Map highlights partnership with MMA in combating deforestation

The Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (Mapa) participated in the launch of the new Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Deforestation and Fires in the Cerrado (PPCerrado), created with the participation of 13 ministries and 22 invited bodies, which was submitted to public consultation in the last month.

Representing Mapa, special advisor Carlos Augustin highlighted that deforestation is not necessary for the country's agricultural production. “Brazil does not need to deforest. We have 160 million hectares of pasture, what we need to do, and are already doing, is transform these pastures, build public policies so that farmers feel more comfortable and have more advantages. We are here to transform this together,” he said.

Augustin also highlighted the finalization of the decree to launch the program to convert low-productivity pastures to intensify food production in a sustainable way. The initiative is considered the largest sustainable food production program in the world and focuses on production with traceability and sustainability, without compromising forests.

The 4th phase of PPCerrado establishes the commitment to achieve zero deforestation in the biome by 2030, with the elimination of illegal deforestation and compensation for the suppressed area and the greenhouse gases emitted.

PPCerrado is structured around four thematic axes: i) sustainable productive activities; ii) environmental monitoring and control; iii) land and territorial planning; iv) normative and economic instruments, focusing on reducing deforestation and implementing the actions of the first 3 axes. These are broken down into 175 goals, distributed across 82 lines of action.

The federal government will launch plans to prevent and combat deforestation for all biomes by the end of the first half of 2024. The minister of the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change, Marina Silva, celebrated the data. The country will go to COP 28 “with its head held high”, declared Marina, due to the 49,7% drop in deforestation in the Amazon compared to the same period in 2022. In the Cerrado, he added, there are more challenges, but “it is not with denialism that we will solve the problem.”