|
Reducing land-related conflicts, optimizing the per capita income, establishing an environmental balance, and improving overall health, education and quality of life conditions are only some of the objectives to be met with Pará’s Ecological-Economic Zoning (EEZ); a proposal prepared by the state government. It’s expected to start a new development cycle aimed at sustainability, by associating economic growth with care for the environment and social responsibility.
Pará’s EEZ has an innovative design if compared to previous initiatives in the country. The improved design was considered interesting by the World Bank, which offered to finance the project, with an estimated cost between R$ 30 million and R$ 40 million. The proposal is being discussed with society representatives, such as entrepreneurs, the Church, military institutions, civil organizations, etc., with the purpose of adapting its final form to general interests. Another innovation was the use of participation methodologies in field works.
The government’s proposal involves integrating zoning and a sustainable development policy based on the consolidation of open borders. This would avoid economic activities from advancing into forest areas, which may be preserved without detriment to growth. This is the case, for instance, with the project for the production of biodiesel from the African oil palm. The palms will be planted in part of the 20 million hectares that have been already modified by human action (see box).
The concern with nature preservation becomes clear because the government’s proposal increases from 1.32 percent to 10 percent the portion of fully protected areas in Pará’s territory. Therefore, the state will be acting in conformity with the best international environmental standards. Similarly, sustainable use areas will represent 29 percent of the state’s territory, an expressive increase if compared with the current 9 percent. In these areas, the use of natural resources will be subject to the adoption of good management techniques. Most of them will be occupied by state production forests.
If these reserves are added to indigenous and quilombola community lands, the state government’s proposal will mean a significant increase of the percentage of protected lands in Pará’s territory – from 32 to 62 percent. Part of the areas destined for sustainable use will be strategically located along the Santarém-Cuiabá highway, one of the settlement axes in the Mid-West/Northern Region. These areas will serve as surrounding borderlines, with the purpose of avoiding the occupation of full protection areas of the so-called Midland (Terra do Meio), a very important region from an ecological perspective, in which serious social conflicts take place.
The zoning reflects the development notion proposed by Pará’s governor, Simão Jatene, for the Amazon region. Therefore, it’s more than a mere technical paper. It’s portrayed as a strategic decision of the state government for creating a sustainable development project that is actually achievable, and that observes global economy rules. “Tax and customs barriers with which countries used to protect their economies have been replaced by environmental and sanitary barriers, and Pará’s zoning proposal fits this new order,” explains the governor.
For a truly sustainable development in Pará, the governor believes that the participation of the entire society is critical. For this reason, the project is being presented at meetings with representatives from several social segments inside and outside the state. At the meetings, suggestions are collected and the proposal is improved.
The strategy of creating a proposal with vast social discussion also helps obtain the support of important players for the project. Pará’s Ecological-Economic Zoning was presented to representatives of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that work in the environmental area and had good acceptance.
The EEZ project also received compliments from the coordinator of the Pilot Program for the Protection of Brazil’s Tropical Forests (PPG-7), Alberto Lourenço. In his opinion, the zoning is “a bold initiative” of Pará’s governor, for it may help change the historical and widely known relationship of “mutual suspicion” between the federal government and state administrations. The project was presented to Lourenço during a hearing with governor Simão Jatene, which took place on July 27. He visited Belém together with representatives of the International Advisory Group (IAG) of PPG-7.
According to the governor, the EEZ is very much integrated with the state’s development project. Simão Jatene believes that the proposal has an important role in the search for balance and harmony among the three development factors – economic, environmental and social. “The EEZ works with the sustainability concept, which necessarily involves, by definition, social, economic and environmental objectives,” says Jatene, who adds: “This aspect should be highlighted. In our opinion, it’s not possible to think about sustainability without contemplating these three factors.”
A mistake commonly made in discussions about the development of the Amazon is, according to Simão Jatene, employing the concept of sustainability only in discussions about environmental objectives. “If man is left out of this process, what kind of sustainability will we have?” asks the governor. Likewise, sustainability won’t be attained either if the goal to be achieved is strictly economic. “Our project understands the concept of sustainability as an area of intersection among the three objectives mentioned, and we know there’s no other way, or we wouldn’t be referring to sustainability,” he affirms.
The zoning will show what state areas should be fully preserved, which ones should be destined to intensive use, and those that should have restricted use. In the execution phase, the areas will be studied in detail. It’s expected that, out of the 1.2 million square kilometers that make up Pará’s surface, details of about one-third of the territory will be surveyed, thus encompassing about 400,000 kilometers.
It’s in this area to be studied in detail that we’ll find the spaces already affected by intensive economic use, or border expansion areas. According to the governor, this is an important piece of information to understand the project’s methodology. “It’s no use thinking of surveying 1,250 million square kilometers,” he says, adding that the detailed survey will be extended to areas in which the government has a consolidation interest.
The EEZ will be used as an instrument for consolidating Pará’s agricultural limits, defining the forms of settlement, identifying the profile of economic activities, and controlling the advance onto new areas not defined as expansion zones.
Another innovative aspect is that the EEZ will allow the definition of legal reserves per municipality, not per property, in discontinued areas, as is the standard today. This change aims at assuring, among other factors, the preservation of water springs and ciliary forests, as well as the potential recovery of already altered areas.
Zoning presents solutions
Having almost 1,250 million square kilometers (more than twice the size of France), historically Pará is known for having been through hard times regarding the environmental and social aspects. Over 70 percent of its territory is covered with forests, but deforestation already reaches an area of more than 200,000 square kilometers. The smuggling of valuable wood types, such as mahogany, disputes over land that often end with deaths, pollution of water courses from a lack of sanitation in urban areas, disordered multiplication of cities, deficient medical care, and poorly controlled expansion of agricultural and cattle-raising frontiers. None of these issues are actually new, but they’re all current and it’s expected that they will be solved with efforts based on Ecological-Economic Zoning (EEZ).
Particularly susceptible and explicitly mentioned in the EEZ is the so-called Midland (Terra do Meio), a large, relatively intact forest area located between the Xingu and Tapajós rivers, right margin affluents of the Amazon River. The Midland has been a target of action by people who claim to own pieces of land, for which they post ads even on the Internet. The main city of this region is São Félix do Xingu, where violence is common because of the mahogany ownership issue. The Midland is also dangerously close to illegal deforestation areas that, in 2003, were performed mostly around it, according to information from the Space Research Institute (Inpe, Instituto de Pesquisas Espaciais).
The presence of native Indian groups, geographical barriers (such as river levels with great seasonal variations), and difficult access have helped left unknown the area’s biodiversity. However, in 1990 over 100 researchers got together during Workshop 90, in Manaus, with the objective of defining priority conservation areas in the Amazon. Two Midland areas were designated, because of their high levels of endemisms and endangered fauna and flora species.
In the Midland and nearby native Indian territories are the greatest remaining mahogany concentrations. Grileiros (land grabbers), lumber dealers and farmers threaten the region, per the non-governmental organization (NGO) Greenpeace. In 2003, the Social and Environmental Institute (Instituto Socioambiental), another NGO, submitted a plan for the preservation of the Midland, including a national park, a biological reserve, national forests, Indian lands and extraction reserves. For this region, that encompasses an area of 76,000 square kilometers, the EEZ involves the creation of 19,143 square kilometers of Fully Protected Nature Conservation Units and 57,637 square kilometers of Sustainable Use Nature Conservation Units. The plan defines 24 full protection units and 11 sustainable use protection units. The state will have a total of almost 125,000 square kilometers of protected areas, or 10 percent of its territory.
In the Amazon, Pará is the main lumber producer and exporter, with wood being the second most important commodity in the state’s economy, preceded only by ore products. Soy crops are becoming increasingly important, giving reason for concerns by technicians and environmentalists regarding the possibility of contamination of the water table by chemicals. Animal raising, especially bovines and birds, is also important, but the EEZ is critical regarding its contribution for social development: “The implementation of cattle-raising in forest areas serves more private real estate speculation interests than society. Because of the predominance of this activity, which wastes resources and concentrates income, Pará has social development levels much lower than its economic potential would allow. It’s great touristic potential is not adequately explored – which provides an estimated income of R$ 600 million per year.”
There are development proposals for all large regions into which the state was divided: Calha Norte; Tapajós; Baixo Amazonas; Portel-Marajó; Xingu; Tocantins-Araguaia; and Costa Atlântica-Nordeste. For all of them, a diagnosis was made of social problems, environmental issues and economic potentials, including a management proposal. We should bear in mind that Pará has a huge variety of ecosystems ranging from igapós (permanently flooded forests) to altitude fields, also including firm ground forests, cerrados (grassy, treeless plains that surround the Brazilian rainforest), mangrove areas, and coastal restingas (area containing scrubby vegetation typical of sand marine barrier islands).
There was also great concern about the preservation of the region’s rich – and little known – biodiversity. Several conservation units are connected with ecological corridors, vital for the preservation of species. Thus, five Biosphere Reserves will be created, each including several conservation units. Twenty priority areas were defined for the conservation of biological diversity.
The social problems aren’t small. The EEZ document says:
“The state of Pará still suffers the impacts resulting from the economic model adopted for the Amazon, which, over the past decades, has prioritized economic growth and overlooked the importance of human development. There was almost no concern for the environment, industrialization and the internalization of benefits that nature’s resources could offer to the population. For instance, the progress of deforestation in the Amazon, especially in Pará, was encouraged by several factors, such as:
“Tax incentives that prioritized extensive cattle raising for meat production and, consequently, the deforestation of large areas for pasture implementation.
“The construction of integration roads that attracted large numbers of families from other regions in the country without continuous technical, financial and infrastructure support.
“The announcement of the agrarian reform and the progressive tax on non-productive areas that accelerated deforestation actions as a way of assuring private ownership of the property and intention of future use.
“The Great Carajás Project with all of its social and environmental flaws.
“The construction of large hydroelectric plants for using the energy potential without the performance of adequate environmental impact surveys.
“Despite the problems related to the adopted development model, Pará today has a healthy economy, with a strong share in the country’s trade balance surplus.”
However, the seriousness of the social issues identified by the EEZ can’t be discussed. Only 14 percent of the population between the ages of 15 and 17 go to school. Of the state’s 143 municipalities, 27 have illiteracy rates of more than 32 percent. Malaria and acute diarrhea diseases account for about 98 percent of the epidemiological profile of the communities. Land ownership is poorly distributed: in 1995, 1.1 percent of landowners owned 50.9 percent of the land. In the state, 44 percent of the heads of family don’t have an income or make minimum wage. As it can be seen, the problems aren’t few nor small. But at least they have been identified and exposed.
African oil palm
will provide biodiesel
Pará is Brazil’s largest African oil
palm producer, which allows it
to become a national benchmark in biodiesel production. This is the proposal of Pará’s Biodiesel Production Incentive Program (Para-biodiesel), introduced in the month of June. By the end of 2004, the Agropalma group will open, in Belém, the first industrial facility for processing the fuel obtained from the African oil palm, with an estimated annual production of eight million liters. Biodiesel is made up of a mixture of vegetable oil and alcohol (ethanol or methanol). Its main advantages are pollution reduction, job generation (in rural areas and industries) and capital savings, resulting from the drop in petrodiesel imports.
According to Pará government data, the state has five million hectares suitable for African oil palm culture. If only 250,000 hectares (5 percent of the total area) were to be used, it would be possible to produce, per year, about one million tons of biodiesel and guarantee jobs for 25,000 families. Furthermore, the palm tree can be planted on some of the 20 million hectares that have already been altered without the need for new deforestation actions. Biodiesel will be able to feed thermoelectric plants that take power to isolated communities living on the left margin of the Amazon River and in the Marajó Island, replacing the petrodiesel with advantages.
The federal government is planning for November one phase of the Brazilian Biodiesel Program, involving the beginning of production and trading of the renewable fuel in the domestic territory. In phase one, biodiesel will be mixed with petrodiesel at a 2 percent proportion – by 2005, this percentage should reach 5 percent, being gradually elevated until it reaches 20 percent. Biodiesel alone will be used in stationary engines, power generation, and captive fleets, such as official cars and urban buses.
Estimates made by São Paulo’s State Agricultural Federation indicate that each 5 percent portion of biodiesel added to petrodiesel result in savings of about US$ 350 million, which correspond to the amount of mineral fuel that stops being imported. Also according to the federation, the addition of 2 percent of African oil palm to petrodiesel has a huge impact on raw material demand. The increase in demand corresponds to 1.2 million tons of sugar cane and 2.9 million tons of African oil palm. In the rural area, 1,500 sugar-cane-related jobs would be created and 35,000 African oil palm-related jobs would be created. If the percentage mixed is increased to 5 percent, we would have 7.3 million tons of African oil palm and 87,000 jobs.
There are biodiesel projects in several Brazilian states. In São Paulo, soy, peanuts, sunflower and fried dish residues are used. In Piauí, Ceará and Rio Grande do Norte, the castor oil plant is used. In Bahia, African oil palm and residual fats. In Mato Grosso, soy. And in Paraná, soy, sunflower and wild radish.
•
 |
 |
|
