Brazil Opts Out of Pledge to Eliminate Deforestation by 2030

09/24/2014 - 08h46

President Dilma Rousseff, in her speech to the New York climate summit, limited herself to giving an account of Brazil's progress on deforestation, which has fallen 79% since 2004.

She did not endorse the New York Declaration on Forests, the main document of the summit.

The reduction in deforestation saves 650 million tonnes of carbon emissions per year. "Brazil, therefore, does not make promises. We show results," said Rousseff.

The Declaration is really another show of goodwill than a legally binding commitment. It asks countries to reduce deforestation by half by 2020, and completely by 2030.

Brazil opted out of the declaration, after disagreeing with the pledge to stop deforestation entirely by 2030.

The government feels that the issue does not need to be decided now, and they were also unhappy with the non-diplomatic language used in the text.

The minister of the environment, Izabella Teixeira, said that Brazil was not invited to debate the content of the declaration.

Organizers of the summit claim an initial draft was sent to the government in July, but Teixeira denies having received it.

LEGAL OR ILLEGAL

The government's biggest reservation about the declaration is the absence of a distinction between legal and illegal deforestation.

Brazil permits sustainable managing of its forests, allowing for a certain amount of timber production and the clearing of areas for agricultural use.

A commitment to eliminating deforestation entirely would therefore prevent activities which are currently legal.

The National Plan on Climate Change in Brazil, adopted following a 2007 decree, pledged to eliminate the net loss of forested area in Brazil by 2015.

The issue has come up in the current election campaign. Rousseff accused her opponent Marina Silva of "lying" about the rise in deforestation of the Amazon in the last year.

For Rousseff, there was just "a little increase" in 2013.

During the Lula administration, Rousseff served as minister of mines and energy, while Silva was minister of the environment. The two women clashed frequently, with Silva eventually resigning in 2008.

Data from the National Institute of Space Research (INPE) shows that deforestation rose 29% between 2012 and 2013.

However, with 5,891km2 of forest destroyed, this was the second-lowest figure registered since 1988.

If the New York Declaration's goal were to be fulfilled, carbon emissions would be reduced by 4.5 to 8.8 billion tonnes per year from 2030.

This is the figure that deforestation is currently estimated to produce annually. It would be equivalent to removing the entire global fleet of cars.

The United States and the European Union supported the declaration. China and India did not. Several other countries with tropical forest signed (Peru, Colombia, Guiana, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Indonesia).

However, none of these countries has anything like Brazil's 4 million km2 of Amazon rainforest.

The journalist Marcelo Leite travelled to New York on the invitation of Burness Communication and the Ford Foundation.

Translated by TOM GATEHOUSE

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	Mike Segar/Reuters
	Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff speaks during the Climate Summit at United Nations Headquarters in New York