Macrozoning of the Amazon will be ready by end of the year, says Minc

Brazilian minister of the Environment Carlos Minc said, on March 26, that the Ministry of the Environment (MMA) will conclude the ecological and economic macrozoning (ZEE) of the Amazon until the end of this year.  According to the minister, this is Brazil's most important instrument in establishing a frontier of legality in the region and in planning its sustainable development.

During a meeting between the Consórcio ZEE Brasil (made up of institutions in charge of carrying out zoning) with the region's state government representatives, Minc requested that a special effort be made to complete state ZEEs and to ellaborate macrozoning. The latter's challenge is to bring together regional documents whilst conciliating interests, dissolving conflicts and helping build national and regional strategies.

"We are going to complete the ecological and economic macrozoning of the Amazon by the end of this year", said the minister. "This will lead the Amazon to a new stage of development and dignity for the 25 million people who live there and are entitled to comfort, to feeding their families and to being exempt from the rôle of forest destruction and global warming villains."

The seminar was summoned for evaluation of each of the Amazon states' status quo as to their ZEEs; for identifying obstacles and difficulties; and for establishing how the latter should be effectively and swiftly overcome.

The state of Maranhão, for example, will receive technical and financial support so as to ellaborate its ZEE. Amapá's process is underway; and Tocantins already has its agro-ecological zoning. Pará's macrozoning, on the other hand, is ready - but  the state prefers to carry out other more specific ZEEs. The states of Rondônia, Acre and Roraima have completed their ZEEs and are using them; Mato Grosso and Amazonas await ruling by Brazilian Parliament.  

According to Roberto Vizentin, director of the Ministry's Department of Ecological and Economic Zoning (Departamento de Zoneamento Territorial/MMA), it is possible to conclude macrozoning of the Amazon even before state zoning is complete.

"It can be done, although it's not really advisable", said Vizentin. "Strictly speaking, the process should have begun from macrozoning - which would then offer directives for state zoning. But, for historical reasons, this did not occur. Now we are going in the opposite direction, starting off from the specific so as to encompass Amazon as a whole. To do so, it would be preferable to have these specific parts in hand."

Amazon Fund - During the meeting, minister Minc evaluated MMA's recent initiatives in the region.  He said that, due to a series of initiatives - such as the Operation Arc of Fire and the Amazon Fund, which recently received a donation of US$ 110 million from Norway -, deforestation in the Amazon has been considerably reduced in the last few months.