rainforest nut
In Environmental Services Lies Part of the solution to deforestation in the Amazon rainforest
The Amazon forest has become an important issue within the discussions on climate change, given its importance not only as a carbon sink but also as a reservoir of biological diversity and a natural water and climate regulator. Its preservation is a necessity, and not subject to discussion. Gone are the days of vicious fighting between environmentalists hugging trees and single-minded developers. Both fields have been moved, environmentalists mostly recognize and appreciate the imperative of improving living conditions and government and developers begin to understand the need for cooperation on environmental issues with local and global implications. Fresh in everyone mind are simultaneous drought in the Amazon in 2005 and Katrina brought hurricane season in the Caribbean.
Amid unprecedented understanding of environmental damage, one could conclude that the conservation of the Amazon should be only a consequence. However, for the 25 million Brazilians who live in the forest, is an equation without changes: the forest is still worth more lying than standing. Cattle ranching, logging and agriculture more profitable than sustainable extraction of nuts, oils and essences. Traditionally, legal logging is too bureaucratic for small landowners, land is cheap and plentiful for anyone to keep, and monitoring and enforcement too lax to formality worth. However, the Brazilian institutions have improved in the areas of control and implementation which increases the costs of informality. Such a change in the equation has had the desired effect of reducing deforestation. An unintended consequence, however, has been the reduction productivity in many of the poorest and traditionally more informal.
The Brazilian federal government has partially addressed through the Programme Bolsa Familia, which is a transfer payment to poor families. State governments have developed other solutions. In Amazonas, the largest state of Brazil (2.3 times the size Texas), located in the western part of the Brazilian Amazon state policies have focused on increasing incentives for sustainable activities through:
- the establishment of minimum prices for sustainably produced goods such as oil, essences and rubber;
- the creation of the Bolsa Floresta, a transfer payment to families living in forests in exchange for a commitment to non-deforestation, satellite monitoring;
- a fivefold increase in the Science Technology and investment, seeking to develop technologies that tip the economic balance towards sustainability
- technical assistance for existing small business owners, as well as distance learning courses throughout the state in forestry, forest management and fish farming;
- concessions of land in order to involve those who occupy the land, accusing the rights and duties;
- granting preferential financing for small scale projects in the above segments and sustainable, such as fish, wildlife management lake, production groups, etc.
Monitoring and enforcement have also increased, but as a form of support to initiatives above.
All these efforts aim to rebalance the equation of forest extends down in front of standing forest to those living within it, but aim to include externalities in the equation. It is important to remember that externalities are: climate change across the world, changing rainfall patterns at the regional level and loss of biodiversity in the world. Most of these are the externalities that felt out of Brazil and therefore we the issue of environmental assessment services. Currently, the State of Amazonas and the Brazilian Government to incur these costs for the most out of their own budgets. Amazonas budget "of about $ 1,000 per capita per year is barely enough to cover universal health care and education for the population 3.5 million dollars, far less incentive to reduce deforestation that are not compatible with any other source. A roundtrip ticket to fly from Manaus, state capital, to Tabatinga on the border of the state, often above $ 1,000.
The ability to value environmental services, the best known of which is carbon credits, the Amazon provides the greatest opportunity in history. In an innovative structure, the state partnered with Marriott to preserve the conservation area of 500 hectares, providing improved living conditions of people living in it, in exchange for the provision of services environmental probable future reduction of carbon emissions. This reserve, in the Juma River, is in the arc of deforestation (ie, probably would been cleared in a business as usual scenario) and addresses social and sustainable improvements to support the development, transfer payments and monitoring force to be rewarded with REV (voluntary carbon emission reduction) and by the CCB standards, mainly due to the expected reduction of deforestation.
The Most important in this project is the advent of a powerful economic incentive for standing forests. With key international partners such as Marriott, Amazonas State will be able to achieve a scenario where deforestation, and at a low level (approximately 750 square kilometers or 0.05% of the state is deforested per year) would be zero. However, these actions are still a drop in the ocean as a result of political efforts and corporate environmental initiatives. A global environmental regime framework of services required. The new version of the Kyoto Protocol, currently being negotiated under the UN Framework Convention Climate Change Conference (UNFCCC) includes assessment of environmental services if we want progress, not only in the Amazon, but also in all the land tropical forest. As committed as we are with this objective, the state government funding alone can not withstand the immense variety of actions needed and yet, given that the benefits should be shared by all of us who would not even be fair to rely solely on local budgets.
About the Author
Secretary for Planning and Economic Development, State of Amazonas, Brazil
If you want to see the future of Global Green, visit to Brazil is ground zero for global green. Initial System largest tropical forest, rich in the world, Brazil is where the battle for biodiversity and combating deforestation was won or lost.
