Finding Balance In Amazon Tug of War
Brazilian Official Pulled on All Sides

By Joshua Partlow
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, November 6, 2008

RIO DE JANEIRO -- Carlos Minc never wanted to grow up to be the environment minister of Brazil. The self-described former "student militant revolutionary," who spent time behind bars in the 1960s for resisting his country's military dictatorship, had more grandiose goals in his younger years.

"I wanted to be Che Guevara," he said.

But in his first six months as Brazil's top environmental official, Minc, 57, has found the level of combat in this bureaucratic post to be more than sufficient. He took over in May after the abrupt resignation of Marina Silva, an Amazon native who had achieved iconic status in environmental circles for her defense of the world's largest rain forest. "I'm in a state of shock," he said. "Absolutely."

In his first week on the job, he recalled, he was asked at a meeting of world environmental officials in Bonn, Germany, whether the Amazon was "all going to turn into dust" under his stewardship.

"That was the first question," he said.

Since then, Minc's tenure has been marked by a flair for bold if controversial strokes. He has sent the military to seize thousands of cattle on illegally deforested land. He released a list of the nation's 100 top deforesters and named the government's land reform agency as the leading culprit. He has pledged to cut by about half, to 13 months, the time it generally takes large development projects to receive environmental licenses, a position some environmental activists view with skepticism.

"Every action I take is on TV. I'm not embarrassed of what I do," Minc said in an interview at his Rio de Janeiro home. "You need to make examples. You need the army. You need TV. Or people think they can destroy the forest and nothing's going to happen."

The resignation of Silva, a former rubber tapper who had served as minister for more than five years, caused an uproar among activists around the world who feared that her departure would lead to more lax environmental oversight.

During her tenure, Brazil created 59 million acres of protected areas, or nearly half of all protected lands in the country, Silva said. The amount of forest cleared in the Amazon fell from a high of more than 10,000 square miles in 2004 to 4,400 square miles in 2007, the third-straight year of decline and the lowest level since 1991, according to government statistics.

"It is perhaps too early to tell" about Minc's performance as minister, said Stephan Schwartzman, an Amazon specialist at the Environmental Defense Fund in Washington. "But it is certainly the case that Mr. Minc follows an environment minister who has left an incredible legacy."

Silva said she resigned because of mounting pressure from inside and outside the government to roll back measures she championed, such as the denial of credit from state banks to anyone involved in deforestation in the 36 municipalities with the highest rates of clear-cutting.

"I had the feeling that my resignation could create a political movement to keep the measures, and I believe this has happened," she said. "The president felt strengthened."

Several environmentalists said they have been cautiously optimistic so far that Minc does not intend radical departures from Silva's policies, though some expressed concern that he seemed more willing to approve large-scale development projects planned under President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

"I think Lula needed somebody who would not be perceived as an enemy of the environment, because he was losing Marina Silva," said Claudio C. Maretti, conservation director of World Wildlife Fund-Brazil. "He was also looking for somebody that would not make too many problems for him for his projects to build infrastructure -- roads and airports and dams -- that has characterized his government."

Some Brazilian cattle ranchers have greeted Minc's appointment with relief, said John Carter, an American rancher and conservationist who has lived in the Amazon for more than a decade. Under Silva, he said, the government's attitude was "no to everything, and yet the trees kept falling."

"You're not going to stop deforestation -- the economics are just too strong. He understands how industry and development need to be harnessed to bring about change," Carter said. "The 21st century requires the forest to pay for itself. We're going to have to have economic incentives."

After being forced into exile as a young man, Minc completed his master's degree in urban and regional planning in Portugal and his doctorate in economics in France. He later helped found the Green Party in Brazil and was elected to the National Congress in 1986. He also served as state environmental secretary in his native Rio de Janeiro.

"I am an ecologist inside the government," Minc said. "But I am from the government."

Balancing these roles has proved difficult, he said, as he comes under intense pressure -- "every day, all day, in as many different forms as are imaginable" -- to approve projects that have environmental impact. In September, Minc suspended for two months the licensing process for a road in the Amazon linking the cities of Porto Velho and Manaus. He said he wanted to ensure that the project included creating enough protected areas around the road, and he has urged that a railroad be considered instead of a highway.

"This project is the dream of the Ministry of Transportation. They want to do it as fast as possible. They want a license tomorrow. They've been pressuring us," he said. After his decision to suspend the process, he said, he was called into a meeting with Lula and other ministers. When he came out, "my ear was red with what I had to hear," he said. "But I kept my decision. Without enough protection, I won't give out the license."

Minc has also asked for an environmental police force of 3,000 people and worked to secure more funding for preservation through the Amazon Fund, a program created under his predecessor to pay for conservation. The Norwegian government has pledged to contribute up to $1 billion to the fund through 2015.

But some environmentalists said Minc, a garrulous man famous for his flamboyant collection of multicolored vests, has shown a difference primarily in leadership style rather than substance.

"It's more of a marketing behavior, you might call it. He's going out and taking cattle from the field, with cameras, for example," Maretti said. "These are spectacular actions but not necessarily more effective."

Some of Minc's public pronouncements have been ridiculed. After he released the list of the 100 top deforesters in September -- with the government's Institute of Colonization and Agrarian Reform holding the top six spots -- he backtracked the next day, saying that he would reevaluate the agency's role in deforestation and that there "may have been a certain injustice" to single it out in that manner.

"He can't announce something and then say he didn't know what he was announcing," said Adriana Ramos, the coordinator of the Amazon initiative with the Instituto Socioambiental, a social and environmental organization in Brazil.

Farmer Joao Ismael Vicentini, 54, said that he planned to sue the government for including him on this blacklist and that the Environment Ministry miscalculated the size of his property and how much forest remained.

"We have been here for at least 30 years, and now they come at us with this green terrorism and are pointing fingers at us saying we are criminals," Vicentini said. "This is unacceptable."

Minc said he expects to be criticized by all sides and sometimes finds it useful. Pressure from environmental groups helps him demand more concessions from businesses and the government. "It's really necessary," he said.

"I think he's doing a good job," said Paulo Adário, director of Greenpeace's Amazon campaign. "We have to consider that when Marina Silva left the ministry and Minc was invited in, there were a lot of demands put on his shoulders. Everyone now wants solutions to many different problems."