a sharing of responsibility for halting deforestation with states and municipalities.
Playing a significant role in all of this is the Amazon Fund, created by the government in August 2008, which aims to collect money from around the world to fight deforestation. However, as WWF-Brazil points out, it is "crucial that funds reach the field, direct to local communities, land owners and protected areas", rather than being used to "fulfill the blanks and gaps in governmental programs", in what the organization calls the government's top-down command and control programs.
Over the last 40 years, the region has already lost 18% of the forest cover, amounting to an area of 600,000 Km2. If the current trend continues, we stand to lose 40% of the Amazon over the next 2 decades. Worldwide, tropical deforestation is responsible for 20% of greenhouse gas emissions and is, along with agricultural land use, responsible for 75% of Brazil's emissions, making it the world's 4th largest carbon emitter. Most of the deforested land (about 70%) is used for cattle ranching.
Although committing to concrete targets is indeed an admirable move from a developing country, green groups were disappointed with the plan's lack of "ambition and detail". The problem is, in order to achieve the plan's interim goals, deforestation needs to slow by 23% in 2009 compared to last year. Development pressure, however, is ever increasing, with the expansion of cattle ranching and industrial soy farms, as well as billions of dollars' worth of new infrastructure projects in the works. And so far, the government's crackdown hasn't exactly been popular with certain local communities, with protests and riots erupting on several occasions and requiring military intervention.
According to WWF-Brazil’s Conservation Director, Carlos Alberto de Mattos Scaramuzza, actions against deforestation must run on four tracks:
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Protecting forests through the creation and implementation of protected areas.
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Promoting the sustainable use of natural resources, through forest management capacity building in the Amazon states.
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Patrolling actions to tackle illegal activity threats which are linked to land property and occupation (“grilagem”), to agribusiness and to large infrastructure works.
- Implement financial offset actions to reward those who protect the forest.
Whereas the Amazon Protected Area Program exists to consolidate a total of 600,000 km2 in new and existing protected areas by 2012, promoting the sustainable use of natural resources and fighting illegal activity is still risky business in Brazil. Overall, more than 1,100 people have been murdered over land disputes, including sustainability and social advocates like Chico Mendes, and, more recently American nun Dorothy Stang. Today, hundreds of activists who dare to face Amazon's illegal loggers, farmers and ranchers live under constant threats of assassination.
Nevertheless, some are hoping that the same market forces driving deforestation might bring a solution, as carbon trading allows for compensation for the carbon sinking service provided by preserved rainforest. One such scheme, REDD, or reduced emissions from deforestation and degradation, is part of the United Nations plan for the next climate change pact, and aims to compensate national and local governments for preventing deforestation.
This program would help developing nations halt logging and allow rich nations to meet some of their U.N. emissions reduction goals, yielding between $10 billion and $30 billion a year in funds for the developing world. It's criticism includes concerns over more land disputes over newly commodified rainforest, loss of livelihoods of local communities and the shifting of deforestation elsewhere.
In the end, whatever approach or combination thereof to solve this problem is undertaken, it's essential that local communities are put first, and their livelihoods are ensured through sustainable means, distributing the benefits of programs like REDD.
Related Reading:
Canada's Great Bear Rainforest
Planting Trees and Managing Soils to Sequester Carbon
Image Credits:
WHRC
Daylife.com
Levtsimring.com
