Posted on 17 September
2010
Buenos Aires, Argentina: The Argentinean
province of Misiones has approved a major
new land use law for native forests in that
area, legally backing a commitment last
year to help save the Atlantic Forest and
move toward a goal of zero net deforestation
by 2020.
The new land use law,
approved earlier this month, will better
protect more than 1.2 million hectares of
Atlantic Forest in the province.
The decision follows
a special ceremony at the XIIIth World Forestry
Congress in 2009, where the province and
the Paraguayan government agreed to work
towards zero net deforestation in the Atlantic
Forest, and to implement a package of measures
that include legislation to enforce those
commitments.
The Atlantic Forest
initially spanned 500,000 square kms, shared
between Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay.
However, only 7.4 percent of the forest
is left today – or about 35,000 square kilometers,
making it one of the most threatened and
fragment subtropical forests in the world.
The development of Misiones’
land use law began after the passage of
a national law forcing provincial governments
to stop deforestation until land use plans
for native forests were established.
That 2007 law was passed
with the backing of 1.6 million public supporters
from a December 2007 petition, and with
the active participation of WWF’s Argentina
partner Fundacion Vida Silvestre.
Since the law’s approval,
Vida Silvestre promoted citizen participation,
organized discussion workshops, and developed
materials for raise awareness about deforestation.
In April 2010, Vida Silvestre presented
a preliminary land use proposal plan to
the Government of Misiones.
The resulting map of
land use law in Misiones, officially sanctioned
earlier this month, is similar to the proposal
submitted by Vida Silvestre and establishes
more than 1.2 million hectares under yellow
(sustainable use forests) and red (protected
areas).
The approved provincial
law, also allows the province of Misiones
the access to part of the money that the
national law assigns for the compensation
of forest ecosystem services (approximately
USD$ S 200 million per year).
+ More
Brazil’s threatened
Cerrado gets a protection plan
Posted on 22 September
2010
Brasilia, Brazil - The Brazilian government
last week announced a new plan to protect
the Cerrado, a massive expanse of biologically
diverse savannah that is under huge pressure
from encroaching development.
The Cerrado Plan will
see US$200 million of federal money invested
over the next two years to protect the mixed
woodland-savannah, which covers 21% of Brazil’s
landmass, an area about the size of Greenland.
Though unknown to many
people, numerous important tributaries of
the Amazon River originate in the Cerrado.
It also feeds the world’s largest wetland,
the Pantanal.
“The Cerrado has been
traditionally been viewed as the ugly duckling
of Brazil’s biomes, as a free area to expand
on an unsustainable basis. The Cerrado region,
however, is one of the richest places of
biodiversity in the world, and is a source
of essential resources for Brazil’s development,”
says WWF-Brazil CEO Denise Hamú.
The plan is focused
on restoring the savannah’s most vulnerable
places - areas with high deforestation rates,
rich biodiversity and important freshwater
resources.
Targets include the
creation of 25 thousand square kilometers
of national parks and other protected areas,
the ratification and demarcation of 5.8
million hectares of indigenous territories,
and a land use plan that balances environmental
and economic needs.
Central to this is a
legal framework that protects the environmental
services provided by the resource-rich area.
Studies show that close to 90% of Brazilians
consume energy generated in the region,
most of which comes from protected areas.
But just over 8% of
the Cerrado is now officially under the
government’s watch. The new commitment will,
however, shelter an additional 15% of the
savannah by the end of 2010, including the
regulated indigenous territories that appear
in the plan.
And to insure other
valuable resources aren’t ignored, the government
has stated it will increase patrolling and
train 4,500 new forest rangers and firefighters.
Real time satellite monitoring will also
be used, similar to the exiting PRODES system
that has proven a huge success in reducing
deforestation rates in the Amazon.
"For the
first time, the Brazilian government is
putting its attention on the Cerrado, which
is of vital importance because its ecosystem
forms the transition with the Amazon forest,"
said Hamú.
