In a statement, ISPN invites public authorities, international cooperation agencies, and partners in the field of philanthropy to mobilize efforts to ensure the continuity of deforestation and wildfire monitoring in the Cerrado, carried out within the Project for the Development of Forest Fire Prevention Systems and Monitoring of Vegetation Cover in the Brazilian Cerrado, also known as the Cerrado Monitoring Project. According to its executing agency, the National Institute for Space Research (INPE), the initiative's activities will end in December 2020. This represents a significant loss for the country, as the continuity of monitoring is central to the sustainable development of the Cerrado, especially for improving environmental policies to reduce deforestation and conserve biodiversity.
The statement emphasizes that, in an ideal scenario, the public budget should subsidize the continuity of the service provided by INPE. However, given the dismantling of environmental policies and the deconstruction of spaces for social participation, resulting from the current political context, this is a distant scenario. Therefore, it is necessary to mobilize other agents to guarantee approximately US$ 1,5 million for the year 2021, which will allow a team of more than 40 people to avoid being demobilized starting in July of this year.
The Cerrado is highly relevant to global biodiversity and is a key element in supplying water to several Brazilian states and neighboring countries. The biome also holds a strategic position in the national economy, with strong production of agricultural commodities. In this sense, in addition to contributing to public conservation policies, the monitoring carried out by INPE serves to verify the compliance of Brazilian agricultural production with international trade agreements and different market mechanisms to combat deforestation. According to data from the Cerrado Deforestation Monitoring Project (Prodes), released in December 2019, the biome continues to have a high rate of deforestation, with 6.483 km² devastated, and a 15% increase in deforestation in Conservation Units (UCs). Between 2009 and 2019, the Cerrado lost 101,8 km².2, compared to 67,7 km2 deforestation in the Amazon during the same period reinforces its status as the most threatened biome in the country, and highlights the need for continued monitoring by INPE.
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Public Statement of Support for the Continued Monitoring of the Cerrado
Attention should be paid to the information that The activities of the "Cerrado Monitoring" project, part of the Forest Investment Program (FIP) managed by the World Bank, will end in December 2020 without any concrete prospect of future funding.This project, under the responsibility of the Ministry of Science, Technology, Innovation and Communications (MCTIC), is executed by the National Institute for Space Research (INPE) in partnership with the Federal Universities of Goiás (UFG) and Minas Gerais (UFMG). The project aims to strengthen Brazil's institutional capacity for monitoring deforestation, provide information on forest fire risks, and contribute to estimates of GHG emissions from deforestation and fires in the Cerrado.
It is well known that the Cerrado biome concentrates the greatest biodiversity among the world's savannas, accounting for the waters of 8 of the 12 largest hydrographic basins in Brazil, and concentrating carbon stocks of global relevance for climate regulation. Equally true is that agricultural production in the biome positions the country as one of the largest suppliers of agricultural commodities and promotes impacts along with economic development, exports, and the Brazilian trade balance. In this context, by expanding the PRODES and DETER systems to the Cerrado, the project enabled the production of daily alerts and a historical series of deforestation in the biome, starting in 2001, which began to be released by INPE in 2018. The project also improved data on wildfires in the Cerrado, collected since 1998, with the construction of monitoring, analysis, and alert systems for environmental risks for different applications. These results have proven essential for planning integrated fire management actions and allow for monitoring the dynamics of the expansion of productive activities and changes in land use in relation to the necessary maintenance of environmental services in the different ecosystems and phytophysiognomies of the Cerrado.
Data from Prodes Cerrado, resulting from the analysis of images from August 2018 to July 2019, released last December, despite a slight decrease, show the maintenance of a high level of deforestation in the biome, with 6.483 km² devastated, and a 15% increase in deforestation in Conservation Units (UC). Between 2009 and 2019, the Cerrado lost 101,800 km², compared to 67,700 km² deforested in the Amazon. Tocantins, Maranhão, Mato Grosso, Bahia, and Goiás continue to be the states that have deforested the most in the biome. The survival of this work carried out by INPE for the Cerrado, as well as for the other biomes of the country, is central to thinking about models of environmental governance, territorial management and ecological-economic zoning that prioritize the development and improvement of policies for the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity, with the reduction of deforestation, restoration of native vegetation and recovery of degraded pastures for agricultural purposes.
Ideally, in the medium and long term, the public budget would cover the continuity of this service provided by INPE to the entire Brazilian society. However, knowing the budgetary limitations and priorities of the Ministry of Science, Technology, Innovation and Communications (MCTIC), within the current institutional framework of dismantling environmental policies and deconstructing spaces for social participation, We would like to extend an appeal to governmental and parliamentary public authorities, international cooperation agencies, and partners in the field of philanthropy.At this moment, it is crucial to secure resources in the order of US$1,5 million for the year 2021, in an operation that will allow a team of more than 40 people, including civil servants, contractors, and outsourced workers, to remain operational, starting in July of this year. This support, in a coordinated and/or collaborative emergency action to ensure the monitoring of the Cerrado, will guarantee the continuation of ongoing monitoring and analysis activities until future negotiations and cooperation agreements are finalized.
The Institute for Society, Population and Nature (ISPN), which has been working in the eco-social field for 30 years, is a pioneer in investments in the Cerrado biome, democratizing access to financial resources, knowledge, and information, with a focus on traditional peoples and communities, family farmers, and their organizations. We recognize the importance of INPE's work in guaranteeing open and transparent public data with periodic records of vegetation cover and changes in land use, applied to actions to reduce and combat deforestation, and to monitor and control wildfires in the Cerrado. We also emphasize that this is a strategic application to ensure that the expansion of agricultural activities in the biome is consistent with compliance with the country's environmental legislation, and that exports of agricultural commodities respect the principles of sustainability and compliance guidelines defined in international trade agreements. For example, the agreement between the European Union and Mercosur, of which Brazil is a part.
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About the Cerrado Monitoring Project
The Project for the Development of Forest Fire Prevention Systems and Monitoring of Vegetation Cover in the Brazilian Cerrado is part of the Brazilian Investment Plan (BIP) within the scope of the Forest Investment Program (FIP), managed by the World Bank, whose resources are contributed by the Strategic Climate Fund (SCF). The SCF aims to assist developing countries in adapting their development models to the realities imposed by climate change, in order to make them more resilient, as well as addressing other sectoral issues through targeted programs. Learn more about the initiative. click here.