Brazil VP suggests 20% cut of deforestation for goal

By Gabriel Toueg

SAO PAULO (AA) - Brazil needs to cut between 15% and 20% of illegal deforestation annually in order to be able to achieve a 2030 goal for total elimination of illegal destruction of the Amazon rainforest, said Vice President Hamilton Mourao Friday.

“Today we have a range of 10,000 km² to 11,000 km² of deforestation each year,” Mourao, who chairs the Amazon Council, said in a radio interview.

According to him, only 10% of it is made within the law. “The rest is illegal,” he stated. “Our vision is that we have, from now until the end of the decade, to reduce from 15% to 20% every year in relation to deforestation records between 2019 and 2020”.

Mourao said Thursday that the government “is working” to bring rates of illegal deforestation down “little by little”.

According to Climate Observatory, a local environmental NGO, however, the government’s goal is not to reduce deforestation, but to leave the Amazon at the end of 2022 with a devastation 16% greater than the records prior to the Bolsonaro administration.

The US pressures Brazil for an immediate reduction in deforestation and for an increase in environmental enforcement.

Mourao’s statements come amidst a new crisis in the country involving Environment Minister Ricardo Salles. Salles is under pressure after police chief Alexandre Saraiva, Amazonas state Federal Police superintendent, was fired.

His dismissal came after Saraiva filed a complaint with the Supreme Court against Salles and a Roraima state Senator. This week, Saraiva said Minister Salles “defends environmental offenders”.

President Jair Bolsonaro is set to join next week a climate summit hosted by US President Joe Biden. The Brazilian president has been under international pressure to cut illegal deforestation, which peaked during his administration, with an area 14 times the size of New York City destroyed.

Closed-doors negotiations between both countries have reached an impasse with Brazil asking for money upfront and the US demanding certain results first.

Brazilian NGOs are asking Biden not to endorse Bolsonaro.

Almost 200 Brazilian organizations warned the US president in a letter about the risk of negotiating behind closed doors with Brazil. According to the organizations, an imminent cooperation agreement between the countries poses risks to the environment, human rights and democracy.