Cut and Forest

Brazil sets plan to cut deforestation by 70 percent over 10 years 4

BRASILIA, Dec. 1, 2008 (AFP) -- The Brazilian government on Monday announced a plan under which it would cut deforestation of the Amazon by 70 percent over the next decade.

It is the first time Brazil, home to the largest area of tropical woodland on the planet, has set a target for reducing the damage wreaked by illegal loggers and ranchers.

Environment Minister Carlos Minc unveiled the initiative in the presence of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and said it would be formally presented at a U.N. climate change conference underway this week in Poland.

"Just in terms of avoided deforestation in the Amazon, the plan foresees a reduction of 4.8 billion tons of carbon dioxide that won't be emitted up to 2018 -- which is more than the reduction efforts fixed by all the rich countries," Minc said.

The minister said Brazil hopes to use the plan to "increase the number of contributors to the Amazon Fund" launched last August which aims to collect money from around the world to fight deforestation.

Copyright 2008 -- Agence France-Presse

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  1. Tasermons Partner Posted 11:56 am
    01 Dec 2008

    Wait 'n See......This by far isn't the first plan to help stop deforestation, and, by and large, they have all failed so far.
    Still, at least they're payin' attention to the issue (or tryin' to defer attention after the media recently reported on the deforestation increase).

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  2. Wolverine Posted 4:26 pm
    02 Dec 2008

    I'll Believe It When I See ItBrazil's leaders, mainly Lula, have shown no commitment to significantly reducing or eliminating rainforest logging.  And even if they did, enforcement is a severe problem.  The indigenous people who live in the rainforests who should be prioritized over environmentally destructive people who claim they need to make a living by destroying the Earth, but I don't see Lula or any other leader committing enough military forces to actually change anything.

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  3. Golden Toad Posted 12:25 am
    03 Dec 2008

    Brazil's CongressGreenpeace ran an alert that Brazil's Congress is considering a bill to actually reduce protections for the Amazon: http://usactions.greenpeace.org/action/start/224/?session ...
    Hopefully Minc's plan will prevail.

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  4. amazingdrx Posted 1:44 am
    03 Dec 2008

    As with illegal immigrationAnd job outsourcing, and this forest exploitation, targeting the corporate serfs who do the actual labor will never be effective.
    Enforcement meeds to target employers who pay the serf wages.  Choke off the problem where it meets the market place.  Stop the logging trucks hauling illegally harvested trees.
    Stop the businesses employing illegal labor.  Stop government from giving industry tax breaks to outsource jobs.
    Of course industry lobbyists are hip to this strategy too, so they do all they can to divert attention with things like border fences, racial strife, and venom directed at ecoists, who they claim are responsible for starvation and poverty in developing nations.  
    Stopping the destruction of the earth?  That amounts to genocide according to wing nut free marketeerian think tankers in the pocket of corporatism.

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