jARI/ AMAPÀ REDD+/ CCBS
Sustainable forest management to protect valuable ecosystems
Valley of Jari, Amapá State, Brazil*
The Jari / Amapá REDD + project is a partnership to promote forest conservation and reducing greenhouse gas emissions based on a local economic development model that protects the existing forest through a variety of activities.
The project is located in the valley of Jari, in the communities of Laranjal do Jari and Vitória do Jari in the state of Amapá. The valley of Jari plays a very important role as home to more than two thousand rural families and as an ecological corridor connecting several nature reserves. With a very rich biodiversity, its vegetation includes eight forest and non-forest formations, as well as species of extreme ecological importance.
In the project area, 54 species of flora are threatened. Three important rivers (Jari, Cajari and Maracá) flow in the project region, housing more than two thousand species of animals, from
over one hundred are also at risk. Despite the social and environmental importance of the Jari Valley, this region is threatened by agricultural and livestock activities and human settlements, as well as large infrastructure work.
The main tasks of the project include:
• Forest protection and monitoring: implementation of conservation measures that reduce deforestation risks;
• Scientific research in the field: promoting studies focused on the efficient use of natural resources and scientific research in the field of biodiversity; and
• Social inclusion of communities in the areas where the project operates: activities developed by
Fundação Jari, with a focus on promoting sustainable business models to generate additional revenue for families.
*Brazil
Paradigm in climate protection
For many years, environmentalists like the WWF have praised Brazil as the real world champion in climate protection. The Brazilians are permanently fighting against deforestation and have meanwhile developed into a model for climate protection. Over the last years, Brazil has reduced its greenhouse gas emissions by about one third, saving more than 750 million tons of carbon dioxide annually. This is equivalent to a value of about 2 percent of the global carbon emissions. The major success is mainly due to the drastic ban on the logging of the Amazon jungle. Since 2013, 70 percent fewer square kilometers of the forest are cleared as compared to 2005. (David Nepsted. Earth Innovation Institute, San Francisco)
The government declares land areas as protected areas, and thus contributes to the improvement of the recording of rural areas. In addition, the responsibility for environmental protection measures was shifted to the rural districts, which meant that farmers were no more allowed to be granted credits in the regions with a particularly high forest loss.
Another reason for the success of Brazil is due to the pressure from environmental organizations and large food companies such as Nestlé or McDonald on the country, driven by global trends and fear that their image could be damaged. Since 2006 for example, different campaigns of Greenpeace for instance led to the result that less than 1 percent of the soya and corn cultivation areas was deforested.
Germany also supports Brazil’s efforts in climate protection. In 2015, Angela Merkel provided 550 million Euros, according to a climate protection agreement between Germany and Brazil. The funds will be used specificallyto promote renewable energies and to protect the tropical forest.
This assistance mainly aims at reducing the clearing of the tropical forest to zero by 2020. A large part of these financial resources are development loans of the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development.
During the signing ceremony in situ, the Chancellor emphasized the great importance of the protection of the rainforest: “We are very pleased that there are ambitious developments regarding the halt and the reduction of deforestation”.
