About 50% of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon occurs in public forests not designated
Non-designated public forests occupy an area of around 56 million hectares, which corresponds to the size of a country like Spain, and store around 7 billion tons of carbon (which represents a year of global emissions).
A member of the Center for Advanced Studies in the Amazon, at the Federal University of Pará, and one of the authors of the article, Cláudia Azevedo-Ramos, explains that the deforestation scenario in the region currently has new factors, such as real estate speculation and exploitation of natural resources by organized crime. The researcher points out that there are also false records in the rural environmental registration system to obtain land titles.
“We believe that as urgent measures to curb this usurpation, destruction of our forests, it would be necessary first to cancel fraudulent registrations, holding fraudsters accountable. (…) In addition, it is important to bring security to these public areas by assigning them to protection categories”, says Azevedo-Ramos.
forest concessions
With the aim of reconciling the exploitation of natural resources and sustainability, the National Congress is debating a bill that deals with forest concessions. The purpose of PL 5518/2020 is to reduce bureaucracy in the bidding process, make contracts more flexible and make this business model more attractive. Ipam’s director of public policies and territorial development, Eugênio Pantoja, says that the proposal is an opportunity to speed up and reduce bureaucracy in forest concession processes.
“This, of course, makes the management plans and forest concessions more attractive. So, this governance allows the Brazilian State, the public power, to have greater control and the necessary safeguards for the management of these forests”, says Pantoja.
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The rapporteur for the measure in the Chamber of Deputies, Coronel Chrisóstomo (PL-RO), says that the bill can improve the Brazilian economic scenario by moving billions of reais, as the exploitation of natural resources through concessions will become more attractive.
“What is good for both sides is also the review of the contract every 5 years. Every 5 years a review of the financial rebalancing, this is good for everyone, good for the public and it is good for the concessionaire too, as he manages to replace those losses that they have had over the years”, believes the parliamentarian.
Check out the main points of the proposal:
- Possibility of forest concessions for conservation and restoration;
- Establishment of a faster bidding process, with inversion of the order of qualification and judgment phases;
- Possibility of including in the object of the concession the exploitation of other non-timber forest products and services, such as tourism, genetic heritage, fishing or wild fauna resources, and products obtained from the local biodiversity granted;
- Requirement for the concessionaire to present civil liability insurance against any damage caused to the environment or to third parties. And also a contractual performance guarantee intended to cover defaults;
- Possibility of operational unification of the concession areas, continuous or discontinuous, when located in the same conservation unit or concession lot.
Procedure
PL 5518/2020 was approved as a substitute in the Environment and Sustainable Development Commission of the Chamber of Deputies. The proposal even entered the plenary agenda for voting on December 22, but has not yet been appreciated by parliamentarians due to the closure of the legislative session. The measure awaits deliberation by the plenary under an urgent regime.
By Brasil 61
