Monday 25 August
2008, San José, Costa Rica
Q&A: "Amazonas State Is
in the Environmental
Vanguard"
Interview with Nadia
D'Ávila Ferreira,
Amazonas Environment
Secretary*
MANAOS, Brazil (Tierramérica)
- The Brazilian state of
Amazonas is "a quarry of
ideas and creativity"
and is in the vanguard
for having preserved 98
percent of its native
forests, paying for
environmental services,
and enacting the
pioneering Climate
Change Act, says Nadia
D'Ávila Ferreira, the
state's secretary for
the environment and
sustainable development.
A biologist who holds a
master's degree in
freshwater and fish
biology and another in
quality management, she
took the helm of the
Amazonas Secretariat of
the Environment and
Sustainable Development
(SDS) in March 2008.
Amazonas covers a vast
territory in
northwestern Brazil and
is one of the country's
nine Amazon Basin
states.
Ferreira had already
served in high-level
posts in the SDS and in
the Secretariat of
Education for Amazonas
state. Following are
excerpts from an
interview with
Tierramérica's Mario
Osava in the Amazonian
city of Manaos.
TIERRAMÉRICA: The
Climate Change Act was
passed in 2007. What has
been done as a result of
that legislation?
NÁDIA D'ÁVILA FERREIRA:
The (state) government
created a foundation to
develop environmental
services in the State
Centre for Conservation
Divisions (CEUC) and of
Climate Change, both
inaugurated in April
2008. The CEUC will
manage 34 conservation
areas that cover a total
of 17 million hectares,
in association with
non-governmental
entities.
TA: And for the climate
change issues?
NDF: The law calls for
six programmes that the
State Centre for Climate
Change must carry out.
One is the Forestry
Grant, entrusted to the
Sustainable Amazon
Foundation. Another is a
programme for energy
alternatives.
Training is another
activity. We just
completed a teachers
workshop on forest
management and climate
change. We have
published two books
which in 2009 will be
distributed to all
teachers, nearly 30,000
people, after reviewing
them and expanding them
based on participatory
input. We want to show
how students in primary
and secondary school can
help tackle the climate
issue.
Also, there will be
environmental
monitoring, with
specific indicators for
the state, which reduced
deforestation 63 percent
over the last five
years.
TA: But what is being
done to fight
deforestation, which
increased this year?
NDF: In May, Amazonas
created the Strategy
Group for Fighting
Environmental Crimes,
with 31 members who will
take action based on
environmental
intelligence in
association with the
police and the army. It
is necessary to attack
clearly identified
targets, because
inspecting the vast
extension of the Amazon
forest would cost too
much.
TA: Will a change in the
energy matrix only be
possible with the
pipeline that would
carry natural gas from
Urucum, in the interior
of Amazonas, to Manaos,
the capital, or are
alternative sources
being considered?
NDF: Today Brazilian
consumers pay about two
billion reais annually
(1.25 billion dollars)
to subsidise the
petroleum used in
Amazonas. With Urucum
gas, we will have
continuous energy, which
will encourage
businesses to set up
shop in the country's
hinterland.
The state government
wants to induce
companies to develop
local potential, like
the açaí and cupuaçú
fruit and cashews. But
to process these
products requires
energy. The pipeline
will ensure natural gas
supplies in Manaos, for
nine thermoelectric
plants and more vehicles
capable of running on
natural gas, which today
is limited to 224 taxis.
TA: Environmentalists
criticise the pipeline
and the use of fossil
fuel. Couldn't biodiesel
be used instead?
NDF: The federal
government is
encouraging the use of
biodiesel, but it will
be necessary to prove
that it can be produced
on a large scale in the
Amazon. Some
alternatives based on
Amazon fruits will only
be able to meet the
demands of small
isolated communities.
Furthermore, there will
be social benefits from
the pipeline, which will
run through 135
communities, 75 percent
of which still rely on
lanterns or candles.
Through public hearings,
we brought about changes
in the original project,
allowing gas
distribution along 126
kilometres of branches
that will supply seven
local municipalities.
And the fibre optic
cables for monitoring
the gas pipeline will
also bring broadband
Internet to the
villages.
TA: What do you think of
the proposal set forth
by scientists who
advocate heavy
investments to establish
researchers in the
Amazon region with the
aim of saving it?
NDF: They are all
welcome. But the
research should be
linked to our strategic
goals. We need, for
example, to strengthen
our chains of
production, involving
products arising from
the local biodiversity,
such as natural latex
and cashews. Also for
using secondary timber,
because the best known
species are rapidly
being exhausted.
TA: And when it comes to
traditional knowledge,
what is your Secretariat
doing?
NDF: No public policy
can be made without
listening to the
traditional populations.
It is they who preserve
the environment. We
maintain 98 percent of
vegetation coverage in
Amazonas state thanks to
the economic
concentration in Manaos,
where, with its
industrial district,
nearly all of the
state's tax revenue
comes from. But there
was no stimulus for
development of the
interior, whose
population survived on
their work and
knowledge, preserving
nature, without our
paying for it.
The state government
took the first step,
recognising these groups
as "guardians of the
forests" and paying them
for their environmental
services with the
Forestry Grant. It is an
innovative initiative.
We are sure that our
programmes will continue
because they were built
with social movements
and local peoples, with
whom we discuss every
policy.
TA: Does the Forestry
Grant aim to become a
nationwide programme?
NDF: The idea is for it
to expand. Indigenous
groups have also
demanded an indigenous
forestry grant, but
their lands are federal.
For now we have instated
the grant in six state
conservation units,
which will expand to 12
by the end of the year.
We will send the
indigenous peoples’
request to the Ministry
of Justice. If it is
authorised, there is no
reason not to involve
the original guardians
of the forests.
TA: Lastly, what role
does communication play
in your plans?
NDF: We are in the
environmental vanguard,
with experiences that
can be shared elsewhere.
But the press usually
only publishes negative
events, like
deforestation, and not,
for example, that
Amazonas state is a
champion in reducing it.
The widespread idea is
that here there are only
trees, and not great
cultural and ethnic
diversity, as well as
one of the largest
duty-free zones in Latin
America. We have a great
deal of water and
biodiversity, but the
most important, the
greatest treasure of the
Amazon, is its people.
(*Originally published
by Latin American
newspapers that are part
of the Tierramérica
network. Tierramérica is
a specialised news
service produced by IPS
with the backing of the
United Nations
Development Programme,
United Nations
Environment Programme
and the World Bank.)
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