POLICY BRIEF

19-15 The Amazon Is own livelihoods at the expense of the common good. The
Amazon fires are a tragedy, but they could also be an oppor-

a Carbon Bomb: How tunity for the governments of Brazil and the United States to
stop denying climate change and cooperate on strategies to
Can Brazil and the preserve the rainforest and develop ways to sustainably use
its natural resources. Such cooperation has already yielded
World Work Together positive results. For example, there is a history of collabora-
tion between NASA and Brazil’s National Institute for Space
to Avoid Setting It Off? Research (INPE) employing state-of-the-art technologies to
monitor deforestation. It is conceivable that at some point
there is a return to the model of Brazil working with the
Monica de Bolle
United States—and the other signatories—to implement the
October 2019 Paris Climate Agreement.1 
Revised November 1, 2019 Scientists, NGOs, and environmental activists oppose
Bolsonaro’s policies, warning that they could set the stage
Monica de Bolle, senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for for disaster. Societies know how to deal with this problem:
International Economics since January 2017, holds the Riordan
Roett Chair in Latin American Studies and is the director of the
through collective action and government regulation. It is
Latin American Studies Program and the Emerging Markets possible to accommodate competing demands of economic
Specialization at the School of Advanced International Studies interests, food security, and saving or even restoring the
at Johns Hopkins University.
Amazon rainforest, along with its life-sustaining rainfall, for
Note: This Policy Brief is based on testimony presented to the Brazil and the world at large. This Policy Brief presents the
House Committee on Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the following major policy recommendations.
Western Hemisphere, Civil Security and Trade originally titled
“Preserving the Amazon: A Shared and Moral Imperative.” n The United States should rejoin the Paris Climate
The author wishes to thank Steve Weisman, Ted Moran, David
Wilcox, Cullen Hendrix, Jean Pisani-Ferry, Jérémie Cohen- Agreement and immediately establish a joint action plan
Setton, Paulo Sotero, Marcos Jank, Luiz Amaral, Benoni Belli, with Brazil to implement steps to preserve and restore
Marina Silva, Izabella Teixeira, and Juliano Assunção for their
insightful comments and suggestions.
the rainforest.
n Brazil should adopt and enforce regulations on land use
© Peterson Institute for International Economics. in the Amazon region that would allow farming and
All rights reserved.
cattle grazing in some areas to sustain the livelihoods
of local and indigenous people while cracking down on
Global warming is widely and correctly blamed for wildfires illegal uses, such as logging and mining, and on incur-
around the world. But the Amazon fires in Brazil represent sions on public lands. To combat destructive activities,
a specific government policy failure over many years, espe- the government should encourage livestock rearing and
cially recently, as Brazilian public agencies that are supposed cultivation in nonsensitive areas while formally regis-
to curb man-made fires have been deliberately weakened. tering land and allocating property ownership rights
Fires are set by farmers, cattle owners, and others every year more systematically in the rainforest itself.
to clear land, but they have risen in number and severity in
2019—since President Jair Bolsonaro took office on January
1 and set about fulfilling his campaign pledge to ease envi-
ronmental, land use, and health regulations.
The fires in Brazil are a classic case of what sociologists 1. The Paris Agreement of the United Nations Framework
Convention on Climate Change is available at https://unfccc.
call the “tragedy of the commons,” what happens when int/process-and-meetings/the-paris-agreement/the-paris-
shared resources are exploited by users pursuing their agreement (accessed on October 5, 2019).

1750 Massachusetts Avenue, NW | Washington, DC 20036-1903 USA | +1.202.328.9000 | www.piie.com

PB 19-15 October 2019

n Brazil should restore conditional rural credit policies to a “carbon bomb”: Setting fire to the forest for deforestation
fight deforestation. These policies were very successful may release as much as 200 million tons of carbon into the
in 2009–11. atmosphere a year, which would spur climate change at a
n Brazil should lead an international effort to foster the much faster rate, not to mention associated changes in rain-
diversity of native vegetation in the Amazon region fall patterns that may result from deforestation.3
while preserving the rainforest and also creating The Amazon region has a rich diversity of native vegeta-
jobs and reducing poverty and income inequality. tion but also the nation’s highest levels of poverty.4 To
Sustainable production of livestock and soybean is promote economic development, Brazilian authorities have
already happening in areas outside the Amazon region. encouraged the building of roads, ports, hydroelectric power
These activities could be expanded to areas adjacent to plants, and other infrastructure projects, as well as logging,
the rainforest following an effort to demarcate land and soybean production, mining, and cattle ranching in Legal
enforce property rights. Amazon.5 The resulting deforestation and land degradation
prompted the Brazilian government in 2004 to launch the
n The international community should work with Brazil
Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Deforestation
to revive and expand the Amazon Fund, created in
in the Legal Amazon (PPCDAm), aimed at monitoring
2008 but now in limbo, to raise international donations
deforestation activity, regulating land rights, and promoting
for investment in sustainable activities that protect the
sustainable development. The plan helped reduce defores-
rainforest.
tation rates by more than 80 percent over the previous ten
OVERVIEW years (figure 1).6
The reduction in deforestation between 2004 and
The Amazon region covers 60 percent of Brazil’s land 2014 reflected the Brazilian government’s commitment
area—3.3 million square miles—and is home to 18 million and the collaboration between Brazil and the United States,
people. Legal Amazon,2 an administrative political concept which contributed by helping to strengthen monitoring
adopted in the 1950s to designate the region, comprises nine mechanisms and law enforcement (Bettwy 2005). A modern
states (Acre, Amapá, Pará, Amazonas, Rondônia, Roraima, satellite-based enforcement system, the System for Real
Mato Grosso, Tocantins, and Maranhão) and three biomes Time Detection of Deforestation (DETER), was created in
(the Amazon rainforest, the transition between forest and collaboration with NASA and is managed by INPE. It uses
savannah known as the Cerrado, and parts of the wetlands high-frequency satellite imagery to monitor recent changes
of Pantanal). It is the largest continuous tropical forest in in forest cover and sends alerts to the Brazilian Institute of
the world and harbors 20 percent of the planet’s plant and Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (IBAMA),
animal species. which, as the administrative arm of the Brazilian Ministry of
About 49 percent of Legal Amazon is in areas protected the Environment, is responsible for law enforcement and the
by legislation—these are conservation units or indigenous application of fines and other penalties. The effective func-
lands—and the remainder is equally split into private tioning of INPE and IBAMA is crucial for combating defor-
properties and unregistered areas. All private properties in estation and is now under threat by Bolsonaro’s changing
Brazil are governed by the Brazilian Forest Code of 2012, policies.
considered one of the strictest environmental laws in the In 2009 the Brazilian government set an ambitious
world. According to the code, private properties in Legal target of reducing deforestation by another 80 percent by
Amazon must preserve 80 percent of their land in the form
of native vegetation, allowing only 20 percent to be used for
agriculture, livestock rearing, or other economic activities.
3. Some studies find that these emissions could represent
Given these strict limitations, many farmers have found it as much as 3 percent of global net emissions. See Azevedo-
difficult to comply with the code, and several governments Ramos (2007).
have failed to rigorously enforce the law, bowing to pressures 4. Data on poverty rates in the Amazonian states are avail-
from producers. able at the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics
(IBGE), www.ibge.gov.br.
The trees of the Amazon store 60 billion to 80 billion
tons of carbon. The rainforest is often wrongly called “the 5. According to several studies by Brazil’s National Institute
for Space Research (INPE).
lungs of the world.” It stores carbon, but that is not what
fights climate change. It would be more apt to describe it as 6. Some researchers have argued that the reduction in
deforestation between 2004 and 2014 is not primarily at-
tributable to government action but rather to market-related
factors, such as economic growth in urban areas, that cause
2. The terms “Legal Amazon” and “Amazon region” are used less migration to the frontier between the rainforest and
interchangeably for the purposes of this Policy Brief. agricultural lands.

2
PB 19-15 October 2019

Figure 1
Amazon deforestation is fast approaching tipping point when it can no longer sustain itself
deforestation in thousands of square miles
20

16.6
15
Estimated deforestation
based on current rate
2004
Brazilian government launches the
Action Plan for the Prevention and
10 Control of Deforestation in the Legal
Amazon (PPCDAm)
8.3

5
4.2

2020 goal in the

Copenhagen Accord 1.5
0
2000 2005 2010 2015 2020

Note: The estimates for 2019 to 2021 were calculated by the author maintaining the rate of increase in deforestation estimated
between January and August 2019 by INPE.
Source: Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research (INPE) and author’s calculations.

2020 under the Copenhagen Accord7 (shown in green for roughly 4,200 square miles exceeds the 10-year (2009–18)
2020 in figure 1). But according to INPE, deforestation has annual average of 2,500 square miles of observed deforesta-
been rising since 2014. tion. Although it may not seem like much, especially when
The rise in deforestation in 2015–16 may be attrib- stacked against alarming media reports about the Amazon
uted to Brazil’s deep economic recession, which at the fires, I calculate that maintaining the current rate of defores-
time slashed GDP by nearly 8 percent. Tight government tation8 through the rest of 2019 and over the next few years
finances during and after the recession led to expenditure would bring the Amazon dangerously close to the estimated
cuts, which affected environmental monitoring and enforce- “tipping point” as soon as 2021 (shown in red in figure 1),
ment. Ongoing political turbulence and the pressing need to beyond which the rainforest can no longer generate enough
adjust the fiscal accounts continued into 2018, affecting the rain to sustain itself.
budgets of environmental agencies and hindering attempts The Brazilian Amazon is hardly the world’s only
to curb deforestation. The electoral victory of far-right region affected by an increase in man-made fires in 2019.
president Bolsonaro has made a difficult situation worse Widespread use of the slash and burn method—where trees
with the adoption of policies intentionally aimed at undoing are cut down to dry off and then set ablaze to clear land—has
environmental progress made under previous governments. been on the rise in Indonesia and Malaysia as big corpora-
In August 2019 INPE estimated that total deforestation was tions and small-scale farmers alike clear native vegetation for
222 percent higher than it was in August 2018. the production of palm oil, pulp and paper, and other activi-
The estimate for 2019 shown in figure 1 is based on my ties. Indonesia is the world’s largest producer of palm oil, and
calculation that maintains for the rest of the year the increase deforestation during much of 2019 is directly related to a rise
in deforestation calculated by INPE between January and in global demand for the product.
August 2019. The estimated increase in deforestation of

7. Delegates at the 15th session of the Conference of Parties

(COP 15) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate
Change agreed to “take note of” the Copenhagen Accord
in December 2009. The document is available at https://
unfccc.int/documents/6103#beg (accessed on October 5,
2019).

3
PB 19-15 October 2019

ENVIRONMENTAL POLICIES UNDER estation in the eight countries of the Amazon basin.9 The
BOLSONARO Amazon Fund was among the first UN REDD+ initiatives
President Bolsonaro’s government has intentionally backed to provide international funding to projects that successfully
away from efforts to combat climate change and preserve Reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation.
the environment, in keeping with his far-right nationalist It is managed by BNDES, Brazil’s state-owned development
campaign promising to ease environmental regulations and bank. Since the fund’s inception, Norway has been its largest
possibly repudiate Brazil’s participation in the Paris Climate contributor, accounting for 94 percent of its resources,
Agreement. (Recently, however, the government has affirmed followed by Germany (5 percent), and the Brazilian oil
its commitment to comply with the agreement.8) company Petrobras (1 percent). Some 60 percent of the
Bolsonaro’s positions on climate change and the envi- fund’s $500 million in disbursements to date have gone to
ronment were foreshadowed in his campaign against govern- the federal government, the nine Brazilian states spanned by
ment regulations and public agencies that he claimed were the rainforest, and the two major agencies responsible for
taking “draconian actions” against producers and exporters. regulation and oversight of natural resources, IBAMA and
He often declared that the Amazon should be explored by INPE. The remaining 40 percent has been given to univer-
sities engaged in environmental research and NGOs. An
additional $500 million has not been disbursed and could be
The Bolsonaro government has returned to donors if the fund is terminated.10
weakened…the capacity of the In May 2019 the Bolsonaro administration announced
environmental agencies that monitor its intention to change the rules of the Amazon Fund that
allow for compensation of Brazilian landowners who lose
and penalize perpetrators of illegal their properties, on the grounds that the landowners were not
activities in the rainforest. in compliance with the country’s environmental codes. The
Norwegian government responded by suspending $500,000
Brazilian producers to further the country’s economic inter- in transfers to the fund. Germany also suspended donations.
ests, and he even accused environmentalists and NGOs of Bolsonaro further declared plans to change the composition
setting the recent fires, without presenting any evidence for of the fund’s steering committee to pack its membership
the claim. with members from his inner circle.
The Bolsonaro government has weakened the PPCDAm In August, as the Amazon fires captured international
2004 and the capacity of the environmental agencies that attention, the G-7 pledged $20 million in financial aid at
monitor and penalize perpetrators of illegal activities in its meeting in Biarritz.11 Bolsonaro rejected the funding
the rainforest. It has cut funding, dismissed personnel, and as coming from vested interests and was reported to have
weakened oversight and enforcement. The Brazilian leader persuaded President Donald Trump to vote against the
has questioned the data and scientific evidence produced funding, which he did on the grounds that Brazil needed
by these agencies, particularly INPE, and has called the law to be better consulted (Nakamura 2019). It was a strange
enforcement activities of public environmental agencies turn of events, given that recent polls show the Brazilian
excessive, referring to the agencies as “factories of fines and public overwhelmingly in favor of international aid for the
other penalties.” Amazon.12
In March 2019, Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, the presi-
dent’s son, proposed legislation to eliminate the so-called 9. Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Suriname,
legal reserve requirement that rural properties in the Amazon and Venezuela.
region maintain native vegetation on 80 percent of their land, 10. Although Bolsonaro has not called for shutting down
allowing the remaining 20 percent to be used for agriculture the Amazon Fund, his environment minister has mentioned
several times his preference for replacing it by creating a
or cattle grazing. He set aside the measure in the wake of the privately-funded vehicle for investments in the Amazon.
Amazon fires.
11. The aid was pushed by President Emmanuel Macron of
One target of the president’s inflammatory rhetoric is France, who somehow managed to overlook the fact that
the Amazon Fund, created by then president Luiz Inácio predatory exploration of the Amazon rainforest is also rising
Lula da Silva to collect donations for nonreimbursable in French Guiana, a department of France. (Another place
of concern is Bolivia, where President Juan Evo Morales
investments in efforts to prevent, monitor, and fight defor- Ayma has accused environmental NGOs of having “opaque
interests” in the region.)
8. A statement to this effect was made by Bolsonaro during 12. Poll results from one of Brazil’s largest pollsters,
the G-20 meetings in June 2019. Datafolha, September 1, 2019.

4
PB 19-15 October 2019

At the United Nations General Assembly in September tion, but that claim is an oversimplification. Most of Brazil’s
2019, Bolsonaro defended his environmental policies in a beef producers graze their cattle in areas outside the rainforest,
fiery speech and hit back at criticism of his handling of the where they have a record of respect for preserving forests
Amazon fires by calling it an assault on Brazilian sovereignty. and biodiversity. This is not to say that in areas adjacent to
While Bolsonaro’s views may well emphasize his nationalist the rainforest beef production cannot be improved. Many
stance, he may have a partial point. The global social value of studies have shown that by raising the number of animals
that graze on a given patch of land from one to three or even
four could significantly reduce incentives to clear more land
Attacking the Bolsonaro area and increase efficiency.
administration, as some governments Rainforest conservation can yield economic benefits,
have done, without considering but these have rarely been measured. In 2018 Brazilian and
American scientists, economists, and agricultural engineers
cooperation and the provision of published a study showing that a standing rainforest as
incentives to avert deforestation opposed to a depleted one can generate more than $8 billion
has put Brazil’s government in a annually from activities such as rubber extraction and nut
confrontational position, which harvesting (Strand et al. 2018). The figure includes gains
from the prevention of carbon emissions, which would help
does not serve anyone’s interests. combat climate change and preserve the rainforest, thus main-
taining the Amazon’s rainfall cycle (the rainforest is respon-
the Amazon cannot be overestimated, and yet the world pays sible for generating at least 50 percent of the rain it needs
nothing for its preservation apart from the small amount and its rainfall cycle also influences hydrological patterns in
contributed to the Amazon Fund by Norway and Germany. much of Brazil and the Southern Cone). Regulating rainfall
Mechanisms for aligning the interests of Brazil and the world patterns is vital for farming and livestock, not to mention
at large with a view to forest conservation and reforestation hydroelectric power generation.
have yet to be designed. Attacking the Bolsonaro administra- Furthermore, deforestation and forest degradation have
tion, as some governments have done, without considering been shown to potentially cost agribusiness and the beef
cooperation and the provision of incentives to avert defor- sectors $400 million annually, outweighing the short-term
estation has put Brazil’s government in a confrontational gains of destroying land for cattle and soybean cultivation
position, which does not serve anyone’s interests. (e.g., Strand et al. 2018). Beef production does exist in areas
adjacent to the rainforest, where some land is degraded
CHALLENGES: BEEF PRODUCTION, PROPERTY to make way for large but low-yielding pasture areas. But
RIGHTS outside the Amazon, many cattle producers enjoy adequate
Brazilian administrations past and present have been unable property rights and employ sophisticated production tech-
to create a sustainable strategy for developing the Amazon niques, which have made Brazil one of the world’s largest
region while preserving the rainforest. But many experts say beef producers and exporters, combining high productivity
that progress could be made through “regularization” of land with environmental sustainability. These more sophisticated
use—clearly demarcating who owns what land and what the livestock producers know that they can follow environmen-
rights of squatters, or “invaders,” should be. Moreover, poli- tally sustainable production practices and also boost busi-
cies should be designed to provide the right incentives for ness and revenues while gaining access to financing. They
assessing land value: Currently, a few hectares of deforested are also keenly aware that deforestation-induced changes in
land are worth a lot more than land with native vegetation on rainfall cycles in the Amazon region can damage their liveli-
it, inducing deforestation for land speculation. hoods. They are consequently among the staunch supporters
The answers are not easy. Many of the farming and of conservation of the Amazon and harsh opponents of
grazing activities on lands demarcated for public use are deforestation.
illegal or informal, even though they have been carried out Brazil has ample opportunity to mobilize the govern-
by generations of families, some of them engaging in subsis- ment and major stakeholders to learn from the latest
tence farming. Illegal activities on these lands also include research on cattle ranching (e.g., Sathler, Adamo, and
logging and mining, but cattle grazing seems to be the major Lima 2018) and expand this sector of the economy. But
problem. Some analysts maintain that the main obstacle to the Amazon region poses difficult challenges related to
progress is the Brazilian economy’s reliance on beef produc- land rights. Several studies (e.g., Strand et al. 2018) show

5
PB 19-15 October 2019

that since 2010, an estimated two-thirds of the Amazon’s excluded from doing so, increasing deforestation and land
deforested area comprises public lands (30 percent) and degradation—and relaxing credit constraints to de jure land-
undesignated areas (25 percent). Squatters and invaders are owners could lead to more deforestation for the same reasons.
the main culprits in cutting down the rainforest for illegal Establishing who the rightful contracting party should
logging, mining, and cattle grazing. Also, family units have be—that is, effectively distinguishing between de jure and
been using previously cleared land for subsistence farming de facto landowners—may be prohibitively costly. It might
for generations—they are, for the most part, not responsible make more sense to allocate financial resources to all parties
for deforestation. conditionally, making credit available only to those who
Fighting deforestation should include efforts to promote comply with environmental norms without trying to estab-
land regularization to combat irregular occupation, squat- lish who owns the land, rather than to try to provide finan-
ting, land conflicts, and uncertainty regarding property rights cial incentives through credit availability. The former does
(Fetzer and Marden 2017). But distinguishing invaders from not require establishing ex ante who the contracting party is,
informal land users is no easy task. One solution would be but rather discovering, through credit constraints, who actu-
to grant amnesty to all, providing them with land titles and ally needs those resources to produce. Resolution 3545 was
property rights. However, many environmentalists and other effectively designed to address these issues.
civil society groups are strongly against such amnesty as it The literature on credit and deforestation is still scarce.
would compensate invaders for past and present criminal However, using data at the municipal level from Legal
activities—squatters and invaders tend to have close ties with Amazon, a recent study shows that without Resolution 3545
organized crime (drugs and arms trafficking) in the region. deforestation in some areas could have been as much as 18
The alternative would be to strip those with no legal title of percent higher in 2009–11 than what was observed (Assunção
their land and possessions, but this would likely hurt very et al., forthcoming). The result is particularly impressive if
poor families who ultimately do little or no harm to the one takes into consideration that during that time deforesta-
forest. Successive Brazilian administrations have been unable tion had been reduced by 74 percent compared with the peak
to overcome these obstacles. in 2004 (see figure 1).
Resolution 3545 is still in effect, and the government
ROLE OF ECONOMIC POLICY: CONDITIONAL could once again adopt conditional credit policies to curb
RURAL CREDIT AND DEFORESTATION deforestation if it had the political will to do so.
While much of Brazil’s success in reducing deforestation
between 2004 and 2014 is attributed to monitoring and POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS AND AREAS
law enforcement, economic policies also played an impor- FOR COOPERATION BETWEEN BRAZIL AND
tant role. In 2008 the Brazilian National Monetary Council THE UNITED STATES
introduced Resolution 3545, which conditioned rural credit Combating illegal deforestation is crucial for Brazil’s inter-
in Legal Amazon to proof of compliance with legal and national reputation as well as for promoting its vibrant
environmental regulations. Rural credit in Brazil is largely agribusiness sector and protecting its share of global markets.
subsidized and provided by public banks, particularly in the The fires of the summer of 2019 demonstrate, however, that
Amazon. This facilitates the implementation of conditional protecting the Amazon rainforest is a global cause (Strand et
rural credit, especially in a region where financial constraints al. 2018). The international community should, therefore,
are tight because of several factors, notably the lack of prop- revive and expand the Amazon Fund to invest in ways to
erty rights. reduce deforestation through the possible use of payments
However, policies that would increase credit availability for environmental services. Such payments are envisioned
unconditionally might lead to more deforestation. This under Brazil’s 2012 Forest Code but have yet to be regu-
possibility is directly related to the negotiation of contracts lated.13 There is great potential14 in growing the fund by
for the conservation of forests based on market-based incen- diversifying its donor base to include more countries,
tives as envisaged by REDD initiatives. For donors—interna-
tional or domestic—to reach an agreement with landowners
13. Valuing payments for environmental services (PES) has
to switch from deforestation to conservation, one needs to its own complications since the benefits from conservation
know who actually owns the land, an issue that is far from accrue to many, while the costs of not deforesting accrue
only to the landowner.
trivial in most developing countries, and particularly in the
Amazon region (e.g., Alston and Andersson 2011). Limiting 14. The potential is predicated on adequately establishing a
rural registry for property rights. REDD initiatives can be ef-
conservation incentives to de jure landowners may lead de fective only after property rights have been sorted out (see
facto landowners to exploit the land before they are formally Alston and Andersson 2011).

6
PB 19-15 October 2019

including the United States. These resources could also be regulation—98 percent of designated indigenous lands are
used to improve monitoring and oversight capabilities, create located in the Amazon. Lack of regulation has also led to
well-functioning carbon markets in Brazil, and boost refores- an increase in predatory mining in areas equivalent to 20
tation efforts. Reforestation activities already provide jobs to percent of the Amazon, or 14 percent of Brazilian territory.
some 4 million workers in the Amazon region, or to some 20 The United States, with its experience in formulating and
percent of the region’s impoverished population.15 applying similar regulations, can play a key role in advising
One recent study shows that reforestation of the Amazon the Brazilian government on such rules.
has high job creation potential (Scaramuzza et al. 2017): As
many as 200 jobs may be created directly or indirectly for CONCLUSION
each 1,000 hectares of land in recovery. Under the Paris The rise in Legal Amazon’s deforestation precedes President
Climate Agreement, Brazil has committed to restoring 12 Bolsonaro’s electoral victory. But the dismantling of envi-
million hectares of native vegetation, a process that could ronmental agencies INPE and IBAMA on his watch and his
create millions of jobs. But this effort requires an expansion rhetoric on environmental issues have emboldened farmers,
of monitoring efforts: current Brazilian satellite monitoring loggers, and other players to engage in predatory behavior
systems detect loss of primary vegetation only, ignoring areas in the rainforest. The international attention to the Amazon
that could be coming back to forested status (Assunção and fires provides an opportunity to return to and enhance
Gandour 2019). Tracking forest regeneration is central to policies to promote sustainable development strategies in
compliance with the 2012 Forest Code and the goals estab- the region. At least one mechanism to foster cooperation
lished in the Paris Agreement. and provide financial incentives for sustainable use of the
Finally, the Brazilian Constitution allows the economic Amazon’s resources exists in the form of the Amazon Fund.
exploitation of indigenous lands in cooperation with local Although the Amazon fires should be condemned, it
communities and with a focus on sustainability. However, is time for the international community to leave aside its
use of these lands is yet to be formalized through effective justified grievances with the Bolsonaro administration and
cooperate on a strategy to provide the resources to conserve
15. According to data from IBGE. and develop the planet’s largest continuous rainforest.

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philanthropic foundations, private corporations, and interested individuals, as well as income on its capital fund. About
35 percent of the Institute’s resources in its latest fiscal year were provided by contributors from outside the United States.
A list of all financial supporters is posted at https://piie.com/sites/default/files/supporters.pdf.