13/04/2010 - In a meeting
with the presidents of parliaments of Norway,
Dag Tarje Andersen, and of the Sami People,
Egil Olli, the minister of the Environment,
Izabella Teixeira, said yesterday (April
12) that initiatives such as the Amazon
Fund can show the world that Brazil is able
to fulfill its commitments and reduce the
deforestation of the Amazon rainforest.
She explained to the
Norwegian delegation that the Amazon Region
Protected Areas Program (ARPA) is part of
Brazil's strategy to create new Conservation
Units (UCs). She added that 10 million hectares
of protected areas will be created in the
Amazon in the next 10 years, in the second
phase of ARPA. Over the past seven years,
Brazil was responsible for creating 70%
of all conservation units created in the
world. According to the minister, the Amazon
Fund is the basis for the implementation
of the Program.
Norway was the first
country to donate to the Amazon Fund. In
the first year, the country donated US$
140 million. The Norwegian government announced,
however, that its donations could total
US$ 1 billion by 2015, subject to the reduction
of deforestation in previous years. Izabella
highlighted the reduction of 51% in Amazon
deforestation from August 2009 to February
2010 compared to same period previously.
The minister explained
to President Andersen that the drop is the
result both of the actions of environmental
crime suppression performed by the Interministerial
Commission to Fight Environmental Crimes
and Offenses (CICCIA) and of the sustainable
alternatives offered to municipalities and
forest peoples. She mentioned the Green
Arc Operation, which provides sustainable
development alternatives for the 43 municipalities
that registered the highest deforestation
rates in 2008.
Izabella also asked
for the support of the Norwegian delegation
to the United Nations Convention on Climate
Change, to be held in Cancun (Mexico), in
December. She stated that Brazil will "work
hard" to promote the dialogue between
countries to achieve a good result at the
conference.
+ More
Brazil celebrates reduction
in Amazon deforestation
12/04/2010 - Data from
the National Institute for Space Research
(INPE) released last week show a 51% drop
in Amazon deforestation from August 2009
to February 2010, compared to the same period
previously. An area equivalent to 1,352
km² was deforested, compared to the
2,781 km² deforested in the previous
period. There is no data available for the
month of December because the whole area
was covered by clouds.
The minister of the
Environment, Izabella Teixeira, said the
data reported are due to the "proper
planning" of the entities involved
in fighting deforestation. She also highlighted
the actions of the Green Arc Operation,
which provides sustainable alternatives
for Amazonian populations, and the Farmland
Environmental Registry (Cadastro Ambiental
Rural - CAR). "This is the most important
step for environmental regularization of
rural properties, because it ensures the
environmental protection", she said.
At the end of last year,
the Federal Government released the lowest
deforestation rate of the Brazilian Amazon
registered in the last 21 years, when monitoring
began. From August 2008 to July 2009, 7
thousand km² was deforested.
The minister Izabella
said that in April the agencies involved
in combating deforestation will meet in
Brasília to assess the numbers of
deforestation in 2009. The discussions will
address the numbers and monitoring of deforestation
in protected areas; rural settlements; public
policies; and the National Plan on Climate
Change, which has the goal of reducing Amazon
deforestation by 80% by 2020. Izabella believes
that Brazil will achieve this goal before
2020.
After about 10 months
of the implementation of the Green Arc Operation
in the region, the actions carried out in
the target municipalities are already showing
results. For example, from the 43 municipalities
in the list of those which have higher deforestation
rates, 12 of them presented, in 2008, a
drop of over 80% in the deforestation; 18
registered a decrease between 54% and 80%;
and only one had registered an increase
in the deforestation rate (34%) in 2009.
