Ecobreves – BRAZIL: Amazon Pact for Zero Deforestation

By IPS Correspondents and - - Reprint | | Print |

RIO DE JANEIRO, Oct 6 2007 (IPS) - Eliminating deforestation in the Amazon by 2015 is the target announced by nine environmental groups Oct. 3 in Brasilia. The proposed national pact for the end of deforestation in the Amazon includes a progressive system of goals they say could be achieved with an annual investment of about 540 million dollars.

“We believe the success of this pact is possible now,” because the falling rate of deforestation in recent years favors a general commitment to continue that progress, and big agricultural producers understand that the international market will seek more products from “sustainable practices”, especially with the clamor over climate change, Sergio Guimaraes, coordinator of the Center of Life Institute, told Tierramérica.

Governors of five of Brazil's nine Amazon states support the zero-deforestation proposal.