Preserving the Amazon is a difficult task
When Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva returned to Brazil’s presidential palace last January, he was visibly confident. During his previous presidency, from 2007 to 2010, the rate of deforestation of the Brazilian Amazon fell to record levels.
Now in office again after four years of mounting destruction under President Jair Bolsonaro, he has promised to assemble a team he wants to quickly reduce damage and eventually stop deforestation of the world’s most important rainforest. After Lola’s first six months, there were some early signs of success. The government expelled thousands of illegal gold miners from indigenous lands. In the Amazon, the rate of deforestation has fallen by a third.
But during this period, his administration has also had to grapple with the daunting political, logistical and financial challenges that must be overcome if the country is to succeed in halting deforestation by the 2030 target date. Lula’s environmental agenda has already suffered a series of blows in Parliament, which Led by the Conservatives. His opponents, many of whom see the Amazon as a resource to profit rather than a treasure to preserve, have backed away from early attempts to give more power to environmental and indigenous officials and sought to limit indigenous claims to the land. Vegetation is declining in the Amazon, but it is increasing in the neighboring savanna region called the Cerrado.
Lula’s government has absorbed itself in the internal debate about how bold the government should be in protecting the environment. Lula’s success in ending illegal deforestation will be determined in part by how well competing political and economic interests are balanced in a country of vast natural resources, but also by deep inequality and poverty. He believes that he can achieve a thriving Amazon economy and a prosperous environment together.
“Taking care of the Amazon forest means taking care of the people who live there, so that they can achieve development in a sustainable way, with economic models that exploit the forest without harming it,” the Brazilian president told The Washington Post in an exclusive interview.
Lula created a ministry focused on indigenous affairs and moved to give it the authority to protect indigenous lands. But he also made it clear that the Amazon is home to 30 million people, and they are there to stay. However, he believes that the region cannot be an “environmental haven”, and that is enough. But the researchers doubt Lola’s ability to strike a balance. For more than 30 years, since the 1988 constitution placed environmental protection at the top of the government’s responsibilities, Brazil, in general, has tried to do just that. But in remote forests that are still largely uncontrolled, it rarely works.
The main stages of economic progress, such as highways, settlements and dams, have always come at the expense of the environment. It depends “a lot on what one means by the word development,” says Philip Fernside, a researcher at the Amazon National Research Institute in Brazil. Often, this development is used to convert forests into soybean farms and pastures.” Lula’s efforts will be tested by a series of government-led infrastructure projects that could reshape the Amazon Basin.
Some in his administration indicated his support for a large-scale railway project. Supporters say that would boost the agricultural industry, but would lead to deforestation of about 800 square miles and could invite more poaching and logging on indigenous lands.
Lula said he would not oppose paving the controversial BR-319, a 540-mile highway that cuts through the Amazon jungle from Manaus to Porto Velho. The project will speed up transport between cities, but scientists warn it will open the largely protected heart of the Amazon to destruction.
He cannot hand all these issues over to the Ministry of the Environment and then move forward with these projects and make progress without giving up anything. This is inconsistent. The project led to widespread deforestation and decimated fish populations that indigenous communities depend on for food.
Marina Silva, who was environment minister between 2003 and 2008 and who returned as environment minister in the current government, saw that it was more difficult than she expected to shift Brazil’s government towards environmental awareness, despite Lula in power.
But she was confident Lula could satisfy the appetite for economic expansion while preserving the environment in Brazil. The world has changed, she said, and so has Lula’s understanding of the role environmental politics play. Lula himself is very attuned to this new reality. On his trips abroad, he has consistently emphasized his support for the Amazon. Since his victory, European countries and the United States have again offered funding to help Brazil stem deforestation, aid that stalled under Bolsonaro.
Marina Dias*
* Journalist based in Brasilia.
Terrence McCoy**
** Washington Post bureau chief in Rio de Janeiro.
Published by special arrangement with The Washington Post Leasing and Syndication Service.
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