Greenpeace, Imaflora, Imazon, Instituto Centro de Vida, Instituto Socioambiental, IPAM, The Nature Conservancy, WWF. 2017.
There are several ways to answer why Brazil needs to achieve zero deforestation (ZD) urgently. The simplest answer is: because this is the right thing to do. There is no longer any justification for the destruction of the native vegetation of the country. Continuing devastation results in an imbalance in global and national climate, affects biodiversity and water resources, and undermines the health and well-being of the population. In addition, deforestation does not help the competitiveness of agriculture and livestock; on the contrary, it puts it at risk. To extinguish illegal and legal deforestation once and for all is, in the end, an ethical imperative – a debt that the current generation has with itself and with the next generations.
The Brazilian Amazon has been, paradoxically, the icon of control and lack of control of tropical deforestation. It is there that there are experiences that demonstrate that environmental destruction can be overcome, but it is also there that this destruction continues at a frightening speed and explodes under any distraction, victimizing the people of the Amazon, the country and the world.
This document indicates the possible ways to end deforestation in the region, with environmental, economic and social benefits for the country. Prepared by the Zero Deforestation Working Group – composed of experts from the organizations Greenpeace Brazil, ICV, Imaflora, Imazon, IPAM, Instituto Socioambiental, WWF Brazil and TNC Brazil -, it has the most current scientific literature on forests, climate and agriculture. In the following sections, the main reasons why ZD is, more than possible, an inescapable need.
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