Brazil courts private sector help to reforest the Amazon, minister says

BRASILIA (Reuters) – Brazil’s government wants the private sector to help reforest large swathes of the Amazon, the country’s Environment Minister Marina Silva said in an interview, using concessions to replant some 12 million hectares (120,000 square km) of forest by 2030.

The plan’s outlines were sketched out in a briefing last week by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who has vowed to end Amazon deforestation by 2030. Silva’s account of how it would work is the most detailed to date.

In an interview in Brasilia late last week, Silva said the government was looking at offering private concessions of federally owned land for the planting of native trees along with high-value woods such as mahogany that are prized in the furniture and decking industries. Concessions could also be granted to generate other products, like oilseeds, fibers and resins, along with potential carbon credit schemes.

“The idea here is that the business sector could manage this as a concession,” she said. “These are concessions for 30 or 40 years.”

Andre Lima, the ministry’s head of deforestation control, told Reuters last week the plan would likely begin with the concession of federal land in the Amazon already earmarked for conservation. After additional study, it would expand into public land not legally defined as a national park, indigenous reserve or other protected territory.

The vast Amazon rainforest is a key buffer against climate change. Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, under whom deforestation surged during his 2019-2022 term, advocated the economic development of the Amazon with mining and agriculture. But multiple studies have shown that the forest can be more economically valuable standing than it is chopped down.

Officials from eight Amazon nations including Brazil, Colombia and Peru will meet this week in the northern Brazilian city of Belem for a two-day meeting of the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (ACTO).

They aim to forge unified policies, goals and positions in international negotiations on some 130 issues ranging from financing for sustainable development to indigenous inclusion.

(Reporting by Lisandra Paraguassu; Editing by Gabriel Stargardter, Brad Haynes and Richard Chang)