DEFORESTATION IN MATO GROSSO S AMAZON FOREST

Transcription

1 DEFORESTATION (PRODES/215) CHARACTERISTICS, CURRENT POLICIES AND WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE DECEMBER 215

2 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Mato Grosso is a key state within the Brazilian Amazon to reconcile an increase in agricultural production with reduced deforestation, a fundamental equation to decrease the role of emissions from the agriculture and land-use change sectors in global climate change. Between 25 and 214, Mato Grosso reduced deforestation in its Amazon Biome by 87%, while more than doubling its GDP. In 215, however, PRODES detected 1,58km² of deforestation in the state, the highest rate since 28. In this document, we present the main characteristics of the deforestation polygons detected by PRODES from August 214 to July 215, as well as the main measures taken so far to reduce this rate. We also propose recommendations for a long lasting reduction in deforestation. The Mato Grosso strategy Produce, Conserve and Include presented at COP21 covers part of these recommendations. CHARACTERISTICS CURRENT POLICIES WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE? Despite a great reduction in deforestation since 25, illegal deforestation drivers remain active in Mato Grosso; 2 municipalities concentrate more than 7% of deforestation in Mato Grosso; Most of the identified deforestation occurs in private properties, with 6% of deforestation plots located inside large properties (> 15 MF); Large deforestation plots (>1ha) represent 41% of the deforested area; Transgressors are betting on illegal deforestation even after registering in the Rural Environmental Registry (CAR). State inspection has increased while federal inspection has remained at the same level; The Forest Code is being implemented at a slow pace; New actions are being implemented in the municipalities. Publish a list of illegal deforestations and embargoes; Implement the Forest Code by accelerating CAR validation, recovering and compensating environmental deficits; Engage municipalities in the fight against deforestation; Make data from CAR, licensing and environmental inspection publicly available; Establish new private incentives for deforestationfree agriculture. CHARACTERISTICS OF THE DEFORESTATION IN MATO GROSSO S AMAZON FOREST IN 215 From 29 to 214, deforestation in Mato Grosso s Amazon Biome varied around an average of 1, km² a year. In 213 and 215, there was in increase (compared to the previous year) of 5% and 4%, respectively (Figure 1). Although these recent numbers are small when compared to the annual rates from 25 to 28, the maintenance of around 1, km² of annual deforestation and the increase detected in 213 and 215 show that deforestation is not yet under control in the state of Mato Grosso. Year after year, the concentration of clearings detected by PRODES in 2 of the 141 municipal- ities of Mato Grosso portrays active deforestation frontiers. In 215, 72% of the deforestation plots were detected in 2 municipalities, from which only 1 were responsible for 52% of all deforestation in the state (Figure 2). In this context, the case of the Colniza municipality is exemplary: in 215, its clearings represented more than 17% of the state s rates. Most clearings in Colniza happened in unidentified areas, indicating that environmental registration (CAR) and land tenure regularization must become a priority. The size of deforestation plots in Mato Grosso and other Amazon states has been decreasing

3 Concentration of 215 deforestation polygons (hotspot) FIGURE 1 Regions where deforestation is concentrated in Mato Grosso (Source: Prodes/Inpe) over the past 5 years. In 215, from the 5,17 deforestation plots detected in Mato Grosso by INPE (National Institute for Space Research), 4,593 (89%) were smaller than or equal to 5 ha (Figure 3). At the same time, PRODES detections in 215 indicated an increase in the number of plots larger than 1 ha. From 213 to 215, their number increased by 82%, and while they used to cover 25% of all deforested area in 213, in 215 that share rose 64%, amounting to a total of 41%. Rural properties and unidentified areas contained 95% of the plots larger than 1 ha. In 215, 47% of deforestation (638 km²) was detected in unidentified areas. Another 35% (536 km²) of the deforestation happened inside private properties, while 17% (245 km²) were in settlement projects. Deforestation inside Indigenous Lands and Conservation Units remained at low levels, with.5% (6.74 km²) and.4% (5.38 km 2 ) of the total deforested area in MT, respectively. An analysis of deforested areas inside the different classes of land tenure shows that the recent 25% increase in clearings happened mainly inside private properties and unidentified areas (Figure 4). Among private properties, 6% (1,55) of the deforestation plots were detected in large properties (>15 MF) (Table 1).

4 7, 18,628 6, 15,967 5, 13,36 Mato Grosso 4, 3, 1,645 7,983 Legal Amazon 2, 5,322 1, 2, Mato Grosso Legal Amazon FIGURE 2 Evolution of deforestation from 25 to 215 (Source: PRODES/Inpe). 6, 5, 4, Area 3, 2, 1, 67, , ,386,3 56,33 14,62 36,55 59,552 19,498 55, / / /215 Deforestation plots from to 5 ha Deforestation plots from 5 to 1 ha Deforestation plots from 1 to more than 1 ha FIGURE 3 Deforested area by plot size from 213 to 215 (Source: PRODES/Inpe).

5 TABLE 1 Deforestation plots by size in identified private properties. Up to 1 ha 1 to 3 ha 3 to 5 ha 5 to 1 ha 1 to 3 ha Larger than 3 ha Large (>15MF) Medium (4 to 15MF) Small (< 4MF) Total , 55, 5, 45, 4, 35, Area 3, 25, 2, 15, 1, 5, 3,417 28,475 26,197 55,811 23,328 36,55 46, ,863 47,933 63, Prodes 212/213 Prodes 213/214 Prodes 214/ Settlements Private properties Unidentified areas Indigenous Territories Conservation Units FIGURE 4 Deforested areas (km²) by class of land tenure (Source: PRODES/Inpe).

6 The 26.5% increase in beef price seen in 214, followed by another 13.8% increase in 215, along with real estate speculation, are possible reasons for this increase in deforestation in large properties. According to a statement made by Mato Grosso s State Environmental Agency (SEMA-MT), based on data not yet available to the public, 6% of the deforestation occurred in areas registered in the national environmental registry system (SICAR), as determined by the Forest Code. The difference found between SIMLAM s October 214 and SICAR s November 215 share of properties suggests that transgressors are betting on a hypothetical regularization of their environmental crimes that would come from the CAR. Finally, according to our analysis of deforestation plots in areas of licensed hydropower plants reservoirs and inside a 2 km² radius of these plants, 7 km² of clearings can be traced back to hydropower generation, which represents only.5% of the 215 deforestation. According to declarations by SEMA-MT, based on data not yet available to the public, 8% of the deforestation was legally authorized. WHAT WAS DONE IN 215 TO CONTROL DEFORESTATION? Data collected from the State Environmental Agency showed that law enforcement operations have increased both in number and area. From 213 to 215, the area covered by operations went from 13 km² to 658 km². The number of embargoes also increased from 54 to 214 (Figure 5). Law enforcement by IBAMA (Brazilian Institute of Environmental and Renewable Natural Resources) in Mato Grosso continues to show higher numbers than the state s enforcement operations. From 213 to 215, IBAMA issued an average of 1,74 notices of forestry violation and 48 embargoes per year. Implementation of the Forest Code, a responsibility that is shared between federal and state governments, is slow in Mato Grosso, as it is in the whole country. Until October 215, 77% of the area subject to registration in the state had been registered in the CAR system, but the validation function that has been trialed in Mato Grosso has been applied to only a small number of properties. Without validation, CAR cannot act as a tool of environmental regularization and has a limited role in controlling deforestation. Furthermore, the state lacks regulation for the Environmental Regularization Program (PRA) and the establishment of a follow up and monitoring system for the commitments made to recover and compensate environmental deficits.

7 1,4 1,2 1, Deforestation in Km Deforestation (km 2 ) Number of Law enforcement operations (Ibama) Law enforcement area (Ibama-km 2 ) Number of embargoes (Ibama) Number of Law enforcement operations (Sema) Law enforcement area (Sema-km 2 ) Number of embargoes (Sema) FIGURE 5 Productivity of Ibama/MT and Sema/MT inspection activites from 213 to 215 (Source: Ibama/MT and data collected with SEMA/MT. To regulate rural activity in Mato Grosso, the state government established, in August 215, a Provisional Operation Authorization for rural activities (APF) through a state Decree (23/215) and Normative Instruction (9/215). From 215 to 217, while the state is preparing its definite licensing system with clear criteria and integrated to the SI- CAR, the APF will grant a declaration to register rural activities, which allows the lifting of embargoes from areas that lack environmental license or that were legally deforested before July 28. On the online system made available by SEMA/MT, areas detected by PRODES as unauthorized clearings made after 28 are automatically blocked from applying to an APF. According to data obtained from SEMA/MT in October 215, since its implementation in August 215, a total of 1,97 APFs had been requested, from which 1,482 had been issued. From the issued ones, only one helped remove an embargo. At the municipal level, the Sustainable Municipalities Program (PMS) created in 214 is being implemented. As of now, municipalities that have joined the PMS are still responsible for a great share of the deforestation in the state (58%). However, they are starting to play a new role and through PMS, several action plans have been established to channel activities from different PMS members in each of these municipalities.

8 WHAT ARE THE RECOMMENDATIONS TO CONTROL DEFORESTATION? The deforestation detected in Mato Grosso shows that current tools applied to control and reduce deforestation are not completely fulfilling their role. To correct that, our recommendations take 2 mutually dependent paths: 1) improve implementation of command and control policies, and 2) create a positive agenda that involves public policies and private initiatives. Part of these recommendations is covered by the Produce, Conserve and Include Strategy developed by the Mato Grosso government together with several institutions from the private sector and civil society. 1. Publishing a List of Illegal Deforestation that publicly exposes the identification and location of illegal deforesters, with the notices of violation and embargoes showing the names of transgressors. The high number of deforestation plots happening inside properties registered in the CAR system shows that the state government needs to send clear signs that it is capable of identifying transgressors and punishing them accordingly. This list must also play a key role in excluding these properties from sustainable supply chains; 2. Implementing the Forest Code. This means going beyond registering properties in SICAR. It means verifying and validating the information given by producers, publishing the rules for the Environmental Regularization Program (PRA), creating incentives for the recovery of deforested areas and notifying those who made illegal clearings in the CAR database. An implemented Forest Code is the starting point for controlling illegal deforestation and the basis for ensuring legality; 3. Involving municipalities in the fight against deforestation, especially the most deforested ones, by establishing specific task forces for sensitive topics such as land and environmental regularization; 4. Making data from CAR, licensing system and environmental inspection available to the public, so that everyone, including civil society and market actors, can follow up on transgressors actions, widening the government s control capacity; 5. Establishing new incentives for deforestation-free agriculture. This includes a wide range of incentives that go from credit and fiscal tools, to support from the private sector, and market purchasing criteria. There is legal framework for those incentives in the Forest Code, but they have not yet been widely explored. REFERENCES 1 Data used for this work: The analyses were done using PRODES deforestation polygons clipped to the boundaries of Mato Grosso state. PRODES only monitors the Amazon biome of Mato Grosso. Considering PRODES polygons for all of the Amazon biome, the deforestation added up to 5, km². The state of Mato Grosso was responsible for 1,346 km2 (26%), even though PRODES reports a rate of 1,58 km2. This difference occurs because INPE adds the deforested areas of the previous year which were covered by cloud in the previous reporting period. 2 The fiscal module (FM) in Mato Grosso s Amazon biome varies from 6 ha to 1 ha. Therefore, properties larger than 15 FM are at least 9 ha in size. 3 The following hydropower plants were analyzed: Teles Pires (Paranaíta and Alta Floresta), São Manuel (Paranaíta), Complexo Apiacás (Alta Floresta and Nova Monte Verde), Colíder (Itauba, Nova Canaã, Colíder and Cláudia) and Sinop (Sinop, Itauba, Claudia, Ipiranga do Norte and Sorriso). 4 Authors: Andrea Azevedo (IPAM), Alice Thuault (ICV), Cecilia Simões (IPAM), Isabel Castro (IPAM), Edilene Fernandes do Amaral (ICV) and Ana Paula Valdiones (ICV) Front cover image: Na Lata Graphics: Alice Thuault December/215 Graphic design & layout: Gueldon Brito Non-commercial use authorized as long as the source is cited.

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