Ever since the Brazilian government began do disclose a list of townships that most contributed towards deforesting of the Amazon Rainforest in 2008, companies and local administrations have been trying everything to avoid receiving the disgraceful title. In Brazil, to be seen as a deforesting villain has become increasingly uncomfortable, because now townships are subjected to economic sanctions such as credit restrictions and embargoes in the supplying of products, aside from enjoying a bad reputation that doesn’t help much when it comes to attracting foreign investors.

Townships such as Alta Floresta, Nova Maringá and Porto dos Gaúchos, in Mato Grosso, were in 2009 practicing their skills at a better environmental behavior, but until now they have not fulfilled the minimum requirements to be removed from this deforesting black list. Every year, this listing serves as a guideline for the application of economic restrictions and investments for environmental inspections in order to improve these numbers. Among the priority actions reserved for the federal government for these regions, a greater presence and control of the federal government has always been among the strategies considered and, in theory, also the creation of conservation units. But curiously, the only township that managed to be left out of this list did so thanks to local efforts.

n April 12, 2010, the minister of the Environment, Izabella Teixeira, signed an ordinance removing Paragominas, in the State o Pará, from the list of major deforesters of the Amazon, because local administration managed to include 80% of the real estate into the Rural Environmental Register (CAR). The registration required by the State allows the localization and monitoring of permanently preserved areas (such as river banks and hilltops, for instance) and legal reservations (a percentage of private properties that under Brazilian laws cannot be cut down to the ground) so that its conservation and recovery can be achieved.

The government considered that in Paragominas deforesting is “monitored and under control”. This acknowledgement ensures the township priority in receiving fiscal and economic incentives, plus federal plans, programs and projects aiming at its social development on a sustainable basis, especially with regard to the consolidation of the forest produce, agricultural extractivism and livestock breeding, according to the ordinance that removed Paragominas from that listing.



Paragominas is no newcomer to this experience with economic activities, also considering mining. The 2 million hectares township with some 100 thousand inhabitants has been emancipated now for 45 years and is known as one of the most important contributors towards deforesting of the Brazilian Amazon. About 50% of its territory has already been deforested – a figure that, for a township located right in the Brazilian Amazon, should be no greater than 20%. Now under the leadership of Mayor Adnan Demachki, rural real estate owners have to relearn to deal with the land, respecting local forces of inspection that have become increasingly more present.

To enter the list In 2009, the criteria for inclusion in the list of critical townships were: 1)total deforested area, 2)deforested area in the last three years, 3)an increase in the levels of deforesting in at least three of the last five years, 4)deforesting in 2008 equal or above 200 km2 (in 2010, MMA lowered this requirement to 150 km2 of deforesting verified in 2009). 5)it is also considered a priority if the township records four deforesting increases in the last five years, whose total in the last three has been equal or above 90 km2. To leave the list According to an ordinance of 2010, townships that want to be free of the stain of being one of the major deforesters need to show that: 1) they have included at least 80% of their rural properties in the Rural Environmental Register (CAR), a tool created in the states to record and monitor real estate with regard to their environmental performance. 2) the deforesting scene in 2009 has to be equal or below 40 km2. 3) the average of deforesting in 2008 and 2009 needs to be equal or below 60% in relation to the average of 2004 to 2006.

According to Francisco Fonseca, researcher of The Nature Conservancy organization (TNC), the turning of tables at Paragominas began only very recently, in 2008. It was the organization’s initiative to be part of the Green Township program, the result of a partnership between city hall and the union of rural producers, supported by the Fundo Vale, by the State bureau for the environment and local entities, aside from TNC and the Man and Environment of the Amazon Institute (Imazon), which conducts the satellite monitoring of the township’s deforesting levels and delivers to the city hall numbers and maps on the existence of heat spots and close cropping and degradation on a monthly basis. In this manner, the township has the conditions to act quickly and know exactly who has been cutting down the forest and where.

The monitoring of deforesting levels with a closer view resulted in the reduction of almost 90% of degradation between 2007 and 2009 in the township, a fact which was celebrated by the mayor. “I did not decree any zero-tolerance Act. I merely summoned the population and built everything together”, says Demachki. “Our main concern wasn’t just to be out of that list, but rather with the next steps. We are seeking to establish a pact for the products that are the result of responsible sources, whether wood, meat or grain. We know society will acknowledge this effort and pay more for this guarantee”, continues the mayor of Paragominas. He says that due to this commitment, half of his time at city hall is spent on environmental issues.

Help in georeferencing proprieties, in order to enter the CAR, plus the supply of technical assistance so that farms in Paragominas can adequate themselves to meet the regulations of Brazil’s Forest Code, has encouraged TNC to apply the same project in other townships, among which is the problematic São Félix do Xingu (PA), with 8 million hectares and 6 thousand estates. “In order to install an environmental management within territories where deforesting forges ahead uncontrolled, it is necessary to show a project of sustainable development where everyone wins. That is exactly what happened in Paragominas”, explains Fonseca. Aside from the coalition between several local institutions, the fact that the government guaranteed that land owners would not be punished with fines for previous environmental damages is another great ally towards the success of this project.

Following the experience with Paragominas, a forum of forest-based townships was created, with a goal to avoid ground-level cutting, working with sustainable management, and intensifying livestock breeding and agricultural activities without opening up new fronts. There are eight townships on the east of Pará, totaling an area of 80 thousand km2, of which Paragominas contributes with 20 thousand km2. “It’s not only a matter of repression, which has its limits. Without local partnerships, it is difficult to bring down deforesting significantly”, says Adalberto Veríssimo, of Imazon.

Although only Paragominas has left the sad list of major deforesters, the Brazilian government announced that 38 of the 42 remaining townships showed some lessening in the levels of deforesting. These reductions, however, were not sufficient or were not accompanied by other requirements to deem these places as “under control”. “The list brought these discussions [on deforesting control] to a township level. The problem is on a municipal scale, and so is the solution”, ponders Veríssimo.

Read more about Paragominas in O Eco

Changes on the border

Paragominas: an exhausted border?


Andreia Fanzeres is journalist graduated by the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. She has worked on the magazines Ciência Hoje ans Ciência Hoje On-line. Currently she is O Eco´s correspondent in Mato Grosso.