Embassy of Brazil

The new Brazilian administration has taken measures to curb the expansion of the deforestation rate in the Amazon. Environment Minister Marina Silva stressed that the policies for sustainable development and environment protection of the region must be comprehensive and implemented with the active participation of all stakeholders. The present administration is confronting an increase in the deforestation rate dating back from 2001. According to estimates published on June 25, 2003 by the National Space Research Institute of Brazil (INPE), 25,476 square kilometers of the Amazon region were deforested from August 2001 to August 2002 - an increase of approximately 40% on the previous period, when the area deforested was estimated at 18,166 square kilometers. The critical area covers over 60 municipalities in the states of Pará, Mato Grosso and Rondônia – the so-called "arc of deforestation". The estimated deforestation rate for the August 2002 – August 2003 period is expected to be even higher.

On July 2, 2003, a joint ministerial working group was established and announced new measures for controlling deforestation:

An emergency grant of R$20 million to the Brazilian Institute for the Environment and Natural Renewable Resources (IBAMA) to fund monitoring operations, particularly in the critical areas, where 14 inspection posts will be set up.
Concerted action and enhanced coordination of the Ministries of the Environment, Defense, Justice, and Agrarian Development, the Public Prosecutions Service (Attorney General) and the state governments of the region. The affected areas are being closely monitored through remote sensing and field information. The monitoring operation (‘Integrated Action in Critical Areas’) will be carried out with together with IBAMA inspectors, the Amazon Protection Service (SIPAM), the National Institute for Colonization and Agrarian Reform (INCRA), the Federal Police and the National Foundation for the Indian (FUNAI).
Setting up a Unified Rural Property Licensing System, which will record the land and environmental conditions of the area and give the geographical co-ordinates and satellite imaging of the properties. The information will be processed through the databases of INCRA, IBAMA, the Federal Revenue and competent environmental authorities.
Review and upgrade the pertinent legislation, including the cooperation agreements between the Environment Ministry/IBAMA and the local governments with respect to their competence to authorize deforestation.
Create state committees for the prevention and control of agricultural burning.
Ensure early publication of deforestation forecasts by INPE in order to facilitate planning, monitoring and prevention. Data for August 2002-2003 will be made available by the end of the current year and, from 2004, INPE will issue data on a monthly basis.
Review the situation of the Conservation Units and the Indigenous Lands.

These measures will be integrated into programs of the Pluriannual Plan of Action such as the Pró-Ambiente (Program for the Social and Environmental Development of Rural Family Farming) and the Program for the Sustainable Development of Amazônia. The joint ministerial working group will promote the participation of all the governmental organs, in accordance with their specific sphere of action, in preventing the deforestation of the Amazon region - as, for example, in the adoption of measures to encourage rural landowners and local entrepreneurs to carry out environmentally sustainable projects. The Ministry for National Integration has made it clear that credit and fiscal incentives will be granted only to projects which prove their environmental sustainability. The Agriculture Ministry will undertake a wide-ranging regularization of land tenure in the region. Newly established land settlers will be encouraged to engage in forest conservation according to the concept of ecologically friendly agricultural projects. As a matter of priority, the government will undertake the ecological-economic zoning of the critical areas with a view to gauging the feasibility and sustainability of agricultural livestock farming.

The government is encouraging the participation of civil society and local communities in the decision-making process for curbing deforestation. With this aim, it has announced an unprecedented debate about the INPE deforestation data, involving the main institutions and stakeholders in the region, allowing them to have a saying in the technical analysis of the deforestation.