by Bianca Oliveira
SAO PAULO – After completing one year of its implementation, the National Council for the Legal Amazon (CNAL Conselho Nacional da Amazônia Legal) launched the Amazon Plan 2021/2022, with the objective of continuing to monitor and combat illegal deforestation and fires in the region.
The new planning replaces Operation Green Brazil 2, conducted by the Armed Forces, which will end on April 30. The military’s activities began in May last year, after international pressure for the country to protect the forest. According to data from the Space Research Institutes (Inpe – Institutos de Pesquisas Espaciais), 2020 was the second year with the most deforestation in the Legal Amazon since 2015, with more than 8 thousand square kilometers of deforested area. On Friday (12), the Ministry of Defense released the balance of the Operation, which cost about R$ 400 million. In the past six months, deforestation notices fell by 21% and, in January, there was a 70% decrease compared to the same period of 2020.
The Amazon 21/22 Plan will be concentrated in 11 municipalities, seven in Pará, one in Rondônia, two in Amazonas and one in Mato Grosso. Inspection will again be exercised primarily by civil organizations, such as the Brazilian Institute for the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (Ibama) and the Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation (ICMBio). In addition to having the support of the National Indian Foundation (Funai), the National Institute of Colonization and Agrarian Reform (Incra) and the police. The government’s goal is to stop illegal deforestation by 2030. However, last year deforestation in the Amazon was three times greater than Brazil’s proposal to the Climate Convention.
Last week, President Jair Bolsonaro also signed a program for which he hopes to raise R$ 3.2 billion a year from the private sector to preserve parks in environmental reserves in the Amazon. The “Adote1parque” (Adopt one park) allows any company or individual to sponsor one of the 132 federal conservation units in the region,