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Source: Poder 360

Author: Francy Nava

Image: Shutterstock

"We live in an environment that fosters division and hatred. The anxiety caused by the climate emergency drives many people to point fingers at productive sectors and reject effective efforts and solutions coming from private initiatives. As a result, our energy dissipates, we waste time, and fail to unite in seeking solutions together. There is a tendency to stigmatize loggers and rural producers in the Amazon, as if they are inherently part of the problem. This tendency is fueled by prejudice and misinformation. Of course, crimes must be curbed and punished with the full force of the law. However, in the face of the climate catastrophe we are experiencing, we need to engage in dialogue, understand each other better, and not exclude one another as if we were enemies. We are all in the same boat: the challenge of generating prosperity, reducing inequalities in our country, and protecting nature while benefiting from its resources. Historical Context The recent history of the Amazon's occupation is linked to the exploitation of its natural resources. Just five decades ago, Brazilians from all over the country were encouraged by the federal government to migrate to the region to extract timber and clear land for cattle ranching and agriculture. The National Institute for Colonization and Agrarian Reform (INCRA) allocated plots of land, and banks provided loans, on the condition that the forest be cleared for exploitation. If settlers did not produce—and therefore did not deforest—they lost their plots. Generational Shift We have learned a lot since then. Two generations later, the situation has reversed: federal and state agencies monitor and punish timber extraction and deforestation unless approved under strict environmental laws. Banks now deny loans to those who fail to comply. As Brazilians, we should be proud of the solid legislation we have built over the years and work to ensure it is enforced. We are still at the end of this transition and intense learning curve. Property owners and businesspeople in the Amazon are part of this transition. The older generation lived through the previous era when timber extraction and deforestation were encouraged, laws were less stringent, and enforcement was weaker. These individuals, like all of us, have learned and have been offered alternative ways to generate income, including techniques for timber management and agroforestry integration. Today, we live in a new phase where agribusiness in the Amazon is a mix of agriculture, cattle ranching, timber management, and carbon credit production. Agribusiness is highly susceptible to climate variability and market price fluctuations. This mix provides business security. Carbon credits, by compensating landowners for conserving forests, enable and encourage full compliance with environmental laws, which in the Amazon require 80% legal reserve forest and allow for deforestation of the remaining 20% under licenses granted by environmental agencies. Timber Management In the past, many landowners and entrepreneurs were fined for violations of environmental laws and illegal logging. Often, these were due to unintentional errors by their staff or inspectors. Timber extraction, like all activities in the Amazon, is highly complex from technical and logistical perspectives. Environmental laws and inspectors are inflexible, as they should be. It is unreasonable to prevent people from working simply because they received fines in the past but have since complied with the law, paid their penalties, or proved their innocence. Timber management is not a crime. On the contrary, it is an effective technique for encouraging forests to absorb more carbon. By scientifically selecting and harvesting the oldest trees at intervals averaging 30 years, space is created for younger trees to grow and absorb more carbon. This and other practices form a set of techniques recognized by the scientific community as Reduced-Impact Logging (RIL). Institutions such as Embrapa (Brazil's public agriculture research institute) have published studies demonstrating the benefits of these low-impact techniques in managing forests: increased productivity, reduced costs, stimulated forest regeneration, and biodiversity conservation. Others, such as the Johan Zweede Tropical Forest Institute (IFT), are true training centers for disseminating these techniques to logging workers who are willing to comply with the law and make their legal reserves productive for many cycles through sustainability. Sustainable Logging Many logging companies have become true forest enterprises by adopting Business Forest Management, guided by Forest Management Plans approved by environmental agencies. These plans enable micro-surgical operations in forests to harvest timber with minimal impact. Some of these forest companies go even further, promoting social initiatives with positive impacts on surrounding communities. This qualifies them for socio-environmental certifications such as the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), which ensures the maintenance or improvement of ecosystem services, the dignity and rights of workers, local communities, and Indigenous peoples, and guarantees the origin of timber through a chain-of-custody system. Brazil has one of the best timber traceability systems, with a chain of custody that creates a record from tree to final product. We must reinforce the use of this tool, the Forest Origin Document (DOF), which allows for this traceability, and combat fraud instead of criminalizing the activity. Every economic sector has its vulnerabilities—environmental, labor-related, sanitary, etc. Yet, we do not abandon productive activities; we strengthen regulation — which in Brazil's case is already quite robust—, and enforce the law. The Path Forward The Forest Concession Law is a result of an alliance between environmentalists, loggers, and farmers. In 2004 and 2005, the bill was stalled in Congress. Environmental activist organizations joined entities representing loggers and rural producers to request its progress. Then-Director of the Brazilian Forest Service, Tasso Azevedo, created a working group bringing all these stakeholders together. The law, passed in 2006, was the result of compromises on both sides and demonstrates that sustainable production is the best way to keep forests standing. If we could unite at that moment, why can't we now, in the face of an unprecedented climate emergency? If we want to conserve the Amazon, we must work with the businesspeople and landowners in the region who carry the history of its occupation. Through rigorous due diligence, we can differentiate irrecoverable depredators from those genuinely trying to improve. Once this distinction is made, the full weight of the law should fall on criminals, while we support responsible entrepreneurs in their vital role of protecting our nature. Most of them have already embraced this cause. Attacking their reputation and preventing them from continuing to work does not help the Amazon. On the contrary, it incentivizes them to give up and revert to the predatory activities of the past."

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