On eve of Brazil presidential election, is the Amazon at stake?
| Manaus; and Rio Branco, Brazil
Environmentalists rolled their eyes when Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff boasted about her country's environmental success聽at last week's United Nations climate summit.聽
Her assertions 鈥� that Brazil reduced annual deforestation by 79 percent over the past decade and prevented 650 million tons of carbon pollution annually 鈥� were true. But just days ahead of the tight Oct. 5 presidential election, she left out crucial facts: that the measures were the brainchild of her rival, Marina Silva, a former environment minister, and that President Rousseff's administration has dialed back forest preservation laws and opened the Amazon to new farms, dams, and roads.
Most voters are focused on how the two candidates will kick the economy into gear after four years of sluggish growth. But those tactics will have a major impact on environmental protection 鈥� a concern not only in the Amazon, which covers more than one-third of Brazil and accounts for more than half the world鈥檚 tropical forests, but beyond Brazil鈥檚 borders as well.
鈥淐an we develop the Amazon region in a sustainable way that reduces the social and environmental impacts?鈥� asks Celio Bermann of the Institute of Energy and Environment at the University of S茫o Paulo. 鈥淭his is the challenge of the next president.鈥�
Bridging worlds
Nowhere is that more evident than in Manaus, a congested port and manufacturing hub of 2 million people deep in the Amazon. Spanning the largest tributary of the Amazon River there is a futuristic, two-mile-long bridge that Rousseff inaugurated in 2011 and that marked a first step聽in connecting Manaus 鈥� a four-hour flight from S茫o Paulo 鈥� by road to the rest of the country. Next up, in theory, is rebuilding the impassable mud highway that extends out from the bridge to the south.
But political pledges by Rousseff鈥檚 Workers鈥� Party to pursue that construction are sparking anger among environmentalists.
鈥淲hen you open up a road, the deforestation rate increases,鈥� says Philip Fearnside of the National Institute for Research in the Amazon聽in Manaus. It makes it easier for outsiders to get to parts of the country that were previously only accessible by small boats or on foot 鈥� and to bring in development that is foreign to the region.
Amazon development is heavily influenced by the agriculture and construction sectors, according to Prof. Fearnside. He says those interests helped drive Rousseff to amend Brazil鈥檚 Forest Code in 2012 to ease forest restoration rules and grant amnesty for many who had illegally cleared land in the Amazon.
That shift has left its mark: last year deforestation rose by 28 percent, swallowing up an area the size of Delaware and marking the first increase since 2009, according to political scientist Sergio Abranches,聽who focuses on international environmental issues.
Defending development
Brazil has always defended its sovereign right to develop the Amazon, be it for agricultural use or energy to power the world's seventh-largest economy. But observers say the scale has tipped firmly in favor of development and away from conservation over the past four years.
鈥淒ilma鈥檚 positions for a 鈥榝ast development鈥� have hardened,鈥� says Jos茅 Goldemberg, a minister of environment and education in the early 1990s.
Rousseff describes Brazil鈥檚 bounty of rivers and underground oil as gifts 鈥� ones that can bring economic gain and to help pull Brazilians out of poverty. A prominent campaign commercial shows her wearing a hard hat and inaugurating an array of roads, bridges, oil projects, and dams across Brazil, including in the Amazon, while a voiceover says 鈥淒ilma is implementing the most infrastructure projects in the world and of our history.鈥�
The president has pushed dozens of dams across the Amazon, with another 61 planned for construction over the next five years. Having come into office pledging to end poverty and provide more support for the poor, she has said the Amazon projects are necessary to fuel Brazil's growing middle class.
聽But these projects also lead to deforestation and community displacement, critics say. The massive Belo Monte Dam, for example, floods 250 square miles of forest and its construction has displaced 20,000 indigenous villagers.
A total of four protected forest areas have been created during Rousseff鈥檚 four-year tenure. But that is a sharp drop from the 270 protected areas created during her predecessor鈥檚 eight-year tenure, according to Paulo Adario, the Amazon campaign director for international watchdog Greenpeace.
Silva's home turf聽
Some of the greatest gains in creating new protected areas can be seen 1,000 miles to the southwest of Manaus, in Silva鈥檚 home state of Acre. The massive deforestation that occurred here in the 1980s and 1990s is still visible around the state capital, where scrubby farmland stretches to the horizon in every direction.聽
Born into a poor family of rubber-tappers, Silva led protests alongside the famed environmental activist Chico Mendes, and later became Brazil鈥檚 youngest federal senator. From 2003-2008, she was minister of environment and initiated anti-deforestation programs that created a Greece-sized area of new protected lands. She eventually resigned in protest of new infrastructure proposals for the Amazon under former President Luiz In谩cio Lula da Silva.
Acre now has some of Brazil鈥檚 most progressive environmental policies, including a carbon-trading plan that essentially pays the state to save trees.
Silva 鈥� who has been critical of road construction near Manaus, and the subsequent arrival of farming and logging 鈥� says Brazil needs to recognize the ecological value of its forests, not just their economic power. She is expected to provide economic incentives for farmers to stop clearing land, increase forestry oversight, and encourage production of renewable energy sources such as wind, solar, and ethanol. The aim is to reduce reliance on hydro and fossil fuels, which are central to the growth plans developed by Rousseff, a former energy minister.
Silva insists she understands the importance of the farming sector 鈥� Brazil is the world鈥檚 top exporter of beef, chicken, coffee, and soy 鈥� and recognizes its role in providing聽jobs for 15 percent of the workforce and producing one-fourth of total exports. She鈥檚 running with a pro-agribusiness vice-presidential candidate. But, she says, development can be integrated with protecting the environment.
鈥淭here are ways of conserving and managing the Amazon more sustainably, ways of combining ranching with forest conservation in a positive way that retains carbon and biodiversity,鈥� says Peter May, a professor of ecological economics at the Federal Reserve Rural University of Rio de Janeiro.
