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The Pilot Program was an initiative of the Brazilian government, the G7 countries and the World Bank in international cooperation to conserve the Brazilian rain forests. Compatibility between ecological, economic and social interests should be proved, revaluing the natural legacy, production potentialities and the cultural diversity of the regional population. The subprograms concentrated on supporting sustainable production, implementation of protected areas, strengthening of regional public institutions, responsible for environmental management, support of scientific research and cooperation with NGOs. In spite of structural deficiencies, the Program was one of the most successful examples in conserving tropical rain forests and in sustainable use of natural resources. The Pilot Program stood for the beginning of a new phase of responsible environmental policy for the Amazon region, with social participation, public-private partnership and qualification of people and institutions in environmental management. After the conclusion of the Program which has fallen into oblivion in the meantime, the positive results should be much more considered in future environmental programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The leading policy to conserve forest is protected areas (PAs). Yet, PAs are not a single tool: land users and uses vary by PA type; and public PA strategies vary in the extent of each type and in the determinants of impact for each type, i.e. siting and internal deforestation. Further, across regions and time, strategies respond to pressures (deforestation and political). We estimate deforestation impacts of PA types for a critical frontier, the Brazilian Amazon. We separate regions and time periods that differ in their deforestation and political pressures and document considerable variation in PA strategies across regions, time periods and types. The siting of PAs varies across regions. For example, all else being equal, PAs in the arc of deforestation are relatively far from non-forest, while in other states they are relatively near. Internal deforestation varies across time periods, e.g. it is more similar across the PA types for PAs after 2000. By contrast, after 2000, PA extent is less similar across PA types with little non-indigenous area created inside the arc. PA strategies generate a range of impacts for PA types--always far higher within the arc--but not a consistent ranking of PA types by impact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The state of São Paulo, the most populous state in Brazil with 40 million people, is leading the way in Brazilian environmental policies. This article discusses the implications this has particularly for climate change policies. Located in the southeast part of the country, far from the Amazon rainforest, São Paulo state has adopted policies and actions that are leading to effective improvements in the quality of air and to the partial recovery of the original Atlantic rainforest, and that promote sustainable practices for ethanol production from sugarcane. Compared to the state of São Paulo, Brazil as a whole faces a considerably different situation, with the federal and the state governments having chosen different pathways for addressing the challenges posed by climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses the creation of extractive reserves in Brazil that grants legal protection to forest land traditionally used by rubber tappers, Brazil-nut gatherers and others. Number of extractive reserves established in one of Brazil's states most threatened by deforestation; Value to rubber tappers; Sustainable harvest versus deforestation; Economic value of extractive products; Extractive products for the future; Beyond cost-benefit analysis; Forest justification; Forest maintenance as a constraint on development.

Provides an overview of the environmental policy of Brazilian President Lula da Silva. Comment on the growth plans included in the policy; Government's perspectives on the tropical rainforest of the Amazon region; Concerns of Lula's environmental program with quality of life.

Presents an adaptation of Brazil's Minister of Environment Jose Lutzenberger's recent address to the International Meeting of Parliamentarians in Washington, D.C. Root of ecological destruction.