Brazil Announces Amazon Protection Plan

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WORLDWIDE FOREST/BIODIVERSITY CAMPAIGN NEWS

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Forest Networking a Project of Ecological Enterprises

http://forests.org/

4/30/98

OVERVIEW & COMMENTARY by EE

Brazil has unveiled an "ambitious" plan to triple the extent of the

country's protected forests, bringing about 10% of the Amazon under

protected status. While noting the arbitrariness of choosing 10%, and

acknowledging that this is clearly inadequate to maintain regional

biodiversity and ecosystem functions in the long-term; the recent

announcment is exciting and a significant step forward. It may prove

monumental--if properly enacted, and then built upon to ensure the

Amazonian ecosystem remains ecologically functional.

Any long term sustainability and non-degradation of the crucial

Amazonian ecosystem will require significant, widespread and connected

protected areas amongst which may be nested various sustainable forest

use activities. The key to successful sustainable forest use ventures

will be placing and managing small to medium scale activities within

the context of an intact landscape with large blocks of preserved

forests. Indications are that maintenance of large-scale forest

processes, composition and function may require maintaining virgin and

late-successional forest cover over 40-60% of the landscape.

Following are three news accounts regarding Brazil's declaration of

new protected areas.

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ITEM #1

Title: Brazil announces Amazon protection plan

Source: United Press International

Date: April 29, 1998

WASHINGTON, April 29 (UPI) -- In a move that environmental skeptics

are politely calling "ambitious," the president of Brazil announced a

commitment to triple his country's regions of protected Amazon

rainforest by the year 2000.

President Fernando Henrique Cardoso's promise Wednesday is the first

in the world obtained by an alliance of the World Bank and the World

Wildlife Fund.

President Cardoso's commitment would add another 62 million acres (25

million hectares) of conservation units, bringing the total protected

Amazon in Brazil to about 10 percent. The commitment represents the

largest conservation measure ever undertaken by Brazil.

Francis Sullivan, director of the World Wildlife Fund's Forest-for-

Life campaign, says Brazil's new commitment is "fundamentally very

different" from previous, often dropped initiatives. This time, he

told United Press International in a telephone interview, "the

president is being very specific" about schedules, areas, and

enforcement.

As a gesture of good faith, Cardoso signed decrees that protect four

new tracts of rainforest that total 1.5 million acres (600,000

hectares), or about 2.4 percent of the total commitment.

While Environmental Defense Fund senior scientist Steve Schwartzman

calls the signing "a very clear initial expression of intention," he

told UPI, "not to be deluded."

He says, "The Brazilian government has a history of making grand

international public gestures" regarding protection of the resource-

and species-rich rainforest. "It would be much more reassuring if it

was taking decisive steps to prevent fires and illegal logging."

The Brazilian Amazon is roughly the size of Western Europe. Only 3.5

percent of the Amazon, or 32 million acres (13 million hectares), is

currently protected as national parks and biological reserves. Under

its lush canopy lives the world's largest conglomeration of plant and

animal species. It also contains one- fifth of the world's fresh water

supply.

The World Wildlife Fund, known as the World Wide Fund for Nature

outside North America, estimates that about 14 percent of rainforest

along the Amazon River has been destroyed over the years. Along the

highly developed Atlantic coast, the destruction is near complete at

93 percent. Two of the four tracts signed on today are vestiges of the

Atlantic rainforest.

The intention, says World Wildlife Fund's Sullivan, is to link up

existing areas to form large corridors of safe haven both north and

south of the Amazon River.

Even the most optimistic observers agree Brazil's goal is daunting.

Sullivan says, "This commitment is tantamount to setting up the

Parks and Wildlife Service in the United States. It will cover (the

equivalent of) three-fourths of the entire protected areas of the

U.S."

Some of the land, he admits, will be politically difficult for

Cardoso to protect. Some regions contain rich sources of gold and

other minerals as well as valuable trees like mahogany. Strips near

the country's northern border must be negotiated with the Brazilian

army, which had planned an extensive network of roads and outposts for

security reasons.

Sullivan says Cardoso's incentive comes largely from the World Bank.

While he says, "we don't see it as a compensation deal," the

international organization has the power to rally world governments to

offer grants and loans to Brazil.

He says the World Bank has already committed $30 million to $40

million to help set up the conservation units.

Exactly how the Brazilian government will protect the new parks is

still unclear. Sullivan says "a massive beefing up" of its

environmental agency is likely.

This federal office finally received some power of enforcement

earlier this year, after a bill establishing criminal penalties for

certain violations languished in the Brazilian Congress for seven

years. Previously, environmental inspectors were able to collect only

about 6 percent of the fines it imposed.

Meanwhile, according to the New York Times, a report from the Federal

Secretary of Strategic Affairs found that 80 percent of all logging in

the Amazon is illegal.

Noting this troubled history of forest management, forest advisor

Nigel Sizer of the World Resources Institute in Washington says the

commitment is "an important gesture by the Brazilian government.

Nevertheless, it does not address the fires, logging, and escalating

deforestation rates."

Of particular concern is the effects of El Nino, which has caused

drought all over eastern South America. In March, fires burned out of

control in northeast Brazil, causing the worst destruction ever

recorded. Even parts of virgin forest, historically protected from

fire by moist and dense root systems, went up in flames, probably at

least in part because loggers illegally thin out trees while safely

hidden under the forest canopy.

"Do you know how the fires finally stopped?" asked Melina Selverston,

director of the Washington-based Amazon Coalition. "The government let

it burn for three weeks. Finally, all the shamans in the area got

together and prayed for rain and that night it poured."

Now the dry season for regions south of the equator is approaching,

and Environmental Defense Fund's Schwartzman says the government has

done little to prepare for new fire threats. And this part of the

rainforest, he adds, is 30 times larger than the ravaged rainforest

that made headlines in March.

He says, "Don't get me wrong, protection of any kind is helpful. It

would just carry more credibility with me if the discussions had

involved the plethora of grass-roots environmental groups in Brazil.

Ten years ago, these people were a tiny minority. Now they have

democratically elected officials."

He summarizes, "It would be a mistake to represent this commitment

as anything more than a grand rhetorical gesture."

Selverston says she will also watch how native peoples, who have

lived in the forests for thousands of years, will be involved in

setting up the new areas.

Nevertheless, World Wildlife Fund's Sullivan credited Cardoso for

"taking the lead" in the worldwide forest-protection initiative.

In June 1997, the World Bank announced before the United Nations that

it would work together with conservation organizations to save 10

percent of the world's forests from destruction by the year 2000.

Other countries in Africa, Asia, and Eastern Europe as well as Latin

America have been approached to join.

Nearly two-thirds of the words original forest cover is gone. Of what

remains, 94 percent is unprotected and is disappearing at the rate of

nearly 42 million acres annually.

ITEM #2

Title: Brazil to triple protected area of Amazon forest

Source: Agence France-Presse

Date: April 29, 1998

WASHINGTON, April 29 (AFP) - The government of Brazil will triple the

amount of protected forest in the Amazon under a deal brokered by the

World Bank and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), officials announced

Wednesday.

World Bank President James Wolfensohn said the decision by Brasilia

was a major step forward in protecting the dwindling Amazon,

threatened in recent years by raging fires and deforestation.

"This decision will help preserve the abundant biodiversity in this

remarkable tropical region. It is a true gift to the Brazilian people

and, indeed to the world," Wolfensohn said in a statement, calling the

move "truly a remarkable one, both for its size and content."

Brazil's president Fernando Henrique Cardoso signed decrees Wednesday

for two new protected areas in the Amazon, and two in the Atlantic

forest, totalling almost 600,000 hectares (1.5 million acres.)

Until Wednesday only 3.5 percent of the immense rain forest had been

protected, but the decision by the Brazilian government will increase

that amount to 10 percent, according to the WWF and the World Bank.

Brazil has decided to protect around 25 million hectares (62 million

acres) of the Amazon forest by 2000, an area equal to the size of

Britain, the WWF said. The government will receive at least 35 million

dollars in World Bank aid to protect the massive virgin forest.

Over the past three months, forest fires in Brazil have ravaged an

area the size of Belgium, and the country's Green Party has accused

the government of failing to do enough to prevent and extinguish

blazes.

The fires, started by arson, accident and the local farmers' slash-

and-burn clearing methods, raged uncontrolled for months in the

isolated Roraima province under a severe El Nino-related drought.

ITEM #3

Title: Brazil to protect area of Amazon the size of Britain

Source: Reuters

Date: April 29, 1998

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Brazil pledged Wednesday to protect an

unprecedented 62 million acres of Amazon forest -- an area equivalent

in size to Britain -- by the end of the century.

The pledge announced by President Fernando Henrique Cardoso is the

single-largest forest conservation bid in the Amazon, the home of one-

third of the planet's surviving tropical forests and one-tenth of its

plant and animal species.

By itself it would account for half of the goal set by the World Bank

and the World Wildlife Fund in their alliance to protect 10 percent of

the world's remaining forests by 2000.

"This is a testimony of our commitment to preserve the environment for

the benefit of our people, including the indigenous population and our

future generations," Cardoso said in videotaped statement shown at a

news conference.

Today only 4 percent of the Amazon forest is protected in Brazil,

though another 16 percent is part of Indian reserves.

Cardoso said Brazil and the World Bank signed an agreement to make

available part of the funds needed to protect the forest areas once

they have been selected.

"Money is not the issue," World Bank president James Wolfensohn told

the news conference. He said the bank had just replenished its Global

Environment Facility and there was $2.57 billion available for the

next three years.

"The issue is going to be getting the commitment from governments to

allocate areas," said Wolfensohn, who praised the Brazilian president

for his decision. "It is a true gift to the Brazilian people and,

indeed, to the world."

Environmentalists say the world's forests are disappearing at an

alarming rate.

Nearly two-thirds of the Earth's original forests have already been

lost. Of the remainder, 94 percent are unprotected and disappearing at

about 1.3 acres a second, the WWF said.

In recent months forest fires have raged in Brazil and Southeast Asia,

fueled by dry conditions caused by the El Nino weather phenomenon and

changing global climatic conditions.

In Brazil alone, forest fires have destroyed an area the size of

Belgium in the past three months.

The destruction of the world's forests will lead to a ecological

disaster affecting all of humanity, said Claude Martin, director

general of WWF-International.

"We cannot continue like this. We all need to stand together to solve

this global crisis," he said.

Martin urged rich industrialized nations to "put their money where

their mouths were" and cough up more funds for environmental

protection when they meet in London next month.

"If we don't draw the line, then our children are not going to have

forests," said Wolfensohn.

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