The federal government approved this Wednesday (18) the Action Plans for the Prevention and Control of Deforestation and Burning in the Caatinga (PPCaatinga) and Pantanal (PPPantanal), which will be implemented from next year. The plans for the Atlantic Forest and Pampa should be launched in the first week of February, after public consultations.
The measures were presented at the meeting of the Permanent Interministerial Commission for the Prevention and Control of Deforestation, led by the vice-president and minister of Development, Industry, Commerce and Services, Geraldo Alckmin (PSB), at Palácio do Planalto.
The initiatives are added to the already existing plans for the Cerrado (PPCerrado) and the Amazon (PPCDAm) – the latter, implemented in 2004, during the first term of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT).
As a result, all biomes are covered by the policies.
“Based on scientific evidence and supported by technical-scientific seminars, the plans reinforce the approach to public policies based on concrete data and robust analyses,” explained the Ministry of the Environment (MMA), in a statement.
The MMA also presented new estimates of deforestation reduction. Between August and November 2024, deforestation alerts fell by 77.2% in the Pantanal; 57.2% in the Cerrado; and 2% in the Amazon, according to the Real-Time Deforestation Detection System (Deter), from the National Institute for Space Research (Inpe).
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“Both Cerrado and Pantanal, which still had relatively high deforestation data, we are managing to reverse and consolidate the drop in deforestation in the last four months”, said the Extraordinary Secretary for Deforestation Control and Territorial Environmental Planning of the MMA, André Lima, after the meeting. “We closed the year with this important balance, that is, a very positive balance”, he added
Deter issues daily alerts of new changes in forest cover to support rapid inspection actions and combating environmental crimes carried out by Ibama and ICMBio. The annual rate of deforestation due to clear cutting is provided by the Satellite Deforestation Monitoring Project (Prodes), carried out between August of one year and July of the following year.
According to Prodes, deforestation in the Legal Amazon fell 30.6%, in the period from August 2023 to July 2024, compared to the previous year (2022/2023). In the Cerrado, the drop was 25.7%, considering the same periods.
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Articulation
According to André Lima, the fight against deforestation in the Pantanal and Cerrado is the result of coordination between the federal government and the states. In Pantanal, a pact was signed between MMA and the government of Mato Grosso do Sul, which resulted in the approval of a new state law restricting deforestation in critical and sensitive areas.
Another important milestone was with the governors of the region known as Matopiba, which encompasses agricultural areas on the borders of the states of Maranhão, Tocantins, Piauí and Bahia. The pact is aimed at controlling illegal deforestation in the Cerrado, with an emphasis on monitoring and inspecting properties with the highest deforestation rates recorded in 2023, based on the Rural Environmental Registry (CAR).
“These are biomes that have an important area of deforestation that takes place in private areas, so control is carried out mainly by state bodies”, explained Lima. “In the Amazon, the strongest work, a greater Challenge, is in public areas, undesignated public forests, settlements, which correspond to more than two thirds of deforestation in the region”, he added.
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Action plans
In the Pantanal, the main causes of deforestation include the expansion of livestock and agriculture; exploration of mineral resources; difficulties in determining the legality of deforestation in the biome; and the predominance of private areas, making environmental governance difficult.
PPPantanal is made up of 13 strategic objectives; 32 expected results; 54 lines of action; and 159 goals.
Among the main initiatives, the strengthening of cooperation between the Union, states and municipalities stands out; implementation of the Integrated Fire Management Policy; creation of normative instruments to regulate the removal of vegetation; promotion of sustainable agriculture and livestock practices; promotion of tourism and extractive activities; integration of data from the Rural Environmental Registry (Sicar) with the Vegetation Suppression Authorization (ASV) system; sustainable energy generation; and structuring a financing fund for actions in the Pantanal.
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In the Caatinga, the bottlenecks for combating deforestation are the expansion of livestock and agriculture; in the use of native vegetation as an energy source; in the installation of energy projects (wind and solar); and in the exploration of mineral resources.
PPCaatinga, in turn, is made up of 13 strategic objectives; 32 expected results; 49 lines of action; and 120 goals. Its priorities include advancing land and environmental regularization; promote sustainable agricultural practices; recognize territories of Traditional Peoples and Communities; strengthen credit lines for small producers; structure a financing fund for the biome; plan energy projects; and also integrate Sicar data with ASV.
