New Brazilian Plan To Combat Deforestation Shows Promise.
By: Ainsley Brown
A new day dawns for the Brazilian rainforest?
The new plan by the Brazilian government, rolled out early this year, to combat deforestation shows great promise. However, it does also face great obstacles.
It is easy to dismiss this latest scheme as at best fool hardy and at worst as going to have the opposite effect by encouraging deforestation. These are legitimate concerns given the failure of past schemes, this time however things seem to be very different. One positive sign, unlike with other plans, is that the federal government has recognized the importance of working with instead of against the state governments.
The Co-operation and coordination between the federal and state governments cannot be understated. This development could go a long way to solve many of the issues that lead to the failure of past schemes. Firstly, in working together both governments will presumably sort out conflicts on jurisdiction and scope of responsibility. Secondly, there will be greater chances of proper enforcement through the simplification and streamlining of the patch work of conflicting and confusing laws on that govern land usage.
The scheme has the force of law by way of presidential decree and seeks to regularize the titles of 80% of the private land holdings in Amazonia over the next three years. Lands of up to 100 hectare will be given to the people that occupying them already; those 100 to 2, 500 hectares will be sold via various pricing methods ; and those 2, 500 hectares, which ought to be owned by the government anyway, will be reclaimed by the government.
The plan it is hoped will incentivize the occupation of land by turning would be squatters in to land owners. The newly minted land owners, now having something to call their own, it is hoped will stay and improve their lands rather than abandoning them and moving on to clear a fresh track of forest.
Let’s hope at is works.
