For João Paulo Capobianco, executive secretary of the ministry, it is not right to attribute the responsibility for the fires to agribusiness
In his role as executive secretary of the Ministry of Environment since February of last year, John Paul Capobianco argues that Brazil should also reduce the deforestation legal. The statement comes at a time when the country is going through a crisis drought with an unprecedented fire season. He also argues that fires must be absolutely banned – even those authorized – whenever the country experiences a dry season.
Data from the Mapbiomas Fire Monitor shows that the fire has consumed 11.39 million hectares within the first two weeks of this month.
The number 2 of the Ministry of the Environment has long been concerned with the issue. He was vice president of the National Council for the Environment (Conama), president of the Council for the Management of Genetic Heritage and national secretary of Biodiversity and Forests. He also served on the Brazilian Forestry Commission.
Capobianco was also a visiting professor at Columbia University (USA) between 2008 and 2009. His doctorate at the University of São Paulo (USP) became the book Amazon: A Decade of Hope.
Last week the government announced an emergency plan to fight the fire. The Minister of the Environment, Marina Silvaadmitted Monday that planning for the water crisis and wildfires was “not enough.”
Below are some excerpts from the interview with the secretary.
The country is going through a fire season. How can they be prevented?
The Ibama and ICMBio teams that deal with conservation units work to fight large fire fronts. A fire front, to give you an idea, is sometimes 25 kilometers long. There are thousands of trained firefighters who are called to deal with these large fires in different regions of Brazil, but especially in the Pantanal and Amazon. But in reality the responsibility for fighting fires is not exclusive to the federal government. The fire is neither federal, nor state, nor municipal. It must be fought by everyone. However, it is also necessary to involve society very intensively, because the environment in which we live with the worsening of the climate crisis has, unfortunately, made our biomes very susceptible to large-scale fires. There is a cultural issue related to the use of fire to clean the land, renew pastures, burn waste. This is an unwanted practice.
There are chemicals to fight fire. Where can they be used?
They are used in places where the environmental impact is not significant. In some countries they are used, but in a very measured way. The solution is really preventive action. Public authorities, together with society, must act in advance, for example by prohibiting the use of fires during this period (drought). This has been done in Mato Grosso do Sul, in Mato Grosso, since the end of the first semester. It is necessary to prohibit any type of fire: burning of waste, burning of small plots of land, vacant land, in other words, the fire must be completely prohibited.
Is there a study on the percentage of intentional fires?
I can say that almost 100% of fires are caused by human action. Many of them are caused with the intent of promoting the degradation of forest areas for future economic use.
Are people causing these fires, promoting degradation, and then calling for legalized deforestation?
E. They use the argument that the forest no longer exists and, therefore, they try to consolidate the occupation of those areas. Often these are public lands, belonging to the Union or the States, which are occupied in this predatory way. This factor is extremely serious.
But legal deforestation exists, right?
Legal deforestation is that for which the owner has requested authorization from the public authorities and has obtained such authorization. So, this is not up for discussion. Obviously Brazil is also interested in reducing legal deforestation. Of course our responsibility is to control, to fight illegal deforestation, because it is a crime.
Is there a discussion about reducing legal deforestation?
The important thing is to see under what conditions this legal deforestation takes place, that is, under what conditions the deforestation permits are issued. In some regions of Brazil, especially in the one known as Matopiba, which includes the states of Maranhão, Tocantins, Piauí and Bahia, which is a vast region of the Cerrado where soy cultivation is greatly expanding, it is already clear that the water supply is dramatically decreasing. There is already a delay in the rainfall regime. So I tell you: Brazil needs to rethink its relationship with nature in a broad way.
How do you define the role of agri-food?
Brazilian agribusiness has evolved rapidly by strategically incorporating environmental issues into the sector itself. So today there are many companies and many small, medium and large rural producers that are part of this chain and that collaborate. This is something that I always like to give at this time. If you look at the Brazilian Environmental Registry, where all the rural properties are located, less than 5% is deforested. It is not fair that I or anyone with public power accuse agribusiness as responsible for the situation we are facing. What we can say is that there are parties in all economic sectors that break the law, that act in a predatory way. We must fight them fiercely. Agribusiness has a huge opportunity to contribute, adopting technologies that are already available and that significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions, that significantly reduce soil erosion.
Source: Terra
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