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Protecting the Amazon Rainforests of Brazil                                                             September 17, 2002
                          What started as an effort to contain damage within one area of the Brazilian Amazon is now emerging as a
                          blueprint for the protection of the Amazon itself.

                          In 1999, 40 percent of the deforestation within the Amazon region took place in Brazil's Mato Grasso agricultural
                          state, which spans almost 91 million hectares and is home to 2.5 million people. It is one of nine states that
                          comprises the Brazilian side of the Amazon.

                       In response, the Natural Resources Policy Project (NRPP) supported the state with the development of a satellite-
based monitoring and control system which has helped reduce deforestation by one-third in Mato Grosso since 1998. The number of fires
has been reduced by 38 percent in the year 2000 alone. The NRPP is part of the Pilot Program to Conserve the Brazilian Rain Forest, a
partnership between Brazilian government, civil society, international donors, and the World Bank.

Due to the successful results of Mato Grosso, the Brazilian Ministry of Environment decided to expand the program to include the entire
Amazon.  The licensing of rural properties will begin in 43 municipalities in the states of Mato Grosso, Pará, and Rondônia, all of which
accounted for 60 percent of total deforestation in the Amazon between 1997 and 1999.

In September 2002, the World Bank joined with the World Wildlife Fund and the Brazilian government to launch the Amazon Region
Protected Areas Program, a 10-year initiative that will triple the amount of Amazonian rainforest under protection to an area twice the size
of the United Kingdom. This initiative is associated with the Pilot Program's Ecological Corridors Project.


Related Links:
   Brazil

 

Updated: September 2002