The Environmental Services and the solution of deforestation in the Amazon.
The Amazon rainforest has become an essential topic in discussions of climate change. Due to its importance not only as carbon restraint, but also as filing of biodiversity and natural regulator of water and climate. Its preservation is a necessity now indisputable. The era of ruthless disagreements between environmentalists and pro-green simplistic mind of developmental disabilities. Both sides have changed their positions: Most environmentalists recognize and appreciate the need to improve
living conditions. Governments and developers are beginning to understand the need for cooperation on environmental issues which have implications both locally and globally. Fresh in everyone's mind is the simultaneous emergence of drought in the Amazon in 2005 and the hurricane season in the Caribbean conducted by Katrina.
With this unprecedented understanding of environmental hazards, one could conclude that the Amazon Conservation weaned a consequence.However, for 25 million Brazilians who live in the forest, the equation remains unchanged: the forest is more valuable than shot alive. Cattle farming, timber cutting, and agriculture are more profitable than sustainable extraction of seeds, oil and flavorings. Traditionally, the legal killing of trees is too bureaucratic. For small landowners, land is too cheap and abundant that it is preserved. In addition, monitoring and sanctions are too relaxed for compliance with the formalities worth the candle. However, the Brazili
e candle. However, the Brazilian institutions have improved in the areas of monitoring and enforcement of rules, thereby increasing the cost of informal activities. Such a change of the equation had the desired effect of reducing deforestation. An unintended consequence, however, was cut down productivity in several regions, poorer and traditionally more informal.
The Brazilian federal government has partially addressed the problem through the Bolsa Família, which is a transfer payment to poor families. Local governments of states have developed other solutions. In Amazonas, the biggest Brazilian state (2.3 times the size of Texas), located in the western part of the Brazilian Amazon, the state policy focused on increasing incentives for sustainable activities through:
Setting minimum prices for goods produced with sustainable methods, such as oil, aromas and rubber;
The establishment of the Bolsa Floresta, a transfer payment to families of forest areas in exchange for a commitment not to deforestation, monitored by satellite;
Fivefold increase in investment in science and technology for the development of technologies that drive the economic balance towards sustainability;
Technical assistance to small landowners existing as well as progress at the extended distance of the state, forestry, forest management and fish;
Assignments to give land ownership to those who occupy the land, giving them rights and duties;
The granting of preferential financing for projects of small-scale sustainable segments designated as fish farming, management of wildlife lake, honey production, etc..
The monitoring and enforcement rules have also been increased, but in the form of encourage to the initiatives mentioned above.
All these efforts aim to balance the equation of a forest hit against that of a tenacious forest, in the eyes of those who live in the forest and aim to include the externality in the equation. It is essential to remember where exteriority are: general climate change, changes in regional rainfall patterns and loss of biodiversity in the world. Most of them are exteriority that will be felt outside of Brazil. Thus we arrive on the development of environmental services. Currently, the state of Amazonas and the Government of Brazil to assume these costs, mostly on their own budgets. The budget of Amazonas', about 1,000 U.S. dollars per citizen per year is is barely enough to cover health and universal education of our population of 3.5 million, much less cover the incentives to reduce deforestation that is not supported by any other source. A ticket back to Manaus, the capital of State, Tabatinga, in the same state, frequently cost more than 1,000 U.S. dollars. The ability to assess environmental services, the most famous are the carbon credits, give Amazon the greatest chance in history. In an innovative structure, the state in partnership with Marriott Hotels aims to preserve a conservation area of 500 hectares, providing improved conditions for local populations, in exchange for the provision of environmental services reduction of likely future emissions of carbon. This reservation, the Juma River, was in the process of deforestation (ie. It was probably cleared in a usual scenario). It represents social improvements, encourage sustainable development, transfer payments and strengthening the inspection which will be rewarded by rves (voluntary reduction of carbon emissions), according to CWB standards, mainly due to the reduction of deforestation expected.
The most essential thing in this project is approaching a strong economic incentive for a living forest. With powerful partners such as Marriott, the State of Amazonas to achieve a scenario in which deforestation, already at a low level (approximately 750 square. Kilometer or 0.05% of the state is deforested annually), will be zero. However, such actions are still a drop in the ocean as a result of political efforts and some environmental initiatives of private companies. A framework for general environmental work is required. The new version of the Kyoto Protocol, currently in the process of being negotiated under the auspices of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), should include the assessment of environmental services if we want to advance, not only in Amazon, but also through all tropical forests. Whatever our resolve to achieve this goal, the financing of local government just can not sustain the immense variety of actions required, especially that profits will be shared by us all.It is not even fair to rely solely on our local budgets.
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