Amazon: NGOs call for urgency in plan against deforestation – 06/05/2023 – Environment

The new PPCDAm —Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Deforestation in the Legal Amazon—, launched this Monday (5th) by the federal government, was well received among environmental organizations consulted by the Sheet. Entities praise goals such as the embargo of 50% of the areas illegally deforested and the increase in inspection teams.

Representatives of NGOs and specialists, however, say that the application of the plan is urgent, and that the government needs to reinforce political articulation in order to be able to put it into practice.

The PPCDAm was presented at a government event for World Environment Day, with President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT), the Minister of Environment and Climate Change, Marina Silva, and other authorities, in addition to the widows of the indigenist Bruno Pereira and journalist Dom Phillips, murdered a year ago in Vale do Javari.

The new version of the document that reduced deforestation, between 2004 and 2012, by 83% creates guidelines to encourage sustainable activities, integrate intelligence and inspection structures in the fight against deforestation and give use to public lands, in addition to expanding inspection.

One of the objectives is to suspend or cancel, until 2027, all registrations in the CAR (Rural Environmental Registry) that overlap federal lands. Another is the embargo, still this year, of 50% of the areas with illegal deforestation.

For Márcio Astrini, executive secretary of the Climate Observatory, the plan was successful in terms of integrating ministries and databases. One of the determinations is the production of daily alerts on deforestation and forest degradation.

“This unification allows, for example, remote inspection work with an embargo, sanctions and fines, this creates efficiency in the application, which is very important,” he said. “But what is included in the plan will not be enough. The government will need to act to prevent the reversal of policies in Congress, which we saw happen two weeks ago.”

According to Ane Alencar, from Ipam (Environmental Research Institute of the Amazon), it was essential that the plan advance in combating degradation and forest fires, in addition to creating means for economic activities that do not harm the forest.

“The creation of economic alternatives based on the national bioeconomy plan is important, because the PPCDAm cannot be seen only as a command and control plan. The alternative to deforestation is fundamental”, he stated.

The plan also establishes the hiring, through a public tender, of 1,600 environmental analysts to combat deforestation, and the development of tracking means for agricultural production, themes highlighted by WWF-Brasil.

“WWF-Brazil now hopes that the new PPCDAm will be urgently implemented, in dialogue with traditional communities and indigenous peoples, and that it will also serve as a basis for the private sector to adopt ambitious targets to curb deforestation.”

The organization also highlighted the urgency of revising the plan to combat deforestation in the Cerrado. The government expects to start the process in July.

In addition to the plan’s announcement, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) promised a correction to the NDC, which stands for “nationally determined contribution”, which is the goal for reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the country.

According to Natalie Unterstell, president of the Talanoa Institute, time for this task is short.

“The goal expires in 2025, within the Lula government and in the year of COP30 [conferência da ONU sobre Mudanças Climáticas], in Belem. There is an urgency beyond the announcement, which is positive, but we would have liked to have seen more details, which we expect in the coming days,” said the expert.

She says that the government needs not only to correct the pedaling limits of former president Jair Bolsonaro’s (PL) government, but to create more ambitious goals. Talanoa advocates a public consultation to make the NDC more transparent, as it is a signal to markets and other governments.

Brazil has until September 29 to submit the commitment that will be included in a report for the COP28, to be held in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, from November 30 to December 12.

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SEE MAIN POINTS OF PPCDAM

Axis 1: sustainable productive activities

• Develop a National Bioeconomy Plan (until 2024)
• Create seals and certifications for family farming and bioeconomy products (2024)
• Establish a community-based and ethnotourism program in the Amazon (2025)
• Create a federal program to support ecological restoration and community forest management (2024)

Axis 2: environmental monitoring and control

• Create state intelligence centers in the Legal Amazon (2023)
• Embargo 50% of the area illegally deforested in the last year in federal conservation units (2023)
• Increase by 10% the infraction notices judged in relation to last year (2023)
• Structure 10 bases to combat crimes and environmental violations in the Amazon (2023)
• Hire 1,600 environmental analysts to combat deforestation (2027)
• Produce daily deforestation and forest degradation alerts
• Suspend or cancel 100% of irregular registrations in the Rural Environmental Registry on federal lands (2027)

Axis 3: territorial and land planning

• Incorporate 100% of public lands without allocation into the Union’s assets (2027)
• Land regularization of 50,000 occupants of public lands (2027)
• Regulate identification, recognition and regularization of traditional peoples and communities (2025)
• Allocate 29.5 million hectares of federal public forests (2027)
• Audit 20% of requests for land regularization on public lands with evidence of irregularities (2027)
• Create 3 million hectares of conservation units (2027)

Axis 4: normative and economic instruments

• Expand the Amazon Fund project portfolio (2027)
• Create rewards with low interest rates and other incentives in the Crop Plan and for Family Farming for those who adopt good practices (2023)
• Regulate carbon market in Brazil (2025)

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The Planeta em Transe project is supported by the Open Society Foundations.