Introduction

The Amazon is the largest forest area in the world, with an incomparable supply of resources and biodiversity. The area’s genetic resources have been easier to use due to the knowledge amassed by the populations that traditionally occupy the region. Over the past decades, the Amazon has been disorderly occupied by the agricultural frontier, followed by high environmental destruction rates and low social and economic return.

The international conservation movement is growing, but needs to mature to better judge the causes that determine the environmental degradation of the region. Countries with concentrated biodiversity are, in general, developing economies, subject to the reality of international financial markets and the public account adjustment policies, to guarantee loans from multilateral institutions. On the other hand, the markets of the rich countries are not open to the products of developing economies, nor do these receive sufficient technological resources to enable them to leave behind their traditional role of raw material suppliers, without the added value of some sort of processing. This situation increases poverty and decreases investment capacity in the social and environmental areas, given the level of budgetary resources necessary for debt servicing. Economic instability generates an informal market that, in spite of absorbing inactive labor, encourages clandestine businesses that are not subject to environmental licensing and other legal obligations, thus removing environmental resources at a low cost, greatly contributing to degrading natural assets. This situation is practically a characteristic of the entire economy of the Amazon region.

In Brazil, the population is increasingly aware of the need to conserve the Amazon’s environmental resources. It has come to understand the wealth the country has in its hands and it identifies the great possibilities that the region offers for the national economic growth. It challenges however, the traditional development model, based on the expansion of the agricultural frontier, and favors sustainable development. This increasingly vocal stance of Brazilian public opinion represents its determination to autonomously manage its assets, strengthening the Ministry of the Environment’s policy for the environmental management of the Amazon.

We aim to strengthen the environmental control of the Amazonian territory, mainly in regard to deforestation, forest fires, illegal traffic of wild animals and biopiracy. Simultaneously, we have negotiated Positive Agendas with the various productive sectors and the communities of all the states, in order to establish commitments to social and environmental sustainability of the region’s main economic activities. We have also been coordinating programs and projects that aim to make the best of its potentialities, seeking sustainable development alternatives, with emphasis on the use of its natural resources.

In spite of our interests, we are aware that efforts will remain insufficient if we can’t count on government involvement, which must be increasingly in tune with the principles of sustainable development, and of society, which needs to act more and more to build the prosperous future that the country longs for.

50% of the world’s biodiversity.

Sustainable Development

The image of the Amazon, besides that of its exuberant ecosystem, is associated with environmental problems such as forest fires, deforestation, illegal wood exploitation, practices which, among others, characterize the economic model adopted in the region since the seventies. Little is known of the other side of this scenario, which reveals the appearance of recent initiatives - by the government, NGOs, and productive segments - oriented to reverting environmental degradation in the region. These are options which value productive alternatives and new technologies, generate income and ensure better living conditions for regional society and imply smaller environmental impacts. These actions are based on a growing awareness of the importance of the principles of sustainable development.

The implementation of these principles is one of the greatest challenges for Brazilian society and Government. The Ministry of the Environment has been facing this challenge and, through its Amazon Coordination Secretariat and the collaboration of various institutions, has been uniting efforts around a development model that is economically viable, environmentally sustainable and socially fair. This becomes viable by creating productive opportunities that respect nature - including conferring value on environmental services - and improve living conditions of regional society.

The objective of one of the Secretariat’s main lines of action is to revert the predominant model, based on the set of interventions with great environmental impact and low social and economic return. We want to change this picture. In order to do so, expressive progress has been achieved, backed by the Amazonian population’s growing awareness of sustainable development possibilities. Under Minister José Sarney Filho’s guidance, the Secretariat has been carrying out a series of actions, still on a pilot scale, that demonstrate the potential of the sustainable use of natural resources in the Amazon.

Expanding the scale of action is one of the main guidelines of the Secretariat’s Work Plan for the 2000-2003 time period. It demands considerable effort, since it aims to correct imbalances and distortions accumulated over decades. To achieve this, the Amazon Secretariat has adopted a strategy of formulating political pacts among government, civil society and the private sector, to define the basic guiding principles of an economic model for the region. At the same time, it is compatible with environmental conservation and the hope of various socioeconomic sectors for generating jobs and income. Thus, the Amazon Coordination Secretariat created local offices throughout the Amazon to ensure that actions are taken in harmony with the region’s stakeholders. Furthermore, new projects on important topics were established, such as the recovery of degraded areas and the management of urban environmental development.

Partnerships with state and local governments, productive segments and other entities were developed through an unprecedented and comprehensive discussion process of deforestation alternatives, involving social, economic and political actors of the region. This effort, denominated Positive Agenda for the Amazon, led to the signing of an agreement by the representatives of the productive and social sectors and public institutions of each Amazonian State for the sustainable development of the region. As we observe the result of this process, we notice the enormous convergence of conditions to establish a solid basis of understanding that will enable Amazon development policy to be adjusted to neither exclusively environmentalist nor predominantly developmental, but the result of a negotiation in which all the social actors participate.

While there is widespread awareness that the protection of the forest is an environmental service, it is still not recognized as such, and for this reason, it is not rewarded or compensated in any way that benefits the populations that help protect the forest. Sectors that operate outside the law also wish to see their activities legalized and certified, which means incorporating them into the formal market, and thus their tax contributions into the region and into the country. This applies to a huge volume of wealth and allows these sectors to become partners in monitoring the activities that degrade natural resources, keeping them within acceptable limits. The lesson here is that protecting the Amazon’s natural resources can no longer be seen as an obstacle to overcoming economic difficulties in the region, but an opportunity for its development on a new basis.

Regarding instruments and means to support these ideas, we should highlight_stripe the direction in which the programs and projects are being executed by the Amazon Coordination Secretariat. The Secretariat carries out its actions through five major programs (Environmental Management; Pilot Program to Preserve Brazilian Rain Forests - PPG7, Agroextractivism, Brazilian Molecular Ecology Program for the Sustainable Use of Biodiversity in the Amazon - Probem, and Green Tourism/Proecotur) in the nine states of the legal Amazon. These programs of exceptional thematic and geographic scope, presented in detail throughout this publication, have been adjusted to the above objectives and strategies. Their implementation establishes and consolidates partnerships with the main institutions present in the region and provides opportunities for international, government and private financing agencies, whose participation in the region up to now was segmented and partial, to reach new levels of performance.

20% of the planet’s drinking water.

Positive Agendas

For the first time in Brazilian history, the federal and state governments, the productive sector and Amazon society have come together to establish a pact for alternatives to deforestation. It is called the Positive Agenda for the Amazon, resulting from a negotiation process that began in 1999, in response to the high deforestation rates in the region. In March of that year, Minister José Sarney Filho suspended deforestation authorizations for four months as well as those that had already been issued. Afterwards, as a result of legitimate appeals from the region, the Ministry of the Environment, through its Amazon Coordination Secretariat, invited several sectors for consultations and discussions on the issue with a view towards easing restrictions.

The process involved members of Congress, state governments, private entities, representatives of the timber and livestock sectors, non-governmental organizations and rural worker social movements, family farmers, extractivists, fishermen and indigenous groups. Each sector had the opportunity to suggest alternatives to reduce the deforestation rates in the region, as well as changes they found necessary to systems in force. Shortly after, at a public hearing convened by the Chamber of Deputies’ Amazon and Regional Development Commission (CADR), consensus was reached in a document signed by the Ministry of the Environment and the institutions of each state, synthesizing the commitment to the sustainable development of the Amazon.

After the public hearing, it was decided that the initiative would be repeated in each of the Amazon states, envisioning the creation of a Positive Agenda for the entire region. The process was launched by the Amazon Coordination Secretariat, which went on to promote seminars in each state until April 2000. The documents, resulting from the nine seminars covered several issues relating to development with a smaller environmental impact and greater social equality. The state agendas represent formal commitments between public and private agents involved in the development of the Amazon.

Later, with the same broad participation, each of the region’s nine states chose ten priority actions as input for a Positive Regional Agenda. This input was consolidated into a single document that was negotiated and approved at a Positive Regional Agenda Seminar, in July of this year. The seminar, with representatives of all concerned states and sectors, was convened by the Ministry of the Environment and the Chamber of Deputies’ Amazon and Regional Development Commission.

From this point on, several far-reaching outcomes are expected, involving federal, state and local levels, both in the Executive and Legislative branch, with the participation of the productive sectors and civil society. In the National Congress, the Commission (CDAR) should take the Positive Regional Agenda for the Amazon into account in its deliberations.

In the Executive Branch, the Executive Committee for Joint Action in the Amazon was created, and a technical cooperation agreement was signed on June 28, 2000, during a Regional Seminar, by BNDES (Brazilian Social and Economic Development Bank), Banco do Brasil, Banco da Amazônia, the Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade, Ministry of the Environment, Ministry of National Integration, Superintendency for the Development of the Amazon and Superintendency for Manaus -Suframa. This Committee is one of the main initiatives to prevent resource dispersion, duplication of efforts and to promote greater convergence among the actions of the various public actors responsible for most of the investments in the Amazon.

The regional and state Positive Agendas provide a democratic strategy for Amazon sustainability; the environment is no longer perceived just as a restriction and comes to contribute to the construction of a sustainable development program for the region.

Environmental Management

The Brazilian environmental legislation is sufficiently comprehensive to set guidelines for the occupation of national and Amazonian territories. The problem resides in the non-compliance of this environmental legislation and the precariousness of the State’s power to inspect and enforce. For this very reason it is essential that environmental management be decentralized and participatory, involving state and local governments, civil society and non-governmental organizations.

It is also essential to ensure harmony between environmental and economic sector policies, and even among the different secretariats of the Ministry of the Environment. This concern is leading to the development an Intersectoral Coordination Project to influence public policies, to internalize sustainability criteria to generate/induce economic activities with negative environmental and socioeconomic impacts in the Amazon region.

Urban environmental management is another concern. The objective of the Urban Environmental Development Project for the Amazon is to enhance the management role of cities in the sustainable development of the region. The direct beneficiaries are residents of the targeted towns, particularly the populations of the periphery, who generally reside in areas that lack sanitation and appropriate infrastructure, and where occupation of urban land has been largely unplanned.

The Project to Recover Altered Areas of the Amazon has a clearly defined target: the economic, sustainable re-incorporation of part of the 550 thousand sq. km. of the already deforested areas of the region (14% of the forest canopy), recomposing the legal reserves and permanent preservation areas that were cleared. It should be noted that about a fifth of this altered area has been abandoned.

In a more advanced stage, we have the Project to Expand and Consolidate a System of Protected Areas, aiming at meeting Brazil’s commitment to the international community of protecting at least 10% of the country’s rain forests. Today, less than 4% of the Amazon forest is under formal protection (established protected areas) and, even so, a large part is yet to be implemented, with no basic personnel infrastructure and management plans.

The creation of protected areas in the Amazon, foreseen in the project, will be carried out after the macro zoning of the region, when new areas for indirect and direct protection of biodiversity and water resources will be identified. The first stage will be carried out from 2001 to 2004, requiring resources of around US$ 68 million, already approved by the Brazilian Government and by the Global Environment Fund of the United Nations (GEF): US$ 30 million from GEF, US$ 20 million in grants through international cooperation agreements (US$ 5 million from the WWF and US$ 15 million from the Pilot Program to Preserve the Brazilian Rainforests), and US$ 18 million as counterpart funds from the Brazilian Government.

Resources will be used to create new protected areas, to demarcate existing ones, develop management plans, regulate tenure, monitor the environment, provide infrastructure, etc. At the end of a ten-year period, somewhere around 60 protected areas will have been created, which together will protect 28.5 million forest hectares. These areas, in addition to the 30 federal areas existing in the region, will place 41 million hectares under protection, corresponding to 10% of the Amazon Biome.

3,000 fish species

Pilot Program

Gas emissions are the main cause of climate change in the planet. But nobody doubts the importance of forests in the preservation of environmental quality. The Pilot Program to Preserve the Brazilian Rainforests arose precisely from the concern of developed countries over the impacts of Amazon deforestation on the global climate. Envisioned to test and try out sustainable means of protecting the Amazon and the Atlantic Forest, the Pilot Program is a unique example of collaboration between developed and developing countries to solve environmental problems.

The program initiative was announced in 1990, during a meeting of the seven wealthiest nations, the G-7, in Houston, USA. Established in 1992, it is the result of joint efforts by the Brazilian Government, the G-7 countries, the European Union and the Netherlands. Financial and technical resources are estimated at US$ 330 million — where US$ 190 million have already been applied and US$ 140 million are additional resources indicated and under negotiation. US$ 225 million correspond to donations, and US$ 35 million to resources from bilateral technical cooperation. The World Bank administers around 20% of the financial resources through its Rain Forest Trust Fund. The rest is given directly by the donating countries through the World Bank itself, co-financing and technical cooperation.

Implementation of the first subprograms and projects began in 1995. There are currently 22 projects defined, thirteen in execution, one under negotiation, six being prepared and two have been concluded. The goals are clear: protect the biodiversity of the Amazon and Atlantic Forest, contribute to the reduction of carbon gas emissions and deforestation rates, promote a better quality of life for the local population and expand knowledge of the ecosystem.

Implemented by the federal, state and local governments, local communities, indigenous organizations and non-governmental organizations, the Pilot Program has achieved concrete results. Through the Demonstration Projects for the non-governmental sector, around 135 communities and organizations of the Amazon and Atlantic Forest received support to implement innovative initiatives in the use and conservation of natural resources. Fish culture in small tanks, forestry systems, community plantations and forest management are examples of projects being carried out by non-governmental institutions. The indigenous communities had 22 million hectares of their land demarcated and legalized, with the Project to Protect Indigenous Lands and Peoples of the Legal Amazon (PPTAL), under FUNAI’s responsibility. Four extractive reserves were consolidated for the rubber tapping communities, in a total of more than 2 million hectares.

Another important area supported by the Pilot Program is that of Science and Technology. Coordinated by the Ministry of Science and Technology, it strengthened regional scientific capacity and financed directed research projects. The modernization of the INPA (National Institute for Amazonian Research) and the Goeldi Museum are examples of this subprogram’s results. For the forest and fishing sectors, the influence of the Pilot Program should occur respectively through the Forest Management and Floodplain Management projects. The project on Natural Resources Policies supports ecological-economic zoning, prepares technical personnel and implements the decentralized management of natural resources.

Also worth noting are the projects on Deforestation and Forest Fires and on Ecological Corridors, which will allow numerous local environmental institutions to control the impact of economic activities and conserve natural resources, through an integrated sys tern of protected areas and fire prevention. The qualification of young people to better understand and respect natural assets will be the responsibility of the Environmental Education Program. The Project to Support Monitoring and Analysis will ensure that information, experiences and strategic lessons from the Pilot Program are effectively organized and applied. In addition, the Sustainable Business Project is being implemented to improve and strengthen productive initiatives, so that they reach the market and acquire economic support.

All of these efforts have one basic goal: to strengthen the capacity of the public sector and of society to create and implement a solid environmental policy, which will enable the sustainable use of rain forest resources and improve the management of protected areas. The Brazilian Government, through the Ministry of the Environment, has sought to re-dimension the Pilot Program to ensure leadership of the program in partnership with multilateral and financing institutions. It is only through joint efforts, that the great challenge to implement sustainable development can be faced.

1,5 million people live in the rainforest

Amazon Get Legal

A portion of the Pilot Program’s resources (R$ 8.5 million) are applied to the Amazon Get Legal Program. This program was created in 1999 to put up a barrier against the degradation in the Amazon and reduce the devastation rate. To the end of the seventies, deforestation in the Amazon region was around 3% of its vegetation canopy. Over the past two decades, this index rose, reaching 14% in 1999.

In addition to regulating and inspecting economic activities by detecting illegal deforestation and timber removal, the objective is to encourage legalization of the activities carried out in the Amazon. This is an integrated effort carried out by the Ministry of the Environment, IBAMA, state governments and forestry police. The partnership with the Armed Forces is essential, especially in the planning, reconnaissance and security activities.

The operation foresees the application of elevated fines to discourage the advantages of illegality. The Amazon: Continue Legal program is also concerned with the risks of fires, resulting from uncontrolled plantation fires. The Program to Prevent and Control Forest Fires in the Deforestation Belt (Proarco) is in charge of the situation, the most endangered area of the Amazon. The Amazon: Continue Legal program is basically concentrated in the deforestation belt — an area of 3 million 200 thousand sq. km.

Encouraging legality is the central thread of the program. Mobile units are placed in areas that aren’t normally covered by IBM’IA, interested parties receive guidance on management plans for timber extraction and authorization for controlled deforestation and fires, including the legalization of their undertakings. R$ 24.7 million have been allocated to combating fires, deforestation and illegal forest fires in the Amazon, R$ 11 million for Proarco, R$ 8.5 million for the Amazon Get Legal and the rest are IBAMA budgetary resources, involving 800 people. The operation includes ships, planes and helicopters of the Armed Forces as well as vehicles and modern surveillance and communication IBAMA instruments.

Although the Amazon Get Legal program was developed in an emergency, it is being executed and planned systematically for the next few years.

5,000 species of trees

Extractivism

Indians, river dwellers and extractivist populations have co-existed with the forest for decades, ensuring their subsistence with extremely low environmental impacts. This reality has been changing over the past few years because of the predatory occupation of the Amazon. The traditional inhabitants of the region have been pushed outwards towards the periphery of the towns and the forested areas are slowly being degraded, generating consequences with high environmental impacts.

The Program to Support Extractivism provides technical and financial support to the extraction, production, processing and commercialization of forest products, sustainable practices by rubber tapers, nut collectors, and river dwellers, small family farmers and indigenous peoples.

The Amazon Solidarity Program was created to promote the economic and social ascension of the rubber tapers of the Amazon. It employs specific mechanisms to encourage the multiple use of the forest. In 1998, R$ 4.3 million were allocated to projects to support sustainable extractivism in the Amazon, by means of actions led by the Ministry of the Environment, in coordination with the communities concerned. In 1999, R$ 8 million.

The Program to Support the Development of Extractivism (Prodex) with resources from the Banco da Amazônia (BASA), is an initiative of the Federal Government to provide credit lines to mini and small extractivists of the Northern Region and their families. The producer is entitled not only to financing but also to technical assistance. The program allows for the introduction of agro forestry systems in traditional extractivist areas, and supports the production of basic food crops.

Along the same line of supporting extractive activities in the Amazon, some important projects of the Pilot Program should be mentioned: Extractive Reserves (Resex), Project to Protect Indigenous Lands and Populations of the Legal Amazon (PPTAL), and the Demonstrative Projects for the Indigenous Peoples (PDPI).

5% of the world’s land area

Bioindustry

Antibiotics, narcotics, abortive drugs, contraceptives, anticoagulants, fungicides, anesthetics, muscular relaxants, antidiarrheal, antivirals. Indians and river dwellers, small farmers and extractivists, all know the potential of Amazon plants that contain the active principle of various medicines. The region’s traditional populations use more than 1,300 species for medicinal purposes, but only 90 are commercially exploited by the pharmaceutical industry. Not to mention the cosmetics and food chemistry sectors, which also make use of the immense diversity of Amazon flora, fauna and micro biota. This enormous wealth has been attracting smugglers from everywhere, disguised as tourists and researchers, the so-called biopiracy. The Brazilian Government is seeking to combat with the aid of bioprospection. For this purpose, the Brazilian Molecular Ecology Program for the Sustainable Use of Biodiversity in the Amazon (Probem) was created.

The first step is to make use of the knowledge of traditional populations and understand the potential offered by the biological diversity of the region. However, in order to be able to control the access to genetic resources and maintain a sovereign posture in the negotiation of bioprospection contracts the Brazilian Government must be flexible in its partnerships with domestic and international research institutions and private sector companies that hold state-of-the-art technology. The construction of the Amazon Bio technology Center, through an agreement with the Superintendency of the Manaus Free Zone, is worthy of note. Also on another important note, Probcm is already active in all the states of the region.

The development of bioindustry is essential to put a stop to biopiracy, which is reaching alarming proportions in the Amazon. Every year 20,000 extracts leave the country for foreign laboratories. These are samples of flora, fauna and the microbiota, as well as components and products derived from biodiversity. Traditional knowledge can save as much as US$ 300 million for just one product

Probem further contributes to the creation of a new sustainable development model for the Amazon. It is an activity that can provide an impulse to the development of the region without damaging the environment.

1,5 million catalogued plant species

Ecotourism

Birds of all kinds, hundreds of varieties of mammals and amphibians. More than I million catalogued plant species. The longest river in the world, and the largest in volume. The beauty and the ford nature in the Amazon are a permanent invitation to ecotourism. An economic activity that, when well organized and planned, provides an important impulse to the sustainable development of the region. For the very reason of implementing the infrastructure required for local ecotourism, the Amazon Coordination Secretariat created the Program to Develop Ecotourism in the Legal Amazon, also known as Green Tourism/Proecotur.

The program is financed by the Inter-American Development Bank to be implemented in two stages. The first (2000-2003) is the pre-investment stage, with resources around US$ 13.8 million, including capacity building, technical assistance, studies and planning for protected areas and Ecotourism centers, public infrastructure and projects for the second stage, which is expected to have resources on the order of US$ 200 million The idea is to invest in selected centers in each state of the region, so that they do not compete among themselves, but rather seek their insertion in this promising ecotourism market, by means of differentiated and supplementary routes, always based on partnerships between public and private sectors.

Ecotourism is more than just an economic of the Amazon, it is an alternative for sustainable development of the region. The dynamics caused by the organizational and sustainable presence of ecotourism, built upon appropriate legislation, is capable of integrating communities into a new labor market. It can, most of all, transform individuals involved with ecotourism activities into efficient inspectors of the environmental quality of the region.

950 types of birds