Presented by Mayte Benicio Rizek at XVII Biennal IASC Conference 2019, Lima, July 3

1. Mayte Benicio Rizek
XVII Biennal IASC Conference 2019
Lima, July 3
A MULTI-GOVERNMENTAL EXPERIENCE FOR
THE PREVENTION AND CONTROL OF
DEFORESTATION IN THE BRAZILIAN AMAZON:
ROOTS AND LONG-TERM RESULTS

2. • Amazon is the largest remaining
tropical forest in the world
• The biome hosts a huge and
complex drainage network and
the worldly highest biological
diversity.
• Brazil hosts 63% of the Amazon.
• The Brazilian Legal Amazon is a
geopolitical region covering 59%
of the Brazilian territory, an area
larger than the European Union.
• Distributed in nine states and 775
municipalities, the Legal Amazon
contains over 20.3 million people
Introduction
The Brazilian Legal Amazon

3. Introduction
• At the beginning of the 21st century, the Legal
Amazon showed alarming deforestation rates.
• Nationally and internationally pressured,
tackling deforestation took a central place in
the first Worker's Party mandate (2003-2006).
• An interministerial working group of 13 federal
agencies (GPTI) led by the Chief of Staff Office
(Civil House) was put in charge to develop a
response to the problem.
• An assessment of deforestation causes was
performed and each agency was requested to
propose strategic actions, resulting in the
Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of
Deforestation in the Legal Amazon (PPCDAm).
10000
15000
20000
25000
30000
1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004
Deforestation in the Legal Amazon
(Km² / Year)

4. PPCDAm proposal
• The actions were distributed in four different components:
Land and Territorial
Planning
Monitoring
and Control
Sustainable
Productive Activities
Infrastructure
 The Infrastructure was dropped from the plan. Some argue that it happened
because of the regional development conception in the national planning
approach:
We made a difference working on the infrastructures. (…) Having the economy circulating
created a situation where people didn’t need to use deforestation as a source of income
(BRA-PPC-NAT-GOV-PRO-MAL-017-ToC).
• Sector-wide actions are defined by the technical team of each institution.
If an organization's action was conflicting with the objectives of another one (e.g.
conservation units and the mining interests), the debate was taken to the
ministers, mediated by the Civil House.
If a consensus was not reached out, the decision-making involved a direct action
of the president.

5. i. The coordination makes bilateral meetings with the participant agencies.
ii. Each agency realize earlier internal preparation proposing specific
institutional actions and goals.
iii. The proposals of all agencies are validated in consolidation meetings.
iv. Once a phase is built and validated, the document is published and each
agency implement their proposed actions.
The federal government has been continuously renewing the PPCDAm:

6. • Since Rio Summit 1992, Brazil has been playing a central role in international
efforts for forest conservation.
• The Brazilian success is commonly associated with the drastic fall in
deforestation rates since 2005.
 This fall is often recognized as a PPCDAm result.
 Deforestation data tend to lead to this assumption:
Research question
We analyzed PPCDAm by paying attention to the institutional and political
roots that favored its launch, and its results and changes in the long-term.
Source: PRODES data

7. Methodology
• Part of CIFOR’s global research into multi-stakeholder forums (MSF), the
research was conducted in three steps:
Step 1. Scoping study analyzing the four published plans, official documents,
third-party evaluations, articles, and books.
Step 2. Adaptation of CIFOR research tools.
Step 3. Fieldwork in Brasília between Jun-Sep 2018 conducting mixed-method
interviews.
 3 Theory of Change with PPCDAm conveners
 18 Participant questionnaires with federal mid-
level bureaucrats who worked or still works on
PPCDAm representing environmental or
production land-use interests.
 7 key informants questionnaires
 15 Q-Method classifications on MSF statements

8. PPCDAm roots
• There was a political will convergence between the President and
the Minister of the Civil House, the Environment, and the National
Integration.
It was an imposed process. Each institution had to present their results exposing to
others what and why they did or didn’t do the planned actions. So there was a
willingness to show what was done to avoid being constrained (BRA-PPC-NAT-GOV-
PRO-FEM-024).
Some agencies that have missions to expand infrastructure and/or economic
activity have often dealt the PPCDAm agenda with a risk management approach
to avoid the implementation of their central policy from becoming unviable, for
example the mining and agricultural ministries (BRA-PPC-NAT-GOV-PRO-MAL-016).
• The inclusion in the Multi-Year Plan budget worked as an
attractiveness as it avoided that the financial transfers would be
diverted by other institutional demands.

9. PPCDAm results
Component Main Players Main Policies / actions
Territorial
planning
• Ministry of the Environment (MMA)
• Ministry of Mines and Energy (MME)
• Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity
Conservation (ICMBio)
• Conservation units
• Indigenous lands recognition
• Land tenure regularization (Terra Legal
program )
Monitoring
and control
• Brazilian Institute of Environment and
Renewable Natural Resources (IBAMA)
• National Institute of Space Research
(INPE)
• Ministry of Science, Technology (MCTIC)
• Federal Police Department/National Force
• Real-time deforestation detection system
(DETER)
• Blacklist municipalities (Decree 6,321/2007)
• Public Credit Restriction (BACEN
Resolution 3,545/2008)
• Rural Environmental Registry (Law
12,651/2012)
Sustainable
production
• Brazilian Forest Service (SFB)
• Ministry of Agrarian Development (MDA)
• Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock
(MAPA)
• National Supply Company (CONAB)
• Ministry of Labor and Employment
(MTE)
• Forest concessions in public forests (Law
11,284/2006)
• Citizenship access (Arco Verde Operation)
• Policy to Guarantee Minimum Prices for
Socio-biodiversity Products (PGPM-Bio)
• Food Acquisition program (PAA/PNAE)
• Sustainable agriculture (ABC Plan)
• Amazon Fund

10. • There is a general feeling that the coordination change has affected the
commitment since MMA has less political weight vis-à-vis its peer ministries.
 PPCDAm would have been a victim of its own success.
 Another interpretation regards the difference in the way the presidents governs:
With Lula the Civil house had a greater importance in coordinating the ministries
and supporting president's decisions, whereas in Dilma’s mandate the Civil House
role was reduced as she preferred to keep direct contact with the ministries.
• In 2013 the coordination was transferred from the Civil
House to the Environment Ministry (MMA) due to:
 The drastic and stable fall in deforestation rates
 The high costs of maintaining federal presence in remote areas
 A context of political changes (Dilma’s election)
 The relative replacement of the emphasis on the fight against deforestation
by the climate change debate at the national and international level
PPCDAm in the long-term (i)
Financial issues will always have greater weight but the Civil House pushed PPCDAm
agenda to a relevant status. Even when the environmental agenda had to give way,
there were gains because we were there. Losing is part of the democratic game.
Having to give in is better than not even being part of the decision (BRA-PPC-NAT-
GOV-PRO-FEM-021-P).

11. The PPCDAm in the long-term (ii)
• There are conflicting interpretations concerning to what extent PPCDAm is
still fully operational.
• Some say that the plan was abandoned due to the recent predominance of
conventional development paradigms and alliances.
• The current organizer ponders it in a different way:
In 2012 we had the lowest deforestation rate in the history. We almost reached the goal, so it lost
that sense of urgency. Of course many things changed in the political context and priorities but
some actions won’t stop, IBAMA won’t stop the inspections that’s their role
(BRA-PPC-NAT-GOV-ENV-MAL-013-ToC).
• Both of the former conveners from the Civil House presented a similar
interpretation regarding the change to the umbrella of climate change policy:
The PPCDAM was adopted as one of the sectoral plans in the climate change policy. It’s a change of
the thinking way (…) PPCDAm lost it’s regional development approach (BRA-PPC-NAT-GOV-PRO-
MAL-017-ToC).

12. PPCDAm results
• Considering the reducing deforestation objective, the results were
effective and the deforestation decline lasted from 2004 to 2012.
 From 2013 onwards deforestation has oscillated but it is still about 70% below
of the 27,000 km² deforested during the PPCDAm launch in 2004.
• The deforestation decrease shortly after the PPCDAm is largely attributed
to the monitoring and control actions.
 However, there are other relevant factors, such as the decrease in the price of
agricultural commodities, the Soy Moratorium, the Cattle Ranching
Agreement, the favorable macroeconomic conditions for legal investments
and the lack of infrastructure and incentives to support the regional
development.
• Also important stressing that the Cerrado deforestation and Amazon
degradation has increased considerably in the same period, denoting
changes in the patterns of deforestation rather than its containing.
• Some were more critical highlighting that PPCDAm worked against the
regional development of the Amazon region.

13. Key findings
#2. The Civil House coordination was decisive for the high-level adherence, since
it is the chief ministry, directly linked to the presidency of the republic.
 Budget prioritization was also essential for multi-sectoral engagement.
#3. Amazon states and municipalities were not enough involved, although many
actions focused on their territorial performance.
#4. Command-and-control actions revealed socioeconomic impacts at the local
level, pushing a positive agenda providing access to citizenship rights.
It is a change in dealing with deforestation problem.
#5. PPCDAm was unable to propose a forest-based development and the
deforestation patterns have been altered over time:
Leakage to Cerrado (Brazilian Savanna)
Increasingly degradation + deforestation in smaller polygons in the Amazon
#1. The 1st Worker’s Party mandate associated with the pressure
regarding deforestation rates favored that deforestation was placed
on the presidency agenda.
PPCDAm experience, therefore, brought much learning but did not contain the causes
of deforestation, which tends to affect its effectiveness in the long-term...

14. #6. Still, for one decade Brazil proved that it is possible
decreasing deforestation while increasing economy growth
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20000
25000
30000
2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017
GrossDomesticProduct(USD)Deforestationrate(Km²)

15. Mayte Benicio Rizek (maytebrizek@gmail.com)
PhD in Public Policies, Strategies and Development at Federal University of Rio de Janeiro -
PPED / IE / UFRJ – Brazil
Guest PhD Student in Freiburg University - Germany (2016-2017)
MSc in Environmental Science Program at University of São Paulo - PROCAM / USP - Brazil
Geographer at São Paulo State University / UNESP - Brazil
Thank you!