Redução do Desmatamento

Desmatamento na Amazônia cai 79% em dez anos

Queda foi de 27.772 km² em 2004 para 5.891 km² em 2013 / Foto: Polícia Federal Com Lula e Dilma, o desmatamento caiu como nunca na Amazônia Legal: dos 27.772 km² desmatados em 2004, para apenas 5.891 km² em 2013. Uma queda de 79%.

Entre as medidas que levaram à redução recorde estão a criação, em 2004, do Plano de Ação para a Prevenção e Controle do Desmatamento na Amazônia Legal (PPCDAm). A primeira fase do plano (2004-2008) foi orientada pela criação de mais de 25 milhões de hectares de unidades de conservação federais e homologação de 10 milhões de hectares de terras Indígenas.

Na segunda fase (2009-2011), o PPCDAm intensificou o monitoramento e o controle do desmatamento, com ações de fiscalização e combate ao crime organizado. As operações foram realizadas conjuntamente pelo Ibama, Polícia Federal, Polícia Rodoviária Federal e Força Nacional de Segurança Pública, com apoio da Abin e do Exército.

As duas fases, tanto a de criação de unidades de conservação, quanto a de monitoramento e controle do desmatamento, foram coordenadas por Dilma, então ministra-chefe da Casa Civil do governo Lula.

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As emissões médias anuais de emissões de gases de efeito estufa provenientes do Reino Unido (2008-2011, período disponível de acordo com o Protocolo de Quioto) são de cerca de 600 milhões de toneladas de CO2 equivalente/ano. Isso significa que, desde 2010, o resultado da ação para reduzir o desmatamento na Amazônia brasileira é equivalente a zerar as emissões anuais do Reino Unido, a segunda maior economia da Europa.

Monitoring and enforcement

A major initiative of the Lula and Dilma administrations to combat deforestation, Operation Arco Verde Terra Legal (Operation Arco Verde Land Legalization), introduced sustainable alternatives to 43 municipalities in the Amazon. These cities were not chosen at random. Rather, when taken together, in 2009, they accounted for 53% of deforestation in the region.

The Arco Verde initiative changed the economic model of these municipalities, through actions such as the regularization of land titles land environmental zoning, issuance of documentation for rural workers, providing access to credit, assuring citizens receive Social Security services, and the distribution and sharing of technology. More than 200,000 people have benefited from these efforts.

There have been 2,200 activities and R$ 317 million (US$ 112 million) invested in financing agriculture and livestock activities. And the rewards are self-evident. For example, Operation Arco Verde has led to a 23% reduction in deforestation in these 43 municipalities.

Another significant initiative that has brought about this record drop in Amazon deforestation has been Operation Arco de Fogo. Begun in 2008, it has focused on combating deforestation and violence through law enforcement activities. Involving approximately 300 agents, the operation is being carried out by Brazil’s Federal Police, in conjunction with IBAMA and the National Public Security Force. In the state of Pará, in the city of Tailândia alone, over R$ 23 million (US$ 8 million) in fines have been levied and 23,000 cubic meters of lumber confiscated.

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Support for cities

In addition to its monitoring and containment activities, the Federal Government instituted programs in support of municipal governments working to combat the highest rates of deforestation, in a manner such that the problem would not return following the conclusion of operations.

As a result of this strategy, in the state of Pará, the cities of Paragominas, Dom Eliseu, Santana do Araguaia, Ulianópolis, Tailândia and Brasil Novo have been taken off the list of municipalities with the highest deforestation rates in the Amazon, and once again have access to rural credit, leaving behind an economic embargo that prevented local populations from being able to use their farms.

Equally, in the state of Alta Floresta, Querência, Feliz Natal, Brasnorte and Marcelândia have also been removed from the list of those with the highest rates of deforestation.

Another important initiative, involving the federal government, civil society and farmers, was the Soybean Moratorium. During the moratorium, the area in which soybeans were planted on deforested lands in the Amazon biome represented only 0.7% of deforestation in the three monitored states (Mato Grosso, Pará and Rondônia).

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Technology in service to Brazilian biomes

Given the advances made in monitoring the Amazon via satellite data, during President Lula’s second term in office, Brazil’s federal government launched the Satellite Monitoring of Deforestation in Brazilian Biomes Project (PMDBBS). [14]

With financial support from the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), the objective of the PMDBBS was to establish and implement a satellite system to monitor the deforestation taking place in Brazil’s Caatinga, Cerrado, Mata Atlântica, Pampa and Pantanal biomes. The project seeks to quantify deforestation activities taking place in areas where native vegetation exists and to support enforcement actions to combat the illegal deforestation of these biomes.

Want to know more?

Look on the map to see where each biome is located [15]

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