David G. McGrath

The End of Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon

Government commitments and market transitions lay the foundation for an effort to save the forest and reduce carbon emission. Brazil has two major opportunities to end the clearing of its Amazon forest and to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions substantially. The first is its formal announcement within United Nations climate treaty negotiations in 2008 of an Amazon deforestation reduction target, which prompted Norway to commit

Slowing Amazon deforestation through public policy and interventions in beef and soy supply chains.

1 billion if it sustains progress toward this target (1). The second is a widespread marketplace transition within the beef and soy industries, the main drivers of deforestation, to exclude Amazon deforesters from their supply chains (2) [supplementary online material (SOM), section (§) 4]. According to our analysis, these recent developments finally make feasible the end of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon, which could result in a 2 to 5% reduction in global carbon emissions. The

Dependence of hydropower energy generation on forests in the Amazon Basin at local and regional scales

7 to

Cenários de desmatamento para a Amazônia

18 billion beyond Brazils current budget outlays that may be needed to stop the clearing [a range intermediate to previous cost estimates (3, 4)] could be provided by the REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) mechanism for compensating deforestation reduction that is under negotiation within the UN climate treaty (5), or by payments for tropical forest carbon credits under a U.S. cap-and-trade system (6).

Systemic Conservation, REDD, and the Future of the Amazon Basin

The recent 70% decline in deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon suggests that it is possible to manage the advance of a vast agricultural frontier. Enforcement of laws, interventions in soy and beef supply chains, restrictions on access to credit, and expansion of protected areas appear to have contributed to this decline, as did a decline in the demand for new deforestation. The supply chain interventions that fed into this deceleration are precariously dependent on corporate risk management, and public policies have relied excessively on punitive measures. Systems for delivering positive incentives for farmers to forgo deforestation have been designed but not fully implemented. Territorial approaches to deforestation have been effective and could consolidate progress in slowing deforestation while providing a framework for addressing other important dimensions of sustainable development.

Framing community forestry challenges with a broader lens: Case studies from the Brazilian Amazon

Tropical rainforest regions have large hydropower generation potential that figures prominently in many nations’ energy growth strategies. Feasibility studies of hydropower plants typically ignore the effect of future deforestation or assume that deforestation will have a positive effect on river discharge and energy generation resulting from declines in evapotranspiration (ET) associated with forest conversion. Forest loss can also reduce river discharge, however, by inhibiting rainfall. We used land use, hydrological, and climate models to examine the local “direct” effects (through changes in ET within the watershed) and the potential regional “indirect” effects (through changes in rainfall) of deforestation on river discharge and energy generation potential for the Belo Monte energy complex, one of the world’s largest hydropower plants that is currently under construction on the Xingu River in the eastern Amazon. In the absence of indirect effects of deforestation, simulated deforestation of 20% and 40% within the Xingu River basin increased discharge by 4–8% and 10–12%, with similar increases in energy generation. When indirect effects were considered, deforestation of the Amazon region inhibited rainfall within the Xingu Basin, counterbalancing declines in ET and decreasing discharge by 6–36%. Under business-as-usual projections of forest loss for 2050 (40%), simulated power generation declined to only 25% of maximum plant output and 60% of the industry’s own projections. Like other energy sources, hydropower plants present large social and environmental costs. Their reliability as energy sources, however, must take into account their dependence on forests.

Market Formalization, Governance, and the Integration of Community Fisheries in the Brazilian Amazon

A AMAZONIA esta entrando em uma era de rapidas mudancas impulsionadas pela previsao de asfaltamento de rodovias que estimularao a expansao da fronteira agricola e de exploracao madeireira. O declinio do custo de transporte tem importantes implicacoes para a biodiversidade, emissao de gases que contribuem para o efeito estufa e prosperidade da sociedade da Amazonia a longo prazo. Para analisar esse contexto, foi desenvolvido um modelo de simulacao de desmatamento na bacia Amazonica, sensivel a diferentes cenarios de politicas publicas frente a expansao da infra-estrutura de transporte pela regiao. Resultados do modelo indicam que, dentro de um cenario pessimista, o desmatamento projetado pode eliminar, ate meados deste seculo, 40% dos atuais 5,4 milhoes de km2 de florestas da Amazonia, liberando o equivalente a 32 Pg (109 toneladas) de carbono para atmosfera. A modelagem de cenarios alternativos aponta que a expansao de uma rede de areas protegidas, efetivamente implementadas, poderia reduzir em ate 1/3 as perdas florestais projetadas. Contudo, outras medidas de conservacao sao ainda necessarias para se manter a integridade funcional das paisagens e bacias hidrograficas amazonicas. Atuais experimentos em conservacao florestal em propriedades privadas, mercados de servicos ambientais e zoneamento agro-ecologico devem ser refinados e multiplicados a fim de se buscar uma conservacao extensiva.

Integrating Comanagement and Land Tenure Policies for the Sustainable Management of the Lower Amazon Floodplain

Instituto de Pesquisa Ambiental da Amazonia, International Program, 3180 18th Street, San Francisco, CA 94110, U.S.A.,ˆemail dnepstad@ipam.org.br†The Woods Hole Research Center, Falmouth, MA 02540, U.S.A.‡Centro de Sensoriamento Remoto, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil

How livestock and flooding mediate the ecological integrity of working forests in Amazon River floodplains

Community forestry initiatives have been shown to reduce rural poverty while promoting the conservation and sustainable use of forests. However, a number of challenges face communities wanting to initiate or maintain formal, community-based forest management. Through a grounded theory approach, this paper uses three case studies of community forest management models in the eastern Amazon to create a framework showing challenges faced by communities at different phases of formal management. The framework shows that, in the development phase, four root problems (land ownership, knowledge acquisition, community organization, and adequate capital) need to be addressed to obtain legal management permission. With this permission in hand, further challenges to operationalization are presented (deterring illegal loggers, maintaining infrastructure, obtaining necessary managerial skills and accessing markets). The interrelatedness of these challenges emphasizes that all challenges need to be addressed in a holistic manner for communities to maintain a profitable and self-sufficient operation. This contradicts current development approaches that only address part of this framework. The framework proposed here can be used as a starting point for community forestry initiatives in other regions.

Impacts of the Comanagement of Subsistence and Commercial Fishing on Amazon Fisheries

A major trend in global trade in forest, animal, and agricultural products is the implementation of importation policies and development of private sector standards and certification mechanisms to promote the sustainable management of natural resources in the countries of origin. In many cases, ensuring sustainable origins involves requirements that small-scale rural producers and fishers cannot meet. This article investigates the formalization of community-based floodplain fisheries in the Brazilian Amazon, including (a) the development of federal and state fisheries management policies, (b) the parallel development of community management systems, and (c) the role of these processes in the evolution of fisheries management in the Lower Amazon region. We argue here that market-oriented solutions, such as third-party certification, are insufficient. Government support for and collaboration with producers and industry are essential to creating conditions that enable fishing communities to sustainably manage their fisheries.