October 27, 2022

12:10

Priscilla Peixoto – from AMAZON AGENCY

MANAUS – Focused on environmental protection, social inclusion and economic development, the initiative “An Agreement for the Amazon” in english, launched on Wednesday, 26, the document “100 first days of government: proposals for an integrated agenda of the Amazons”. The text presents effective actions that can be adopted right at the beginning of the mandates of the federal and state executives and the National Congress, taking into account the complexity of the Amazon based on systematized knowledge of the region.

“A Concertação pela Amazônia” (in portuguese) was created in 2020 as a democratic space for discussions so that various initiatives that work on behalf of the region could meet, dialogue, and expand the impact of their actions. One of the network’s main objectives is to take advantage of synergies, which requires intense collaboration”, says Renata Piazzon, executive secretary of A Concertação pela Amazônia.

About the proposals

According to Renata, who is also the director of the Instituto Arapyaú (a private non-profit institution that aims at the collective construction of solutions based on sustainability), more than 500 leaders, including representatives of the public and private sectors, academia, civil society and the press, met in search of proposals and projects for the forest and the people who live in the region.

After 12 thematic rounds, viable proposals were prioritized, with legal backing in an agenda that brings 14 normative proposals directed to health, education, security, land regularization, mining, infrastructure, and cities. Among the proposals are the following:

• Create the State Secretariat for Climate Emergencies directly linked to the Presidency of the Republic;
  
• Create a Working Group focused on Health in the Legal Amazon;
  
• Reestablish the Green Grant Program, prioritizing families in extreme poverty located in forested areas in the Legal Amazon;
  
• Re-establish the National Council of Food and Nutritional Security (Consea) in the scope of the organs of the Presidency of the Republic and the ministries;
  
• Prioritize the allocation of resources from the Telecommunications Services Universalization Fund (Fust) for projects that serve traditional communities and small rural producers, especially for public education and health equipment;
  
• Develop technological alternatives for decentralized sanitary sewage solutions in special rural and peri-urban territories;
  
• Establish a commission to study the technical and legal operational viability of integrating the real estate and land registries. Among others.

Questioned about how the effective inspection would work to know if, in fact, the elected government would be putting the proposals into practice, Renata highlights: “This agenda is a first step. We will strengthen our advocacy to monitor and encourage the adoption of these proposals. The 14 central proposals in the document are accompanied by robust normative instruments, from the point of view of legal and political viability. But they are only a means. The adoption of the proposals can happen through other normative paths and spheres of government. In other words: they are proposals that do not depend on a single political actor”.

‘Distinct Amazons’

The document of more than 200 pages cites that the region is a multiple and complex scenario, based on environmental, social, cultural and land use differences, and that it is possible to identify the existence of Four Amazons.

The first is the Amazon of the well-preserved forest, especially in the western portion of the biome. There is no direct access by roads and there is a greater extension of protected areas, such as Conservation Units (UCs) and Indigenous Lands (TIs).

The second is the Amazon of the Arc of Deforestation, in the center-east, with the forest at risk of changes in land use by agriculture and cattle ranching. And, finally, the Amazon already converted by the production of agricultural and mineral commodities; and the Amazon of the cities.

Far from trying to simplify a complex scenario, the analyses and debates mobilized by the Concertação sought to list the predominant activities for each of these realities, in addition to establishing priorities for action in a targeted manner.

100 strategic days

The executive secretary explains that the period that comprises the first 100 days is strategic because it represents a moment of renewal in which the elected officials have the maximum confidence of society to implement policies and necessary changes. 

“Also with guidelines for the medium and long term, the document proposes a new development model, capable of generating wealth and income with environmental conservation, social inclusion, expansion of civil rights, and low carbon emissions. The underlying proposal is that the Amazon should stop being seen as a problem and start being seen as a solution for Brazil”, says Renata.

Active participation

For those who want to know more about and participate in the elaboration of future proposals in favor of the Amazon, Piazzon points out that the Concertação is a democratic space, open to any person, company, or entity that wants to contribute to the discussion about the region.

In addition to entities that represent Amazon residents and indigenous leaders, the network is also made up of representatives from NGOs, agribusiness, education, the environment, science and academia.

“National and multinational companies, banks and representatives from various levels of government. In common, all have the desire to institutionalize, in Brazil, a plural and democratic debate about the preservation and sustainable development of the region. Today, a little more than a third of the members are from the private sector (38%), a third are from CSOs (33%) and the remainder is divided among representatives of public power (14%, including those who have held positions in government and no longer have them), the academy (11%) and the media (4%)”, he explains.

Read the document in full: