Beto Veríssimo says public policies need to go beyond combating deforestation and land grabbing

04/15/2024

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Beto Veríssimo — Foto: Divulgação

Brazil urgently needs to implement a structured socio-economic development plan for the Amazon that encourages the preservation of the forest while also enhancing the productivity of economic activities that already take place in the region, including cattle ranching. To achieve that, Beto Veríssimo, the founder of the Institute of People and the Environment in the Amazon (Imazon), suggests that certain public policies need to be implemented beyond just combating deforestation and land grabbing. He highlights land regulation that does not favor land grabbers and a carbon policy that positions Brazil as a major global player in this market as priorities.

“The relentless fight against deforestation and land grabbing is fundamental, but it’s not enough. We need to regulate land that has already been deforested in the past. By initiating a carbon policy, we can start exporting our credits and begin making forest restoration a reality,” Mr. Veríssimo told Valor during the Skoll World Forum. This event brings together social entrepreneurs from around the world in the UK.

According to the founder of Imazon, regulating land would allow the economic activities already being conducted in the Amazon to shed their illegal status and become more productive, from the extraction of native forest products such as açaí, cupuaçu, and cocoa to cattle ranching. He explains that cattle ranching in the Amazon is not problematic in itself; the critical issue that draws environmentalists’ criticism is the meager productivity rates of cattle ranchers in the region.

This occurs, Mr. Veríssimo explains, because it is common for land grabbers to invade land in the Amazon and place cattle on it to mark the territory and secure their control. “The problem is not cattle ranching per se, but rather the speculation to profit from the land. It’s a classic occupation in which cattle play a role but is not the actual activity, which is why cattle ranching in the Amazon is so unproductive,” he noted.

In this context, Mr. Veríssimo argues that land regularization, without amnesty for land grabbers, would be crucial in distinguishing legitimate producers from criminal entities and would help curb the advance of deforestation. “Cattle ranching is going to be in the Amazon. There’s no way to stop it. The important thing is to build a framework so that it becomes more productive, more profitable, and contributes more positively to the region’s economy. There are already good cases of cattle ranching in the Amazon, but they are still isolated cases.”

Mr. Veríssimo notes that livestock production in the Amazon averages about 70 to 90 kilos of meat per hectare per year. He suggests that if the activity were conducted legally and in an organized manner, production could increase fivefold. He cites the example of ranchers in the Paragominas region who produce 11 times more than that average, and this is not even considered an extraordinary performance.

He also mentions that the specter of illegality in the Amazon, in both cattle ranching and other activities such as logging, deters serious investors who fear associating their image with anything potentially wrongful, as well as dealing with criminals in the area.

“Investors are terrified of entering the Amazon today because they fear that any business they engage in could be associated with illegal activities or that they are in a region where there are real criminal activities nearby. A company undertakes a forest planting operation and suddenly faces land grabbing, deforestation, and an atmosphere of insecurity. The Amazon is becoming very violent,” he said.

Regarding the carbon market, Mr. Veríssimo believes that Congress needs to expedite the regulation of the market so that landowners are incentivized to continue preserving the forest, based on the principle that “a standing forest is more valuable.” That would occur because by preserving or restoring their land, landowners would be able to export carbon credits that reward their efforts to prevent deforestation.

“It would reinforce an important agenda with the standing forest for the services it provides,” he remarked. “Every hectare of standing forest should be compensated, regardless of whether it belongs to the farmer, the Indigenous person, the settler, the extractivist, the river dweller, or the government. The idea is for the world to pay [through the carbon market] because the Amazon provides a global benefit,” he emphasized, noting that the initiative tends to encourage forest restoration, something that needs to start happening urgently. “And this restoration industry has the potential to make an unparalleled socio-economic contribution to the region, in addition to providing climate benefits.”

For the founder of Imazon, the challenge is enormous, but he notes that the time is right for a robust plan to be structured. He mentions the current federal government’s willingness to accelerate the movement and notes that the entire political and social entrepreneurial community globally has started to take a genuine interest in the Amazon. “I’ve been coming to the Skoll World Forum since 2010, and I see that this is the first year that Brazil has taken a leading role. They’re really looking at the Amazon this time,” he said. “The Amazon needs all sectors of the economy to be able to communicate and keep the forest standing.”

The reporter traveled at the invitation of the Associated Press and the Skoll World Forum.

*Por Rafael Vazquez — Oxford

https://valorinternational.globo.com/