Written by Thiago Foresti
Wednesday, 14 December 2011 09:11
Protected Areas are fundamental tools for biodiversity conservation. Their use has been an important ally against deforestation. Their strategic protection is guaranteed by the constitution and their boundaries are based on scientific studies that take into account the ecosystem balance, biological, cultural as well as scenic values. Despite their importance, protected areas and conservation units (CUs) in the Brazilian Amazon are in danger of disappearing, decreasing or having their categories changed in the name of political and economic interests.
Researchers say there is a great movement to dismantle conservation areas in the Amazon through Bills, lawsuits, regulations, executive orders and state zoning. In 2010, the Institute of Man and Environment in the Amazon (Imazon) conducted a study named “The State of the Amazon” in 48 protected areas of the Amazon; 92% of these areas suffer from some kind of external pressure by direct ownership, logging, infrastructure work and mining. In addition, there are 37 formal proposals for amendment of these units. "They’ve already been reduced 13% from a total of 386,500 km ² of protected areas in the Amazon. This is on top of the over 80 thousand square kilometers of pending cases up until the end of the analysis,” says Paulo Barreto, a researcher at the Institute.
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"In Rondônia, in 2009, when the federal government confiscated cattle raised illegally within a National Forest (Flona) Bom Futuro, the state government responded with blackmail: either reducing and changing the category of the area or the state would suspend state licenses for construction of hydroelectric dams in Jirau and San Antonio, "recalls Baker. It was then that a bill reduced part of this area and turned the other party into an Environmentally Protected Area (APA), a milder category that allows private occupation.
August 15th, 2011, Dilma Rousself’s Provisional Measure (PM) redefined the boundaries of three protected areas: Amazon National Park (Amazon / Pará), Mapinguari National Park (Amazonas / Rondônia) and the National Park of the Amazonian Fields (Amazonas / Rondônia / Mato Grosso ). The measure aims to provide sustainable settlement within the Amazon National Park area and make room for the construction of the hydroelectric dams Jirau and San Antonio in the Mapinguari. It opens up a dangerous precedent and deserves more attention. The government has failed to expropriate large estates and prefers to disassemble CUs to carry out agrarian reform, as well as, allow for the modification of the CU boundaries without analyzing the impacts of the project.
"There is a large movement of subordination of the environmental and conservation agenda in our country," says Barrett Henyo, academic director of the International Institute for Education in Brazil (IEB). "There are mixed signals. While it recognizes that in international forums and meetings that the environmental crisis is serious and needs attention, we are witnessing here an attack on environmental legislation in favor of infrastructure and agribusiness," said Adriana Ramos, Executive Secretary Deputy of the Socio-Environmental Institute (ISA).
"It is worrying to have this practice of reduction and modification to categories of CUs, mainly because in most cases they occur without any study on the implications of their reduction in the socioenvironmental and environmental attributes. This wounds the Federal Constitution. The elimination of any CU can only be made by law; nevertheless this vetoes the use or endangerment of the attribute that justified its creation," explains Brent Millikan, of International Rivers.
And the last measure that promises to throw fuel on the fire on the issue of protected areas was signed in Brasilia, a cooperation agreement for the implementation of Public-Private Partnership (PPP) in National Parks. The partnership will enable the completion of feasibility studies of economic activities allowed in each UC, given the current environmental legislation. The ministers of Environment, Izabella Teixeira, and Planning, Miriam Belchior, signed in October a cooperation agreement. The proposal is under survey and feasibility studies.
Bolívia e Guiana
The Bolivian Amazon covers half the country and has 24% of its territory under protection: 16% of national protected areas and 8% state protected. After months of protests for the integrity of the Tipnis’ National Park, President Evo Morales signed in October, a law banning highways that cross through National Parks.
Guyana has only two protected areas - the Kaieteur National Park, created in 1929 and covering an area of 5,913 km² and Area Wildlife Preservation Iwokrama, established in 1997 with an area of 3,600 km². The country passed this year, a national plan of creation and maintenance of protected areas.
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