Legal timber trade is a big problem
A fund to prevent deforestation in the Amazon was created by the Brazilian government with the direct participation of BNDES (Brazilian National Bank for Economic and Social Development) and IBAMA (Brazilian Renewable Natural Resources) that signed a contract in December 2016. The project will ensure the maintenance of IBAMA’s surveillance actions for 15 months, with a total estimated budget of R$53.3 million.
These funds will be used to pay for air and land transport rental services used in field surveillance actions those areas suffering deforestation pressure. IBAMA’s monitoring control actions in the “Legal Amazon” were crucial for the reduction in the deforestation rates from 27,000 km/square in 2004 to only 6,200 km/square in 2015. Over the past decade, while the world has been busy haggling over future commitments to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions, Brazil has lowered its carbon dioxide output more than any other country through a historic effort to slow forest loss.
It’s important to say that during the second half of the twentieth century, the deforestation of the tropics became a global concern. Young people everywhere learned at an early age that “saving the rainforest” was one of the most urgent needs of the planet. Yet, for decades, these worries had no real effect on the reality of tropical deforestation. Then, in the early part of the twenty-first century, there was a dramatic change. The curve drops sharply, with emissions from land use change falling by over a third in barely a decade.
Amazon Deforestation
After decades of fruitless efforts, there were clear signs of a major success within a few years. The reduction in deforestation would not have happened without the new political dynamic, but it still required the work of many actors, including governments, businesses, and NGOs. Legal steps including the enforcement of existing forest laws and prosecutions of actors in the soybean and beef supply chains, who distributed products produced through deforestation, also played an important role. These prosecutions worked together with voluntary business commitments such as the soybean and beef moratoria, which were enforced using sophisticated satellite imagery.
All this is really good news and is the change in the politics of the issue that has made progress possible. Also, Brazilian civil society deserves most of the credit, for the pressure, for the faith. The indigenous peoples, rubber tappers, labor organizers, environmentalists and other members of the broad social movement to end deforestation, made it possible and ultimately necessary for politicians and businesses to act. Most important causes that need change, usually are a long time process of farthing and determination and perseverance has an important role. In this case, to preserve the biodiversity and ecosystem of an entire planet.
Most recently, and according to a November 2023 New York Times article, deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon rainforest decreased by 22.3% between August 2022 and July 2023, reaching a five-year low. This decline is estimated to have reduced Brazil’s greenhouse gas emissions by 7.5%. Some say this is an encouraging sign that local policies can help change the trajectory of global forest loss.
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