Brazil has in its territory much of the largest tropical forest in the world, the Amazon. There are about 4.2 million km² that extend across nine states of the country — Acre, Amapá, Amazonas, Pará, Rondônia, Roraima, Tocantins, Mato Grosso and Maranhão — and correspond to 69% of the total Amazon area.
The extension of the biome is proportional to the complexity that its protection and preservation demands. In addition to Brazil, the forest also covers areas of seven other countries in South America (Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Suriname and Venezuela).
But who, in fact, protects the Amazon in Brazil? A CNN responds.
As a survey carried out by MapBiomas points out, one of the main barriers against the advance of deforestation in Brazil are the Indigenous Territories.
Data from the initiative show that, between 1990 and 2020, indigenous lands lost only 1% of their native vegetation and the deforestation that occurred in these areas corresponds to only 1.6% of the total presented in Brazil in the analyzed period.
Indigenous peoples, along with some other communities such as riverside dwellers, rubber tappers, piassava tappers, fishermen and pecoeiros, are a fundamental part of the peoples of the forest. According to the Society, Population and Nature Institute, these traditional peoples contribute to the preservation of the biome’s natural riches because their way of life has a “management logic for sustainability”.
“[Os povos e comunidades tradicionais da Amazônia] this way of life is aligned with traditional knowledge that contributes to the conservation of the biome and, thus, to the maintenance of ecosystem services. These populations domesticated several fruit species in the region, which reinforces the potential of this activity for the sustainable development of the Amazon”, says the Institute.
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Government initiatives
There are also projects led by public bodies that aim to preserve the Amazon rainforest.
Space on the Explanada dos Ministérios
The Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change, currently headed by environmentalist Marina Silva, is the main public entity responsible for preserving the Amazon. Within it, there are bodies such as the Brazilian Institute for the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (Ibama) and the Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation (ICMBio), for example.
Ibama has the role of environmental police. It is he who carries out the zoning and assessment of environmental impacts, establishes the criteria for the use of natural resources, carries out environmental licensing, inspects and applies administrative penalties, prepares environmental education programs and prevents and controls deforestation, burning and forest fires. .
ICMBio, in turn, acts to propose, implement, manage and protect federal conservation units — spaces where natural resources are protected due to their ecological importance. The institute fosters and executes programs aimed at conserving biodiversity and also plays the role of environmental police to protect conservation units.
Amazon Protects
The Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office (MPF), for example, created Amazônia Protege, which combats illegal deforestation in the region.
In the initiative, the MPF has a partnership with other entities of the State, such as Ibama, ICMBio and the Federal University of Lavras (UFLA).
The project provides an interactive map which displays the deforested areas so that companies and people who buy products from the region can find out if they have a legal origin or not. The idea is to use the consumer to put pressure on the entire chain and promote more sustainability.
The Amazônia Protege program also prevents public bodies from providing documentation for land in the Am
azônia and avoid land tenure regularization in places where there is illegal deforestation.
Source: CNN Brasil
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