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Brazil wants to export 'green" social programs

06/16/2012 - 13h19

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NATUZA NERY
BRASÍLIA

The Brazilian government will use Rio+20 to encourage the world to adopt policies of conditional cash transfers "married" to environmental protection.

This is what has been put forth by the minister of Social Development and Hunger Prevention, Tereza Campello. Her objective is to set an agenda to discuss ways to globally implement the so-called socioenvironmental foundation: to remunerate poor families that protect and restore the environment.

According to the minister, the draft of the final agreement of Rio+20 already has two paragraphs defending the "marriage" between conditional cash transfers and sustainability. For her, "it's stupid and backwards to separate poverty and the environment."

Bolsa Familia is a conditional cash transfer program that has helped lift millions of Brazilians out of extreme poverty. It roughly translates as "Family Purse."

Sergio Lima/Folhapress
The minister of Social Development and Hunger Prevention, Tereza Campello
The minister of Social Development and Hunger Prevention, Tereza Campello

Folha - Are cash transfers and protecting the environment a kind of second phase of Bolsa Familia?

Tereza Campello - We want to lift the population out of poverty. If we can get people out of poverty and improve the situation of the planet, it will be better for those who are poor and for all of us who share this planet.

Will Bolsa Verde, or 'Green Purse,' be able to preserve the forests?

If a poor person lives in an environmentally valuable area-either a reserve or an extractive forest settlement, we photograph the area and make a contract with the family. After a year, we check to see if the forest has been cut down and if the family is monitoring the land.

Sustainability is more than just protecting the environment. What is the best way to move forward?

We are studying conditional cash transfers for areas that have already been degraded. The money helps the population restore them. The Bolsa Verde program was our inspiration, but we want to reach out to fisherman, people who live near rivers, etc.

Is this a "pop agenda" for the world?

I believe that this is the new big thing on the sustainability agenda right now. Sustainability and poverty have never been addressed in such close conjunction, and here we are talking at a conference that focuses on green issues and poverty. If we don't push this agenda, it's not going to happen on its own.

Will the world accept the inclusion of this proposal in the agreement that comes out of Rio+20?

There are already two paragraphs about eradicating poverty with an environmental agenda. We don't want this to be just a cool idea for Brazil, but rather something that can be used around the world. The idea is to leave Rio+20 with plans to try to implement this.

It's not natural to put poverty and the environment together?

Actually, when one speaks of reducing pollution, the first thought is usually of technology, which we didn't necessarily include.

Translated by ANNA EDGERTON

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