Amazon countries have
invested about US$ 100 million annually
in maintenance of protected areas
28/10/2010
During a meeting at the 10th Conference
of the Parties on Biological Diversity (COP-10)
in Nagoya, Japan, on October 27, Brazils
Minister of Environment,
Izabella Teixeira, said the international
community must recognize the efforts of
the Amazon countries in establishing protected
areas, and should provide necessary financial
support to continue the programs established
for this purpose.
According to Ms. Teixeira,
the Amazon countries have invested about
US$ 100 million annually in maintenance
of protected areas. However, according to
representatives of regional governments,
there is still a need for an extra contribution
of at least US$ 150 million annually for
these projects.
"We must also invest
US$ 500 million in infrastructure so that
these areas may have basic levels of consolidation,"
she said.
Given the overall importance
of the Amazon biome, Ms. Teixeira said,
a significant financial gap must be covered
adequately and predictably through investments
from other governments and international
financial institutions.
"The Amazon forest
has a key role in the global climate system,
contributing to the tropical atmospheric
circulation and the maintenance of rainfall
in the American continent. In addition,
the biome has almost 10% of global reserves
in terrestrial ecosystems," the minister
said.
She mentioned that 75%
of all protected areas created in the world
between 2003 and 2009 are located in the
Amazon, which represent 2.16% of all protected
areas of the planet.
With about 6.6 million
square kilometers, the Amazon is home to
more than half the world's tropical forests,
has the largest catchment basin - with about
15% to 20% of freshwater on the planet -
and one of the most biodiverse areas on
Earth.
At the event, directors
of protected areas of the nine Amazon countries
presented the first regional report on implementation
of the Programme of Work on Protected Areas
of the CBD (Convention on Biological Diversity)
in the Amazon.
"These data are
fundamental to the positive indicator of
the last protected areas of the Global Biodiversity
Outlook," Ms. Teixeira said.
Ministers and representatives
of the Amazon countries have also confirmed
interest in working jointly for the conservation
of the region. They issued an action plan
for the region set for the period 2011 to
2020.
+ More
Deforestation has new
drop in August
08/10/2010
Even with the long drought, which resulted
in 28 thousand fire spots around the country
in August, the System for Deforestation
Detection in Real Time (Deter) recorded
a 47% drop in Amazon deforestation rates
in relation to the same period of 2009.
According to the Environment
Minister, Izabella Teixeira, the successive
reduction of deforestation over the past
two years, "is the result of coordinated
actions between the Ministry of the Environment
(MMA), Ibama, the Federal Police and various
government agencies." The cleared area
in August 2010 was 265 sq km, against 498
sq km in the same month in 2009.
"The rates have
been maintaining a downward trend,"
said the minister. The Deter System, with
Inpe, detects deforestation in real time
and guides the government's actions to slow
deforestation before the affected area would
suffer an irreparable environmental damage.
Izabella Teixeira expects that, in November,
with the consolidation of data from Prodes,
a system that records clearing in areas
up to 6.25 hectares, the Ministry of the
Environment can confirm the yearly drop
as projected by Deter, which detects areas
larger than 25 hectares.
Defrauders - The minister
also informed that, in addition to the repression
in the field - in places where there is
felling of forest cover -, the government
is crossing information with data from tax
evasion. "The environmental criminals
are also tax evaders," says Izabella
Teixeira. This has improved the capacity
of environmental agencies to identify and
punish deforesters more effectively.
The minister also announced
that a new monitoring system, the Indicar
- Imaging and Radar Deforestation Indicator,
is almost ready to assess deforestation
under the clouds. The major challenge for
the monitoring work carried out by Inpe
since 2004 was to detect small cleared areas
under a cloudy sky, since the observation
made by satellites Landsat and CBRs is visual.
With data from the Japanese Space Agency
- captured by the satellite Alos, which
operates with radar and without weather
restrictions - the identification of areas
in the process of deforestation - or already
deforested - will be much more precise.
Indicar will have the ability to identify
areas above 10 hectares. The new system
will come into operation in 2010, said Izabella.
Wildfires - Even with
the onset of the rainy season, the fight
against wildfires continues in some regions
of the country. A new survey released this
Friday (08) records 108 thousand fire spots
this year. Of the 304 conservation units
managed by ICMBio, 90 were affected by wildfires.
According to the coordinator for integrated
control to combat wildfires, 32 of them
are still active, 14 are under control and
42 were extinguished.
There are still active
wildfire spots in six conservation units:
Nascentes do Parnaíba National Park,
Urucuíuna Ecological Station, and
Serra das Confusões National Park,
in Piauí, Serra Geral Ecological
Station, in Tocantins, Serra do Cachimbo
Extractive Reserve, in Pará, and
Chapada Diamantina, in Bahia. The minister
said that the wildfires are expected to
be controlled over the next days.
Although elevated, the
number of wildfires in the first nine months
of 2010, which amounted to 108 thousand,
was only the fifth largest in the last ten
years. The years 2005 (143 thousand), 2004
(142 thousand), 2003 (128 thousand) and
2007 (114 thousand) had more elevated figures
during the same period. Over 70% of the
wildfire spots occurred in the Center-Western
region, in the Cerrado Biome. The region
had not been suffering from wildfires in
such a proportion since two years ago.
