Brazil's government this week unveiled its plans to meet a pledge to completely remove deforestation in the Amazon — the world's largest tropical rainforest — by 2030. This plan makes use of a strengthened law enforcement against environmental crimes as well as other measures in the Amazon.

Brazil had joined a 2021 pact with over 140 countries to globally eliminate deforestation by 2030, under former rigth-wing president of the country Jair Bolsonaro. And now, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who assumed office on January 1, has made the same a centrepiece of his environmental policy.

"I'm committed to resuming Brazil's global leadership in mitigating climate change and controlling deforestation," Lula said in speech on the event to launch the plan.

What does the action plan comprise?

The Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Deforestation in the Amazon (PPCDAm) sets a coordinated policy across over a dozen ministries through the end of President Lula's term in 2027.

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It calls for boosted use of intelligence and satellite imagery to track criminal activity, regularisation of land titles and use of a rural registry to monitor correct management of forests considered vital for slowing global climate change.

Degraded forests will be recovered and native vegetation increased via economic incentives for conservation and sustainable forest management, the plan stated.

The actions to be taken will include authorities having to cross-check information from the financial system with the rural registry and other databases as well as satellite images to root out illegal loggers and cattle ranching.

Financial intelligence can, for example, point to cash movements to pay for equipment like chainsaws for logging or excavators for illegal wildcat gold mining.

The plan also foresees the creation of a tracing system for livestock, wood, and other agricultural products from the rainforest, at a time when importing countries are demanding proof increasingly that they are not from deforested lands.

It also looks to develop a green economy to sustain the Amazon region without deforestation that will include the certification of forest products, technical assistance for producers, provision for infrastructure, energy as well as internet connection, and the encouragement of ecotourism.

Lula also said the government intends to announce a new set of measures to combat crimes such as illegal logging, illegal mining, hunting and fishing in indigenous territories, environmental protection areas, and in the Amazon as a whole.

With inputs from Reuters

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