Lula recovers the plan to stop deforestation in the Amazon with an eye on 2030

Lula da Silva during the speech in which he announced the measures to curb deforestation, in Brasilia, on Monday. Gustavo Moreno (AP)

Eradicate deforestation by 2030. It is the goal that Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva set himself when he took office, and achieving it will not be an easy task. To achieve this, the government now has a specific plan against deforestation in the Amazon, symbolically presented on World Environment Day. It is a reissue of a plan that Lula and his Minister of the Environment, Marina Silva, already launched in their first term, in 2004, and that gave very good results. Since it came into force and until 2012 deforestation fell by 83%. Later, the destruction increased again little by little, and skyrocketed during the administration of Jair Bolsonaro, who suspended the plan and replaced it with specific military operations to combat fires and illegal logging that specialists saw as patches of little use.

The return of the plan, developed over four months with the participation of 19 ministries, aims to reach zero deforestation within seven years and for this it outlines 194 lines of action. Among other measures, the creation of three million hectares of new nature reserves or the protection of 230,000 kilometers of river banks stand out. The government also wants to seize 50% of illegally deforested land, expand the number of strategic bases, police stations and planes of the Federal Police and the Armed Forces in the Amazon, create daily deforestation alerts and hire 1,600 environmental analysts before 2027. President Lula also promised that he will make "due corrections" in Brazil's contribution to the Paris Agreement against climate change, as commitments were revised downwards in recent years.

The program is not only based on repressing environmental crimes, it also tries to offer an economic alternative to the millions of Brazilians living in the Amazon, promoting the bioeconomy, sustainable tourism and family farming, according to the Minister of Environment when presenting the plan. "Bringing socio-environmental protection and climate change to the center of the Government's activities and priorities goes beyond being an ethical and civilizational commitment. It is also the greatest triumph that Brazil has to insert itself in the world, attract investments, generate jobs and once again be a protagonist in the solution of the great global conflicts," he said.

Despite her conviction, many Brazilian politicians do not think like her. Last week, the Chamber of Deputies, with a conservative majority, voted in favor of restricting the demarcation of indigenous lands, managed to withdraw powers from his ministry and that of the Indigenous Peoples and relaxed the rules of protection of the Atlantic Forest, a rainforest biome more threatened even than the Amazon. At the presentation ceremony of the plan against deforestation, Lula announced the veto of the articles of that law that put the future of the forest at risk, but the dehydration of the ministry remains as it is. In any case, the pompous presentation ceremony of the anti-deforestation plan was an act of reparation and a boost to its minister with more international prestige at a time of strong pressure.

Environmentalists greeted the government's proposals with a mixture of optimism and caution, especially because they know that parliamentarians will be a thorn in the shoe. "It's no use making a nice plan on paper and for Congress to pass a law that amnesties land invaders," said Márcio Astrini, secretary general of the Climate Observatory coalition of organizations, citing some of the threats that are currently being processed. In addition to working on the ground to keep the forest standing, the government will have to work hard in the corridors of Brasilia to convince opponents, allies and the powerful agricultural lobby. In political times, the plan should begin to bear fruit before 2025, when Brazil will host COP-30 in the city of Belém, an international event that Lula hopes to take advantage of to capitalize on all efforts in favor of green diplomacy.

Follow all the international information on Facebook and Twitter, or in our weekly newsletter.