Context
The severe pressure to deforest the Amazon region, especially by the export-oriented agrobusiness and uncontrolled settlement, continues unabated. Be this as it may, some success with fighting deforestation has been achieved in recent years. For example, in Brazil, there are a number of new legal, policy-related and institutional conditions and operational instruments that counteract the structural problems associated with deforestation, such as unclear land-use and property rights, the failure to enforce laws and the lack of economic alternatives.
The most important instrument for implementing the objectives of the environmental agenda and for reducing the rate of deforestation is the National Action Plan for Prevention and Control of the Legal Amazon Deforestation (Plano de Ação para Prevenção e Controle do Desmatamento na Amazônia Legal – PPCDAM) of 2004. A further instrument is the environmental data register for rural enterprises, a key element for clarifying land and use rights.
New policies, instruments and approaches have been developed for sustainable local and regional development, the dissemination and broad-based implementation of which are still in their infancy. Cooperation with the private sector has considerable potential for creating economic alternatives to destroying the rain forest.
A great challenge involves broad-based, coordinated implementation of the strategies for fighting deforestation, for regional planning and for sustainable local development by the national and state governments and the communities.
Objective
In key regions for conserving the Amazonian rain forests, national institutions and private actors implement strategies for fighting deforestation, for regional planning and for sustainable development in a coordinated and broad-based manner.
Approach
Project partners, in addition to the Ministry of the Environment (Ministério do Meio Ambiente – MMA), include the state environment offices of the Brazilian states of Acre, Amazonas and Pará.
Regional planning, fighting deforestation and promoting sustainable local and regional development are key factors for protecting forest, biodiversity and the climate. They permit property and use rights to be allocated and clarified and serve as the foundation for effective implementation of concepts for protection and use. Sustainable use of the tropical forest is promoted by means of use regulations and appropriate incentives.
Consultancy is provided on the following topics:
Combating deforestation
implementation of plans for combating deforestation; coordination between the national and state levels
introduction of environmental data registers for rural enterprises
Regional planning
harmonisation of guidelines for selected topics such as climate change in the zones
Promotion of sustainable local and regional private sector
implementation of the National Plan for Promotion of Socio-Biological Diversity Products
cooperation with the private sector for implementing development partnerships with the private sector (public-private partnerships, PPPs); creating platforms for cooperation of the private and public sector
Results achieved so far
By identifying property relations and updating the land register in the Brazilian states of Acre, Amazonas and Pará, the conditions have been created for systematically clarifying land-use rights and for deforestation monitoring. Moreover, the zoning of the Brazilian states of Acre, Pará and Amazonas has been coordinated with the national level and integrated into the macrozoning of the Amazon region.
For decentralising environmental monitoring, the transfer of the Brazilian states’ competences to the communities has been initiated. Federal state decentralisation programmes have been developed and are now under implementation.
Methods and instruments for optimising the value chains of different sustainably produced products such as Brazil nuts, caoutchouc and the moriche palm, as well as copaiba and andiroba oils, have been tested. They can be used in a broad-based manner in the products’ distribution area.
Eleven development partnerships with the private sector that support the values chains of cocoa, Brazil nuts, the moriche palm, caoutchouc and oils have been implemented. The PPP concept has been integrated into the National Plan for Promotion of Socio-Biological Diversity Products, creating the political conditions for strategically using PPPs in the context of a broad-based approach.