Deforestation rate in Amazon decreased by 25% between 2005 and 2006

In what is seen as a major success for Brazil's president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, new figures show that the deforestation rate in the Amazon has decreased by 25 percent between August 2005 and July 2006, despite high commodity prices and rapidly growing demand for crops like soybeans. The data [*.pdf/Portuguese] released by the Ministry of the Environment show that the deforestation rate has reached the lowest level since at least the year 2000. It is the second consecutive decrease measured since President Lula's new comprehensive policies were enforced, indicating a historic trend reversal.

The reduction could be observed across all territories and administrative divisions: in seven out of the nine tropical rainforest states, in the 'Federal Conservation Units' ('unidades de conservação' - UCs), in the peri-urban zones as well as in the Indigenous Territories.

President Lula welcomed the figures and said the decrease had prevented the release of millions of tonnes of CO2 gas into the atmosphere. The Brazilian government says environmental policies, including measures against illegal logging, have had a clear effect. The president stressed that strong policies make sustainable development more than an empty word:

I'm convinced that it's possible to have growth while preserving the environment. The challenge that we have overcome is knowing how to use the jungle and how to preserve the environment while allowing people's lives to be improved.

"We are gradually going back to the situation of the 1970s", said the minister of the Environment, Marina Silva, referring to a period when the forest suffered little pressures.

Three thematic lines have been essential for achieving this success: a rural and territorial land-use policy, a monitoring and environmental control system and the promotion of sustainable agricultural activities. Brazil is perhaps the only country in the world that is implementing a consistent and comprehensive plan that allows for both the protection and preservation of the rich biodiversity of the Amazon, while at the same time quickly and substantially reducing its contributions to climate change. - Dilma Rousseff, chief of staff of the president

The latest estimate is the result of Brazil's Real Time Deforestation Detection System. The data were announced last friday, in Brasilia, at a press conference attended by the minister of the Environment, Marina Silva, of Agrarian Development, Guillermo Cassel, of Agriculture, Reinhold Stephanes and by Dilma Rousseff, the president's chief of staff.

The results
This is the second fall in the deforestation rate since March 2004, when the Plan for Prevention and Control of Deforestation in Amazônia (PPCDA) was launched by president Lula. This integrated plan combines different technologies (earth monitoring), policies and enforcement instruments. The accounting is a undertaken in an inter-ministerial manner, with 13 ministries cooperating.

Since 2004, the deforestation rate has fallen by 49%. In 2004-2005, the area deforested in the Amazon region was 18,793 square kilometres; fallling back in 2005-2006 to 14,039 square kilometres. Of the nine states that make up the Amazon region, seven have witnessed a reduction against last year (table, click to enlarge):
energy :: sustainability :: biomass :: bioenergy :: biofuels :: agriculture :: deforestation :: Amazon :: Brazil ::

Pará was the state that had greatest area deforested in the period and showed the lightest decrease. To be precise, the paraense territory registered a fall of 4,48% of the rate in relation the 2005. In 2006, the total deforested area in Pará was 5,005 square kilometres.

The Mato Grosso witnessed a fall of 39,36%, with the largest reduction in absolute terms: 7,145 square kilometres were registered in 2005 against 4,333 square kilometres in 2006.

The city that registered the biggest growth in the deforestation indices was New Repartimento, in Pará state: the total deforested area grew by 214 square kilometres, in 2005, and by 446 square kilometres in 2006.

On the other hand, the city of São Félix de Xingu, also in Pará - which represented the city with the largest deforested area in 2005, with 1,406 square kilometres and which was the object of intense fiscalization on the part of the Ibama [Environmental Protection Agency] and the Federal Police -, registered the biggest fall in 2006, with only 764 square kilometres deforested.

In the 'Federal Conservation Units' ('unidades de conservação' - UCs), the variation in the fall of the deforestation rate was 56%. In 2005, the total of deforested area was in 689 square kilometres; in 2006, the total deforested area in the UCs was 306 square kilometres.

These data show that the creation of UCs, one of the main politics of the Ministry for the Environment, has been crucial in the fight against deforestation.

In the same way, the evolution of the deforestation rates in the Indigenous Territories showed a decrease, passing from of 441 square kilometres, in 2005, to 190 square kilometres, in 2006. In the nestings, also km² for 2.054 had fall in the deforested area of 4.406 km².

Measuring, monitoring and intervening
The director of the National Institute of Space Research, Gilbert Chamber, presented the two systems currently implemented by the INPE: "the PRODES calculates the consolidated annual rate of deforestation of the Amazônia; DETER gives estimates on large deforested tracts areas of the Amazônia with the biggest possible rapidity".

On the ground the Brazilian government stepped up its interventions in the Amazon region by means of command and control actions to combat the illegal trade in tropical timber as well as by implementing fiscal policies. The Federal Police carried out 20 large operations, 14 of which occured in the Amazon region; the IBAMA ('Instituto Brasileiro do Meio Ambiente e dos Recursos Naturais Renováveis', the enforcement arm of the Ministry of the Environment) carried out 446 operations of integrated fiscalization, which have become routine by now.

About 600 people have been arrested, 115 of them because of the work of the IBAMA. In total around 1 million of cubic meters of wood have been confiscated - an amount that would occupy 40,000 fully loaded trucks and that would form an uninterrupted chain of trucks from Rio De Janeiro to São Paulo, or 480 kilometres.

Moreover, 3.3 billion reais (€1.246/US$1.695 billion) in fines have been handed out.

Agricultural land enforcement actions allowed the creation of 20 million hectares of protected areas - which corresponds to four times the size of the state of Rio De Janeiro - and the homologation of about 10 million hectares of indigenous lands was carried out.

"All this indicates that, with planning and integrated efforts, it is possible, indeed, to change the picture", summarized Marina silva. She concluded : "We want to share this victory with all the Brazilian people".

References:
Ministério do Meio Ambiente: Taxa de desmatamento na Amazônia cai 25% - August 10, 2007

Grupo Permanente de Trabalho Interministerial sobre Desmatamento na Amazônia Decreto de 3 de julho de 2003: Resultados PRODES ago/05 a jul/06, Projeção DETER ago/06 a jul/07 [*.pdf].

Biopact: Brazil demonstrating that reducing tropical deforestation is possible while expanding biofuels - May 16, 2007