interview
Reprising her role as Brazil's environment minister, Marina Silva is determined to reverse the rampant destruction of the Amazon.in e360 In the interview, she talks about efforts to crack down on illegal mining and logging and strengthen protection of the country's forests.
When Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is elected for a third term in 2023, he will be a former rubber tapper, senator from Acre state, and a veteran campaigner against illegal deforestation. Nominated a certain Marina Silva as Minister of the Environment. Mr. Silva is no stranger to the job, having held the same position during Mr. Lula's first term in government, which began in 2003.
Silva helped reduce deforestation at the time, but resigned in 2008 over disagreements with the government over development projects. But she is seeking to repair some of the environmental damage committed under President Jair Bolsonaro's administration, which cut funding and staffing for environmental programs and turned a blind eye to rampant illegal mining and deforestation from logging. He returned last year to support Lula.
Silva's role is considered one of the most important in the country, as the extraction of natural resources is essential to Brazil's economy. But the fate of this country, whose vast forests are important carbon sinks, has implications for the health of the entire planet.
In an interview with Yale University Environment 360Silva — this week was named one of time Magazine's 100 Most Influential People of 2024 — The challenge of restoring and strengthening crippled ministries, the role of the international community in protecting the Amazon and other forest biomes, and achieving net-zero deforestation by 2030 We discussed what Brazil must do to achieve this goal. .
Federal agents destroy an illegal mining vessel in the territory of the Yanomami tribe in the Amazon.
IBAMA (via AP)
Yale University Environment 360:What do you think is the biggest challenge you have faced since becoming minister under Lula's third government?
Marina Silva: It's very difficult to pinpoint a specific issue, but I think it's recovery and reconstruction. We were handed a completely disorganized ministry, policies either completely disappeared or remained very weak, budgets were almost non-existent, and the (leaders) running the environmental agencies also changed. So dealing with that was a huge challenge.
And obviously, the fight against illegal deforestation. By prioritizing this goal and reorganizing the Ministry, we achieved reductions in deforestation. 50 percent Last year (compared to 2022) and 40 percent reduction in the first three months of 2024 (compared to the first three months of 2023). As I have always dreamed since 2003, our environmental policy is now a cross-cutting policy that includes all 19 ministries and is led by President Lula and the Ministry of the Environment.
e360: Can you identify specific causes that led to this decrease in deforestation?
“Even if deforestation reaches zero in the Amazon and the world does not reduce its carbon emissions, forests will still turn into savannas.”
Silver: We can identify three areas that contributed to this positive result. When there is unified political leadership, no incentive to destroy, and no collusion with crime, processes can be created to deter these criminals. When this political leadership is accompanied by concrete actions to combat crime, positive results will emerge. And when these plans and operations are combined with other measures, such as deterring criminals from obtaining loans or profiting from illegal activities and creating economic losses, positive results emerge.
And the other issue is creating incentives for new economic practices, and that's what we're going to do. This month, a cooperation agreement was signed between the federal government and 70 local governments with the highest rates of deforestation, providing resources to tackle environmental regulations, enabling them to undertake sustainable development programs, and encouraging those local governments to Local governments can now take action on environmental regulations. Companies that are successful in reducing deforestation can now reap the benefits. It is part of the Deforestation Prevention Plan and is built on four axes: combating illegal activities, territorial and land planning, sustainable development, and innovative regulatory and financial measures.
Acai picker Jesús Silva holds a basket of berries in the rainforest near Melgaco, Brazil.
Tarso Saraf/AFP via Getty Images
e360: You recently met with French President Emmanuel Macron to discuss climate change and the challenges of protecting the Amazon. What do you think is the international community's role in preserving the Amazon?
Silver: There is a role for solidarity and a role for technical and financial cooperation. However, the most important role that the international community, and especially developed countries, can play in protecting the Amazon is to gradually increase their ambition to reduce carbon emissions. Because even if deforestation in the Amazon reaches zero, the Amazon will still turn into the Amazon if the world doesn't reduce its CO2 emissions. savannah. And that's a big concern. That is why the decision taken at COP28 (2023 United Nations Climate Conference) in the United Arab Emirates to phase out the use of fossil fuels, starting from developed countries, while accelerating renewable energy, was so important. was important.
Another important thing to protect the Amazon is to expand the international market for bioeconomy products. When you fight something that is illegal, you have to introduce something in its place. We also have many possibilities, including the bioeconomy, tourism-related areas, and the creation of new products and materials. And this is all about international partnerships. This solidarity needs to include not only developed countries putting pressure on countries with tropical forests, but also developed countries making gestures. It is a gesture that welcomes our bioeconomy products to our home markets and raises our carbon reduction ambitions. And tropical forests will be destroyed.
“To stop illegal gold mining, we target criminals on the ground, and we target the trail of money: those who provide it and those who buy it.”
e360: You mentioned the importance of combating illegal activities that contribute to the destruction of the Amazon. At the beginning of my second appointment as Minister of the Environment, I had these words: concerted effort Removing illegal gold miners from protected lands in the Amazon, particularly the territory of the Yanomami indigenous people, appears to have had some success. But now those miners are back. What is being done to find a long-term solution to this problem?
Silver: Miners' criminal activities can be attacked through certain means (such as tracking illegal mining camps or destroying machinery), but then miners find ways to circumvent those government actions. . Since they identified a way to circumvent our efforts, we have created a permanent base in the province of Roraima (where approximately half of the Yanomami territory is located) and invested over R$1 billion in special resources. We replanned our operations, including assigning $190 million) – for these special operations and to strengthen surveillance and state presence in these communities.
We also conduct intelligence operations that go beyond directly targeting criminals on the ground. These operations target the financial trail of those providing funds and those making purchases. In this sense too, international cooperation is essential. Much of this criminally produced gold in the Amazon and other parts of the world ends up being exported to developed countries. Therefore, it is fundamental to carry out joint intelligence operations and not to buy money.
e360: We often talk about the Amazon, but Brazil has several other biomes that are equally important for climate regulation and biodiversity conservation. What is being done to protect those biomes?
Silver: When I returned to the Ministry of the Environment, I resolved that everything we do for the Amazon, we also do for other biomes. The Amazon already has a deforestation prevention and control plan, and a deforestation control plan is currently being developed for the Cerrado (the tropical savannah in central Brazil, including the Brazilian highlands), where deforestation is increasing. We held a meeting with all the governors. We held meetings with the private sector. And because we have already identified serious water-related impacts (including severe drought), we are mobilizing the social and scientific community to tackle deforestation in the Cerrado.
We are working on plans for all biomes. The Cerrado plan is already in place and we are working on a plan for Caatinga (located in northeastern Brazil). pantanalCampos Surinos (also known as Pampas), atlantic forest. Our goal is zero deforestation, which requires tackling the problem in all biomes.
e360: Reducing deforestation to net zero seems like an elusive goal. Can this really be achieved by 2030? How do you get there?
Silver: In Lula's first term as president, he achieved an 83% reduction in deforestation and avoided releasing 5 billion tons of CO2 into the atmosphere. This contributed to his largest CO2 reduction to date. If this situation continues, President Lula's government will have a coefficient equivalent to zero deforestation by 2030 over the next four years.
Of course, the more we reduce deforestation, the harder it becomes. But we are pursuing our goals. Of course, this is not easy, but for countries dependent on coal, oil and gas, reducing CO2 emissions to zero by 2050 will also not be easy. So we have to believe and work on it.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.