Meio Ambiente e Desenvolvimento. O Programa Piloto para a Proteção das Florestas Tropicais do Brasil: Um Exemplo de Desenvolvimento Sustentável

• Published in: Revista geográfica - Instituto panamericano de geografía e historia 1995-07 (122), p.113-131
• Main Author: Kohlhepp, Gerd
• Format: Article
• Language: por ; spa
• ISSN: 0031-0581

During the last three decades, tropical rain forests became continuously threatened by slash-and-burn clearing of large tracts in favor of so-called development projects, on a global scale. In the Amazon region of Brazil the increasing deforestation rate resulted mainly from the regional development strategies of the Brazilian governments, especially from the mid-1960s onwards: The Programs of National Integration, Polamazônia, integrated rural development and infrastructural, mining and industrial mega-projects. The percentage of cleared areas with reference to the forest area in Amazonia is today estimated to be between 12% to 15%; in the Mata Atlântica region, tropical forests have been destroyed up to 95%. The "International Pilot Program to Conserve the Brazilian Rain Forests" (PP-G-7) is a result of the international concern about the destruction of the rain forests and is based on the initiative of the G-7 countries, coordinated by the World Bank. The PP will contribute to the sustainable development of natural and human resources. It comprises four subprograms (science and technology; demonstration projects; the natural resources policy project; management of natural resources) with originally 14 projects which will help strengthen the institutional capacity of the public sector to consolidate and enforce the implementation of a sound environmental policy as well as to improve the management of natural resources and protected areas. The new paradigm of a sustainable development and the change in development strategies are the basic guidelines of a hopefully announced hew regional policy for Amazonia. It is a challenge for the current Brazilian Government to prove that the resolutions of the 1992 Rio de Janeiro UNCED Conference are reflected by a new pattern of environmental policies and that their integration into the framework of the PP is socially and environmentally sustainable. Nos últimos decênios, as florestas tropicais foram, sempre mais, ameaçadas de destruição na escala global, a favor de "projetos de desenvolvimento". Na Amazônia Brasileira a crescente taxa de desmatamento resultou principalmente das estratégias de desenvolvimento regional dos governos brasileiros, sobretudo a partir dos meados dos anos 1960: Os programas de integração nacional, Polamazônia, desenvolvimento rural integrado e mega-projetos de infra-estrutura, de mineração e industriais. Hoje a porcentagem de áreas desbravadas em relação à área de florestas na Amazônia é es