STATE OF THE RAINFOREST 2014
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frequently been invoked by those who carried out deforestation: to
obtain impunity they claimed that they could not be held responsible
since they did not possess the title deeds to the land. A resolution
approved by the National Monetary Council prohibited banks from
supplying rural credits to ranches containing restricted areas and
not engaged in processes for environmental compliance. Within the
same framework, cattle from these restricted areas were confiscated
in operations that became known as `Pirate Cattle’.
From 2006, the management of public forests in Brazil was
regulated (Law 11.282) to increase sustainable forest management
and introduce the system of forest concessions in the Amazon. As
a consequence of the security provided by long-term concessions
(normally 40 years) concession holders invest in monitoring and
low impact logging techniques. The area under sustainable forest
management tripled between 2003 and 2012.
The Amazon Fund
The Amazon Fund was created in 2008 to attract international
donations for the results obtained in reducing deforestation,
to be used for the protection and sustainable use of the forest.
This provided incentives for all Amazon states to develop state
plans for combating deforestation. Civil society organizations in
partnership with municipalities scaled up initiatives with the Rural
Environmental Register, payment for environmental services and
the environmental regularization of rural properties.
These actions, and many others, are multi-institutional. They
transform successful civil society pilot projects into large-scale
public policies. Experience from civil society was fundamental for
raising the level of ambitions within the team that led the process
for implementing the PPCDAM. A good example is the bold initiative
of the ´Pact for zero deforestation in the Amazon’, elaborated in
2007 by civil society and subsequently involving the private sector,
the Public Prosecutor’s Office and then state governments, with
implications for the soy and cattle supply chain.
The reduction of deforestation rates in Brazil would, however, not
have been possible without a series of institutional frameworks
created during the 15 years which preceded the Constitution of
1988. These include the creation of the National Environmental
Policy, the National System for Protected Areas, the Forest Code (in
its version prior to 2012), and the PRODES system.
Between 2009 and 2013, reduced activities and less political innovation
in the fight against deforestation brought marked slowdown in the
pace of reduction. Between 2004 and 2009, deforestation had fallen
73%, but between 2009 and 2013 the corresponding figure was only
22%. In 2013 deforestation rose slightly (28%) compared to 2012,
but was still less than 6000 km
2
, almost 80% below 2004.
Since 2010 there has been a series of setbacks in policies that
support the important decline in deforestation in Brazil. This negative
development has included changes to the Forest Code that reduce the
areas protected by law in rural properties, stalling of the creation of
indigenous lands and protected areas, and the systematic reduction
of protected areas to allow for expansion of infrastructure projects.
How to get back on track
On the positive side, between 2005 and 2012 when there was a
decline in deforestation in Brazil, the country saw its economy grow
at almost double the rate of the years of record deforestation between
1995 and 2004. At the same time, Brazil also experienced a drastic
reduction in poverty and a strong growth in agricultural production.
Despite the decrease, Brazil today still has the largest annual
deforestation of all countries of the world. Our challenge is not only
to prevent deforestation from rising again, but to get back on track
towards ending the loss of native forest cover in the country.
For this to happen, the following initiatives will be crucial:
• Extend the annual monitoring of deforestation (PRODES) and the
detection of deforestation in real time (DETER) to all biomes.
• Complete the Rural Environmental Registers and their Plans for
Environmental Recovery of all Brazilian properties.
• Establish a programme of financial incentives for maintaining
standing forest.
• Reopen the process to expand and consolidate protected areas
in all biomes.
• Promote forest-based economy by increasing the area under
sustainable forest management and doubling the areas for
sustainable use.
• Promote the regeneration of 600,000 km
2
of degraded pastures,
combined with the restoration of forest cover in critical areas.
