GEO Brasil - UNEP

the 1960s, wood was really not a relevant product in the
region from the economic point of view Contrary to what
happened during the sugar and the mining cycles, in which
timber was essential for sugar-mill operation and mine
construction, because of their inherent peculiarities the
Amazonian products cycle was not associated with a
demand for a large quantity of wood And, until the
construction of the Belém-Brasilia highway, regional
agriculture did not exert alarming pressure on forest cover
Wood only became the main extraction product in the
Amazon Region from the 1970s on, with the construction
of large roads In 1980, the value of extractive wood
represented 55 percent of the total value of regional extractive
products at a time when vegetation extraction represented
just 23 percent of the agricultural and cattle-ranching sector’s
regional income (SILVA, 1996)
deforested by 1991 (Alves, 1999; Nepstad et al, 2000; 2001)
During the second half of the 1990s, the rate decreased and
remained relatively stable, except for the last year (1999),
when it started to peak again, nearing the 2 million hectares
level reached in the 1970s IBGE’s “Sustainable Development
Indicators”, published on June 19, 2002, showed that the
Figure 1 - Average Gross Deforestation rate in the
Amazan
Ha/year
3,000,000
2,500,000
2,000,000
1,500,000
the state of the environment in Brazil
The direct impact of deforestation reflects on the reduction
of forest cover; it has been influenced by human presence
1,000,000
and past governmental policies in many ways and on
500,000
different levels They prioritised to alternative land uses
inconsistent with the region’s developmental vocation
Figure 1 shows the reduction of forest cover in the Amazon
during the 1977-2000 period (the series data can be found in
0
1977-88
1988-89
1989-90
1990-91
1991-92
1992-94
1994-95
1995-96
1996-97
1997-98
1998-99
1999-00
Annex 2) (INPE 2002)
YEAR
In the late 1970s and during the first seven years of the
following decade, the gross deforestation rate in the Amazon
was, in average, over 2 million hectares In the late 1980s
and during the first year of the following decade, there was
a declining trend in the deforestation rate During the 1990s,
the rate reached 081 percent, in 1994/1995 Coincidentally,
during this decade, due to the Plano Real, the country had
the highest investment rates, indicating that there is a high
correlation between deforestation and economic
investment
The average deforestation rate has been around 17,000 km 2
per year, and the removal of vegetation occurs more
intensely around the “Deforestation Belt”, a continuous
stretch of land about 3,000 kilometres long and up to 600
kilometres wide, totalling approximately 17 million square
kilometres (INPE, 1998) Additionally, between 1978 and 1994,
about 75 percent of deforestation occurred within a stretch
of 100 kilometres of extension along the region’s paved
roads (50 kilometres at each side) Between 29 and 58
percent of the forests within this stretch of land were
deforestation rate in the Amazon increased from 037 percent
of the remaining area in 1991/1992 to 048 percent in 1998/
1999 However, the Amazon Forest’s preliminary monitoring
report by satellite carried out by the National Institute for
Space Research (INPE – Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas
Espaciais) shows a reduction of 13 percent in the
deforestation rate in the Amazon compared to 2001
According to this report, 43 municipalities are responsible
for 70 percent of the deforestation registered in the 1998-
2001 period
Up until 1985, deforestation in the Amazon was strongly
linked to the policies encouraging agricultural and cattleraising
activities Thousands of hectares of forests were
replaced by agricultural plots and pastures of little
productivity The idea that the civilising success in the
Amazon should be based on agriculture - set in the first
public policy for the region - would become the main guide
of governmental actions in the sense of effectively
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