Brazil // Current

Giant Santa Claus Goes Ablaze

Over in Santa Catarina in Brazil, a 50 foot Santa Claus catches fire, horribly... more

PsychoAlan
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1 day ago
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1 comment

The Iranian theater

One day, Ahmadinejad announce that Iran will build 10 nuclear power plants and will... more

hyperion74
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1 day ago
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Wilson Simonal

Wilson Simonal de Castro was a Brazilian singer who became a national idol using a... more

abrookineden
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10 days ago
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3 comments

Brazil's Pirahã Tribe have no Numbers or Time

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crepes
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10 days ago
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Winning the Susan Boyle joke competition at a comedy night

In a Subo joke comp at a comedy night in ye olde Windsdor England I was Brazil

1978jamesb
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17 days ago
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Brazil student expelled for wearing short pink dress

A female student caused a stir at her university in Brazil, after being escorted off... more

Skyscraper08
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24 days ago
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1 comment

Man Appears Alive at Own Funeral

A Brazilian bricklayer reportedly killed in a car crash shocked his mourning family by... more

Icanspeel
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27 days ago
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12 comments

Brazil man crashes own funeral

A 59-year-old Brazilian man has surprised his family by turning up at his own funeral,... more

CarolineS
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28 days ago
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3 comments

From Brazil to America -- Striving for Stability

YouthOutlookMultimedia
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1 month ago
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Brazilian social movements reject REDD carbon market mechanisms

We are socio-environmental organizations and movements, male and female workers in family and peasant agriculture, agroextractivists, members of Quilombola (descendants of runaway slaves) communities, women's organizations, urban grassroots organizations, fishermen and women, students, traditional peoples and communities, and native peoples sharing the struggle against deforestation and for environmental justice in the Amazon and in Brazil at large. We gathered at the seminar "Climate and Forest - REDD and market-based mechanisms as a solution for the Amazon?," held in Belém, state of Pará, Brazil, on October 2-3, 2009, to analyze proposals for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) for the region in the light of our experiences with policies and programs implemented in the region in recent decades. In this letter, we are publicly calling on the Brazilian Government to reject the idea of using REDD as a carbon market-based mechanism and of accepting it as a means to compensate the emissions from Northern countries.

We reject the use of market-based mechanisms as tools to reduce carbon emissions based on the firm conviction that the market cannot be expected to take responsibility for life on the planet. The Conference of the Parties (COP) and its ensuing results showed that governments are not willing to take on consistent public commitments and that they tend to transfer the practical responsibility for achieving (notoriously insufficient) targets to the private initiative. As a result, public investments in and control of compliance with targets falter, while the expansion of a global CO2 market is legitimized as a new form of financial capital investment and a means to ensure the survival of a failed production and consumption model.

The REDD proposals under discussion do not make any distinction between native forests and large-scale tree monoculture, and they allow economic actors - which have historically destroyed ecosystems and expelled populations from them - to resort to standing forest appreciation mechanisms to preserve and strengthen their economic and political power to the detriment of those populations. In addition, we run the risk of allowing industrialized countries not to reduce their fossil-fuel emissions drastically and to maintain an unsustainable production and consumption model. We need agreements to force Northern countries to recognize their climate debt and to assume the commitment to pay it off.

For Brazil, international climate negotiations should not be focused on discussing REDD and other market-based mechanisms, but rather on the transition to a new production, distribution and consumption model based on agroecology, on a solidarity-based economic approach, and on a diversified and decentralized energy matrix capable of ensuring food security and sovereignty.

The main challenge for addressing deforestation in the Amazon and in other biomes in Brazil lies in solving the serious land ownership problems facing the country, which are at the roots of its socio-environmental conflicts.

Deforestation - resulting from the advance of monoculture and of policies that favor agribusiness and a development model based on the predatory exploitation and export of natural resources - can only be avoided if the land issue is appropriately addressed through a Land Reform and sustainable territorial reorganization measures, and if territories occupied by traditional peoples and communities and by native peoples are legally recognized.

We have a different vision on what territory, development and economics are all about, which we are building over time, based on the sustainable use of forests and free use of biodiversity. A set of public policies is necessary for ensuring recognition of and appreciation for traditional practices, on the basis of a balanced relationship between production and environmental preservation.

We are committed to keep on fighting for what we believe in the light of this vision and to make sure that any mechanism for reducing deforestation is based on a comprehensive set of public policies and public and voluntary funds that can ensure our rights and life in the Amazon and on the planet.We are socio-environmental organizations and movements, male and female workers in... more