Written by Gustavo Faleiros
Thursday, 17 November 2011 13:52
After 40 years of investment in roads, dams and other settlements, the Amazon remains poor. A study released last week by the
Regional Coordination of the Amazon (ARA) reveals that almost half of the Amazon’s basin populations live below the poverty line. Only Brazil and Guyana have less than half of their Amazonian populations living above the minimum wage. The worst living situations are in Bolivia and Ecuador, where 60% of inhabitants of the biome live in poverty.
This finding is part of the report, "The Amazon and the Millennium Development Goals," which focuses, for the first time, on the assessments of eight goals established by the United Nations to be completed by 2015. This job brought together researchers from nine countries with territory in the Amazon and was presented at the 5th Forum for a Sustainable Amazon, which happened in the city of Belém, in the state of Pará, Brazil.
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While it cannot generate wealth for its people, the Amazon region has almost 20% of all native forest cleared, much of which has become degraded land. The majority of the clearings - 70% - have occurred in Brazil, followed by Venezuela and Peru. For Beto Verissimo, a researcher at the Institute of Man and the Amazonian Environment (Imazon), the economic model of the Amazon is "bankrupt" because it "has many environmental externalities and cannot distribute the wealth. While this region contributes only a small amount to Brazil’s GDP, deforestation is the main source of greenhouse gas emissions, "he says.
In part, the report follows
research published online in 2007 by Veríssimo called "From Boom to Collapse”, which points out that cities in the Brazilian Amazon that have had high deforestation rates enjoyed a fleeting prosperity along with the exploitation of the natural resources. The majority find themselves with problems of unemployment, violence and poverty.
Watch an interview with the researcher, Beto Veríssimo (in portuguese):
Below the national average
Besides the issues of poverty and hunger eradication, other millennium goals are also being neglected in the Amazonian region. Without exception, in all of the countries in this region, the Amazon has a performance below national averages. The goal for improving health, for example, shows that the cases of malaria per 100 inhabitants are well above the rate the UN finds tolerable. The target set for 2015 indicates that this rate should be 20 cases per 100,000 people. Only in Brazil, there are 1,249 cases per 100,000 inhabitants. In French Guiana, 1,931 cases.
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With respect to these goals which determine the guarantee of environmental sustainability, this picture is not encouraging. Although Brazil has managed to reduce its deforestation, it is still among the highest in the world. In addition, logging is growing in neighboring countries. Another issue is the sanitation, classified as "highly precarious” by author Danielle Celentano, Imazon. Research shows that 65% of the Amazonian populations are already living in large cities like Manaus, but with just under 10% of population with access to proper sanitation. "Compared with 1990 levels, improvements have been made in almost all countries, but the indicators are always below the national average, "says Danielle.
Rio + 20 and the green economy
The study of ARA will precede the discussions on Rio +20, the mega-conference that will occur in the years to come and proposes to discuss how exactly a sustainable economy can help in accomplishing the millennium goals. In our view, the results indicate the need to invest in infrastructure and generate income without increasing more environmental degradation.
The debate about what sustainability, in fact, represents within the strategies for a green economy in each of the Amazonian countries is a controversial topic among environmentalists. The director of the Forestry Program in Peruvian Society of Environmental Law, José Luis Capella, mocked the fact that the Brazilian and Peruvian governments have mentioned dams in the Amazon as sustainable investments. "On the Brazilian document for the proposal for Rio +20, Belo Monte is quoted with as a good example."
According to Verissimo, the GDP of the entire Amazonian region, in its nine countries, is $ 330 billion while only investment plans in the Brazilian Amazon will reach $ 550 billion over the next decade. "The Amazon is experiencing pressure without precedent, but this may be an opportunity for the local people," he said as he mentioned that there must be investment in research and governance.
