European Tropical Forest Research Network

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4. COUNTRY EXPERIENCES OF NFPS

CONTRIBUTION OF THE PROJECT PROMANEJO (PPG7) TO THE BRAZILIAN NFP

By Wolfram Maennling

The project ProManejo is part of the International Pilot Programme for the Conservation of the Brazilian Rain Forest (PPG7), the largest environmental programme in execution in Brazil. The Pilot Programme has the long-term objective to promote the sustainable development of the Amazon and Mata Atlantica regions through emphasis on biodiversity conservation, reduction of the rate of annual deforestation and reducing the emission of carbon dioxide gas (CO2).

The specific objective of ProManejo is to support the sustainable management of natural forests in the Amazon. The project is therefore closely related to the objectives of the Brazilian National Forest Programme (Programa Nacional de Florestas - PNF), the principal instrument of Brazilian Forest Policy comprising projects and activities identified by public demand. The PNF is implemented by the Ministry of Environment (MMA).

The ProManejo Project itself is implemented by the MMA and the Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (IBAMA), through technical and financial support by the German and British Governments (GTZ/KfW, DFID).

ProManejo has four principle components: providing support for promising forest management initiatives (pilot projects with industry as well as with communities); developing and testing a pilot system for the monitoring of logging activities in the Amazon; providing support to the Tapajós National Forest Administration to ensure the participation of civil society; influencing the formulation of public policies and consequently the NFP through strategic studies and the results of the pilot projects mentioned above.

After 40 months of implementation, the project is now in the phase of identifying lessons learnt so far, identifying successful experiences from the pilot projects to be replicated, and training to build capacity for forest management.

Now that a number of successful experiences with sustainable forest management exist, the goal is to replicate these experiences throughout the Amazon over the next three to four years in order to change land use patterns to reduce deforestation and negative impacts on biodiversity. It remains to be seen how easily this goal can be achieved.

The impact on the formulation of public policies and the national forest programme has already been considerable:

• Based on the experiences of the Promising Initiatives (PIs) with enterprises and communities, IBAMA, which up to now was primarily engaged in controlling logging activities, established the institutional basis for a Forest Extension Service - CENAFLOR (portaria 56/2003).
• The experiences of the PIs have served to create credit lines for communityforestry as well as industrial forest management within the Amazonian Development Bank BASA. Before this, there were no existing credit systems for sustainable forest management activities in Brazil.
• The implementation of community projects in the Amazon led to the creation of an Amazonian Working Group for Community Forestry.
• By establishing a network of training and capacity building centers, and partnerships between universities and stakeholders in the logging sector, the project is providing practical experience to inform the reformulation of teaching programmes at technical and academic universities.
• Finally the project influenced the creation of an inter-ministerial Commission for the Coordination of the National Forest Plan, which gives the MMA a much wider influence in regional politics and development strategies.

Contact:
Wolfram Maennling
GTZ/KfW Adviser for the Sustainable Forest Management Support Programme in the Amazon – ProManejo / PPG7
Agência da GTZ no Brasil
Caixa Postal 01991
70259 970 Brasília – DF
Brazil

Phone: + 55-(92)-99893831
E-mail: wolfram@promanejo.ibama.gov.br

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