The deforesting of natural areas has accompanied the history of Man. From the beginning of agriculture some 10 to 15 thousand years ago, many forests began to be replaced by crops of several species of edible species and, as populations began to grow within those groups, came the need to increase its deforested areas. It is interesting to note that this replacement of natural areas wasn’t just related to the development of agriculture. Population growth also brought about a greater degree of social complexity and so, deforesting continued to enable other activities such as religious cults or the building of dwellings. 

With the coming of Mercantilism, the exploitation of forests began to change its focus to a more economy-oriented approach. In many colonies, the only activities conducted were related to the gathering of forest products for sale in Europe. Once the Amazon Rainforest was discovered, its jungles began to be exploited by European countries such as Portugal and Spain. In those days, the goal was already to extract its possible riches and implement livestock breeding and agriculture in the region. However, technology wasn’t enough back then for major changes to take place.

Significant deforesting of the Amazon Rainforest began between the decades of 1960 and 1970, while Brazil was under a military dictatorship. The influence of Soviet communism and the success of the Cuban revolution in 1959 sparked several revolutionary movements. Since many such movements used forest areas as training grounds and for expansion, Brazilian government saw the Amazon as a strategic region to ensure “national integrity”. It is important to stress the fact that together with that justification, there was also a perception that the Amazon Rainforest was mostly a vast unproductive area that would only be economically profitable if occupied and deforested.
 
Encouraging deforesting

With the help of the United States, Brazilian government devised a National Integration Plan (PIN) in which it created several incentives so that families from more densely populated areas would migrate to the Amazon. For example, the National Rural Credit System (SNCR) financed the implementation of agricultural systems and, though it was aimed at the entire Brazilian territory, major incentives were targeted to be applied in the northern region. In order to connect the region to major urban centers, the government also began to build large highways, such as the trans-Amazonian highway (BR – 230) and the Cuiabá – Santarém (BR – 163). With this kind of encouragement, it was expected that more than 70 thousand families would move to the region of the Amazon Rainforest.

As a consequence of this period, massive areas of forest were felled. Only in January 1978, 16,900 km2 were deforested and, in a span of 10 years, the deforesting average was some 19,840 km2 a year. In other words, an area almost the size of Israel was deforested every year.

Between the end of the military rule (in the 80s) and the beginning of the decade of 1990, Brazilian economy entered a recession and the incentives for migration and occupation of the Amazonian region decreased. Resources to structure and develop the economy during the military period were derived from international financers and, in consequence, Brazil’s foreign debt increased. In 1982 it had already escalated to 300 billion dollars. An increase in foreign debts when the economy is not well structured, plus other factors, made inflation skyrocket to reach 1,157% a year by the end of the decade of 1980. In 1990, in one of the attempts to control it, the Brazilian government froze a major part of bank accounts, paralyzing the country’s domestic economy. Between 1988 and 1991, Brazil’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) decreased by 0,05%. In this period, deforesting fell 52% and in 1991, the amount of razed forest was the second smallest in history (11,030 km2).

A seesaw of levels

The year of 1995, witnessed the greatest deforesting rate since the end of military rule: almost twice that of the previous year. This dramatic jump took place, mainly due the Plano Real economic plan introduced in 1994, created in an attempt to reduce the inflation of previous years, stabilizing the value of the country’s currency pairing it to the US dollar. The result was an increase of company investments in 1995. Cattle farms in the Amazon, for instance, were able to import agriculture implements at an affordable cost and expand their area of occupation.

This plan resulted in an increase in the country’s deficit and interest rates causing serious problems to several national banks — such as Banco Nacional and Banco Econômico that went bankrupt during that period. Therefore, after a very agitated 1995, Brazilian economy began to grow at a slower pace, causing a major drop to deforesting practices after 1995.

Deforesting began again to grow in 2002, a period especially important to Amazon farmers because they started to become more independent from government financing. The first change came with improvements to the cattle ranching system, increasing the number of animals per area. The second and more significant change was the eradication of important maladies such as BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy) and the hoof-and-mouth disease, enabling the Amazonian states of Mato Grosso, Acre and half of the southern portion of the state of Pará to export cattle beef to Europe. Both facts brought about a substantial increase in profit for Amazonian cattle ranches, generating great investments and an expansion of the occupied area. In 2004, the amount of deforested area came close to the levels recorded in 1995.

Again in 2004, the Brazilian government attempted to reduce deforesting and came up with a plan called Prevention and Deforesting Control in the Amazon (PPCDAM). This plan proposed intentions and goals to reduce the rate of deforesting and was the basis of the important Amazonian Fund. Its three main goals were: (i) land ownership and territorial ordering, (ii) environmental monitoring and control and (iii) to encourage sustainable productive activities. Due to the first actions of this plan and the beginning of other government activities coordinated by the then Minister of the Environment, Marina Silva, deforesting began do decrease in 2005.

Deforesting reductions such as those occurred in 2005, were repeated also in 2006 and 2007. In 2008, a slight increase was noticed and 2009 saw the smallest rate recorded since 1988. The reduced rate of deforesting 1n 2009, however, seems more connected the economic crisis of that year than to Brazilian governmental plans, since in 2010 more plans were devised (such as the Sustainable Amazon plan) and deforesting increased slightly.

Deforesting obstinacy

After hundreds of years of occupation in the Amazon Rainforest, it is easy to notice that the idea of deforesting still exists. Local economy is based mainly on enterprises that involve a concept that a good business model is only feasible with a felled forest. And, unfortunately, the incentives given by the government throughout the years transformed that idea into a profitable business model. That said, the situation of the Amazon Rainforest will only change and deforesting will only be reduced, when major government plans are articulated with deep changes to the local business model.

With this reasoning, some people, organizations, governments and companies are trying to reduce deforesting in the Amazon Rainforest. Innovative businesses that employ the value of a standing forest to promote the well-being of locals and preserve the forest are springing up. Some good examples are: the Amazonian Fund, the Sustainable Amazon Foundation, Amata, the Ecological and Economical Macro-zoning of the Legal Amazon and many other initiatives that can change more than 400 years of a traditional business model. 

Some interesting websites to check out:

INPE – Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais
IPEA – Instituto de Pesquisas Econômica Aplicada

Rafael Morais Chiaravalloti is a masters degree student of the Escola Superior de Conservação Ambiental e Sustentabilidade – ESCAS (a result of the partnership between IPE – Instituto de Pesquisas Ecológicas and Natura) and a Volans trainee (think tank and English consulting in the field of social entrepreneurship).