The government of Brazil has unveiled a plan to slow deforestation of the Amazon rainforest by more than 70 percent between 2008 and 2018—a move that will also reduce greenhouse gas emissions significantly.

The plan, announced December 1, 2008 by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Environment Minister Carlos Minc, is the first time Brazil has set specific goals to reduce or slow down deforestation due to farming, ranching and illegal logging in the largest expanse of tropical rainforest on Earth.

"Just in terms of avoided deforestation in the Amazon, the plan foresees a reduction of 4.8 billion tons of carbon dioxide that won't be emitted up to 2018—which is more than the reduction efforts fixed by all the rich countries," Minc said.

Deforestation Increases Global Warming, Destroys Medicinal Plants

Amazon deforestation releases an estimated 400 million tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere every year—whether from farmers and ranchers burning trees to clear more land or from rotting wood that is part of the natural forest cycle—making Brazil the world’s sixth largest emitter of the greenhouse gas.

Tropical rainforests are sometimes called the “lungs of the Earth,” because they play such a vital role in absorbing carbon dioxide and releasing the oxygen that humans and animals must have to live.

The Amazon rainforest is also a rich source of medicinal plants and home to thousands of unique plant and animal species. According to some estimates, tropical rainforests may contain half of all known plant species. Scientists have used the specialized properties in native rainforest plants to create drugs that now treat cancer, heart disease, hypertension and many other diseases.
Deforestation destroys wildlife habitat and pushes native plants species to extinction.

Brazil Takes Multi-faceted Approach to Slowing Deforestation

According to Minc, the new plan will slow the rate of rainforest destruction by 72 percent as compared to the 7,330 square miles on average that were lost each year between 1996 and 2005.

Brazil succeeded in slowing deforestation in the Amazon by about 60 percent between 2005 and 2007, but deforestation accelerated again in 2008 as rising soy and beef prices encouraged Brazilian farmers to create more fields and pastures by slashing and burning rainforest land.
Brazil’s anti-deforestation plan would increase federal patrols in the rainforest, replant trees to replace those that have been lost, and finance sustainable development projects to offer viable work alternatives in areas where illegal logging is currently a major source of income.

"We need to offer to help them with one hand, but with the other we have to tell them there will be punishment if they don't pay attention to environmental preservation," Lula said. He didn’t explain the type of penalties he envisioned, nor did he say how much the rainforest preservation plan would cost.