Brazil’s government revealed on Monday how it plans to meet a pledge to end deforestation in the Amazon by 2030, using enhanced law enforcement to crack down on environmental crimes and other measures in the world’s largest tropical rainforest.
Under former right-wing president Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil joined a 2021 agreement with more than 140 countries to end deforestation worldwide by 2030. Leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who took office on Jan. 1, has made it a focal point. environmental policy.
“I am committed to renewing Brazil’s global leadership in mitigating climate change and controlling deforestation,” Lula said in a speech at the project’s launch event.
The Plan of Action to Prevent and Control Deforestation in the Amazon (PPCDAm) sets out coordinated policies among more than a dozen ministries until Lula’s term ends in 2027.
It calls for increased use of intelligence and satellite imagery to track criminal activity, regulation of land ownership and the use of a rural registry to monitor the proper management of forests, which are vital to slowing global climate change.
Degraded forests will be restored and native vegetation will be increased through economic incentives for forest conservation and sustainable management, the plan said.
Among the actions to be taken, authorities will cross-check information from the financial system with the village registry and other databases and satellite images to root out illegal loggers and cattle herders.
Financial intelligence can, for example, point to the movement of funds to pay for equipment such as chainsaws for logging or backhoes for illegal feral cat gold mining.
The plan also calls for a tracking system for wood, livestock and other agricultural products from the Amazon forest, at a time when importing countries are increasingly demanding proof that they do not come from deforested land.
It also plans to develop a green economy to preserve the Amazon region without deforestation, which will include certification of forest products, technical support for producers, provision of infrastructure, energy and internet connectivity, and promotion of ecotourism.
Lula also said the government intends to announce new measures to combat crimes such as illegal logging, illegal mining, hunting and fishing in indigenous areas, conservation areas and throughout the Amazon.
(Reporting by Lysandra Paraguasu; Writing by Anthony Bodle; Editing by Mark Porter and Aurora Ellis)