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Amazon's Deforestation Rate May Stabilize This Year, Minc Says
By Andre Soliani and Carla Simoes
Aug. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Brazilian Environment Minister Carlos Minc said the pace of deforestation in the Amazon, the world's largest rainforest, may stabilize this year on tighter logging rules.
The forecast is a turnaround from April, when the government predicted the first acceleration since 2004.
``I'm more optimistic now,'' Minc said late yesterday in an interview in Brasilia. ``Deforestation will be the same as last year.''
The Amazon rainforest lost 11,224 square kilometers (4,334 square miles) in 2007, the smallest loss since 1991. The government's current estimate, which Minc said will be revised, is for 12,000 square kilometers of loss this year.
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has tightened rules against illegal logging since December, responding to preliminary figures that signaled devastation of the forest may quicken. Surging prices for cattle and soybeans are leading ranchers to seek farm land in the Amazon.
Minc said government efforts to combat the deforestation of the Amazon are starting to bear fruit. The pace of deforestation has been falling since 2004, when it reached a nine-year high of 27,379 square kilometers.
Bank Loans
The government's most significant measure to combat deforestation was to cut bank loans to farmers in the rainforest basin who fail to prove they are meeting environmental requirements, Sergio Leitao, director of Public Policy at Greenpeace in Sao Paulo, said.
Minc took office on May 27, replacing Marina Silva, who headed the ministry for five years. A founder of Brazil's Green Party, he's the former Rio de Janeiro state's environment secretary.
With less than three months in office, he authorized an Odebrecht-led group to start building the Santo Antonio dam in the Amazon and issued a preliminary license for Angora 3, a nuclear power plant near two historic Oceanside towns, Angora dos Reis and Parity.
The minister has pledged to cut by about half the waiting period businesses face to receive environmental licensing for investments without lowering quality standards.
``We remain concerned about public policy under Minc as we were under Marina Silva, since the environment is not a priority for Lula's administration,'' Green peace's Leitao said. ``The measures being adopted as a whole contribute to deforestation and spur the occupation of the Amazon.''
Lula created on Aug.1 an international fund that will seek to raise $21 billion in donations over the next 13 years to finance conservation and sustainable development projects in the Amazon.
Minc, in an interview with Bloomberg Television yesterday, said the government was in ``advanced talks'' with Switzerland, Germany and the U.K over donations to the fund. He expects to raise $900 million in the first year of the fund. Norway has agreed to donate $100 million, Minc said.
To contact the reporters on this story: Andre Soliani in Brasilia at asoliani@bloomberg.net; Carla Simoes in Brasilia at csimoes1@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: August 15, 2008 06:49 EDT