Despite its critical role in protecting the Amazon rainforest, Brazil will not endorse a global anti-deforestation initiative being announced at the UN climate summit, saying that it was left out of the consultation process. A UN official disputed that claim.
Brazilian Minister of Natural Environment Izabella Teixeira said Brazil was “not invited to be engaged in the preparation process” of the declaration.
Instead, she said Brazil was given a copy of the text and asked to endorse it without being allowed to suggest any changes.
“Unfortunately, we were not consulted, but I think that it is impossible to think that you can have a global forest initiative without Brazil on board. It does not make sense,” Teixeira said in an interview on Monday.
Charles McNeill, a senior environmental policy adviser with the UN Development Programme (UNDP), said “there were efforts to reach out to Brazilian government people, but there was not a response.”
“There was no desire to exclude Brazil,” McNeill said. “They are the most important country in this area. An effort that involves Brazil is much more powerful and impactful than one that does not.”
The forest declaration has not been publicly released, but it is expected to be endorsed by many countries, corporations and major environmental groups, as one of the centerpieces of yesterday’s UN climate summit.
Although it is not part of the formal negotiation process, the summit is intended to build momentum for a new climate treaty in December next year, with the UN hoping governments will announce major initiatives that would boost confidence heading into next year’s talks in Paris.
However, Brazil’s complaints showcase the pitfalls of building international consensus on any major environmental initiative.
Teixeira says her government had concerns that the text could clash with Brazil’s national laws, which allow for managed felling of the Amazon and other forests.
“It’s different to have legal deforestation vs illegal deforestation. Our national policy is we want to stop illegal deforestation,” she said.
McNeill, who said the UNDP facilitated the forest declaration process, said the effort to get countries to sign on to the initiative would continue until the Paris summit.
“Hopefully, Brazil will have a chance to get on board,” he said.
Teixeira emphasized that Brazil is committed to protecting the Amazon rainforest, which is considered one of the world’s most important natural defenses against global warming because of its capacity to absorb huge amounts of carbon dioxide.
She said her country has set a goal of slowing the pace of deforestation to 3,900km2 annually by 2020. That would be down from about 5,843km2 in the August 2012 through July last year period, when Brazil made its last annual survey measuring the destruction of the forest by studying satellite images.
Brazil’s rate of deforestation has fallen 79 percent since 2004, according to government figures, but last year, the government reported that annual destruction of its Amazon rainforest jumped by 28 percent.
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