Written by Andreia Fanzeres
Wednesday, 31 August 2011 17:28
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A committee formed by the government of Mato Grosso authorities went to Brasilia on Tuesday, August 30, to submit a proposal for the state’s Socioeconomic and Ecological Zoning (ZSEE) to the Ministry of Environment (MMA) and to representatives of other 14 ministries. The law, sanctioned in April by Governor Silval Barbosa, contains technical and legal errors, eliminates indigenous lands, reduces areas aimed at conservation and protection of water resources and virtually doubles the areas earmarked for agriculture and livestock. This proves that if one day the state was ever committed to responsible environmental management, that’s a thing of the past.
The flaws in the proposal and the socio and environmental loss in the zoning law were discussed by the Mato Grosso community in May, during a seminar in Cuiabá that was attended by indigenous and social movements, researchers, legislators and prosecutors. The government of Mato Grosso refused to show up at the event, demonstrating, amid other matters, the clear connection of the proposal and the weakening of the Brazilian Forest Code.
"According to the 'new' Code, the regional zoning will no longer depend on the backing by the National Environment Council (Conama). Another common point is the idea that consolidates the maximum possible occupations", notes André Lima, of the Environmental Research Institute of the Amazon (IPAM). The former environmental secretary of Mato Grosso,
Alexander Maia, publicly acknowledged that the recent mega deforestations taking place in the state are related to the "new" Forest Code and the zoning law. In late August, he renounced the post claiming political pressure.
Depending on one another
According to the IPAM, the zoning of Mato Grosso corresponds to an increase of over 50.000 km² of areas with a license to deforestation if compared to the current situation. This amounts to over three billion tones of equivalent carbon dioxide, jeopardizing the international commitments signed by Brazil on carbon emissions reductions.
The "new" Code purposely leaves open the drafting of laws (federal, regional or municipal) that can authorize the suppression of permanent preservation areas (APPs) in the event of public utility. "Articles 38 and 58 indicate that further deforestation will be easily regulated and that the embargo to devastated areas will no longer be compulsory. The penalty to recover the vegetation within 30 years - and only 50% of the deforested area, yet with exotic species or through compensation in another state – gives a sense of impunity. It is impossible to say that the 'new' Code will bring better environmental governance", said Lima, of the IPAM. "It shows that deforestation offsets economically".
The consent to recover legal reserves in the Amazon by 50% instead of 80%, as stated in the ZSEE of Mato Grosso, anticipates a change foreseen by the 'new' Code, as the amendment that exempts properties of up to four tax modules from forest regeneration. By IPAM calculations this corresponds to an area of 30 to 48 million hectares in the country. "The tolerance regarding sugarcane growing in the Bacia do Alto Paraguai and in the Amazon is absurd. The proposal excludes only the wetlands, where it is impossible to cultivate anything. It also prevents the establishment of protected areas where there is potential for exploration of hydro and mineral resources”, says Bruno Siqueira Abe Saber Miguel, environmental analyst for the MMA.
Several indigenous peoples said they ignored the zoning law. According to prosecutor Márcia Zollinger, from the Federal Public Ministry (MPF), there are indigenous lands listed in the guidelines of the law that are not even on the map. This applies to 13 areas amounting to about two million hectares. Others are, in turn, represented on the map as hatches, in the list of cartographic conventions, such as rivers, roads and cities. "Over these areas on the map what counts is the category of land use and not the protection status of the indigenous land. This leads to land conflict because it is misleading. It is a violation of the federal law. The unconstitutionality of this law is evident", says Zollinger.
Poor performance in environmental management
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According to analysis of the Centro de Vida Institute (ICV), the state is still totally unable to control deforestation although having reduced it by 90% over the period spanning through 2001-2005. "94% of the deforestation in Mato Grosso is illegal. Forest fires and forest degradation are still going on very high rates", recalls the executive coordinator of the ICV, Laurent Micol. The inability of the state to deal with illegal logging is exposed by, among other factors, the low number of enrollment to the state system for properties licensing: there was a 3% increase in area compared to 2009. To date, only the municipality of Querência got out of the state’s list of the ones that deforest the most in the Amazon, upon registering 80.51% of the properties in its Rural Environmental Registry (CAR).
Reports by the ICV show that the amount of information on deforestation, forest fires and logging provided by the state is insufficient. Moreover, the rate of accountability continues to allow more deforestation: only 0.5% of the fines in Mato Grosso were actually paid.
The state Legislative Assembly is still indifferent to these matters. Upon realizing the voices disputing the law of zoning, it published a note of clarification denying all criticism and aired a vignette on television claiming that the process of public consultation for the proposal preparation was democratic. This was questioned by the city councilor of Cáceres, Alonso Batista (PT), who witnessed threats of physical and verbal violence against social and environmental organizations that attended the various audiences. "Lawmakers have said they could not regard the opinion of social movements. Nobody really knew what had actually been voted. Is this democracy?”.
