CONTEXTUALIZATION

The Green Municipalities Program (PMV) was created in the state of Pará in 2011. It was inspired on a successful experience in the municipality of Paragominas, which adopted procedures to implement environmental regularization as an answer to being included on the list prepared by the Ministry of the Environment, which listed the priority municipalities for efforts aimed at preventing, monitoring and controlling deforestation.

The state of Pará covers an area of 1,247,954 km², with 144 municipalities. Of this total number of municipalities, some 100 have adhered to the PMV. Joining is voluntary and entails signing a term of commitment to the Public Prosecutor’s Office promising to reach a set of targets, among which include: maintaining the yearly deforestation rate below 40km², placing 80% of the municipal area on the Rural Environmental Registration (CAR), and getting removed from the list of places with the highest deforestation rates in the Amazon.

Within the scope of the PMV, incentive mechanisms are also being developed to adhere to the program, such as setting up the green ICMS (similar to VAT) in the state, in which distributing resources stemming from this tax to the municipality is based, among other variables, on performance in terms of adherence to the CAR.

THE PROJECT

The project is aimed at providing support to implement the Rural Environmental Registration (CAR) on a broad scale, as well as strengthen municipal environmental management so as to help combat deforestation and forest degradation in the state of Pará.

CAR will be implemented on the rural properties, temporary or permanent, located in the 100 municipalities throughout the state that adhere to the Green Municipalities Program (PMV), covering an area of 92,479 Km². Among the efforts entailed in implementing the CAR are: campaigns to advertise the PMV; collection and organization of documentation and information required from rural producers to set up the CAR for property with up to 4 government-established land modules (each state has a different measurement); geo-referencing of rural properties with up to 4 government-established land modules; inserting data on all rural properties that adhere to the CAR into the Integrated System for Environmental Monitoring and Licensing managed by SEMA/PA (SIMLAM) and validating the CAR, which is required to issue the final CAR document on each property.

The scope of the PMV will also include investments to further decentralize environmental management and consolidate processes in municipalities that have already been authorized to carry out environmental management. For this, a data base will be developed to exchange information between the PMV and the municipalities; there will be training and structuring in municipalities to validate deforestation in the field (on site); and training and structuring in municipalities for environmental management.

INTERVENTION LOGIC

The project is part of the Monitoring and Control (2) component of the Amazon Fund’s Logical Framework. 

Click on the following image to view its objectives tree, that is, how the project's outputs and linked to the expected outcomes and impact.

ACTIVITIES CONDUCTED 

There were 668 awareness-raising events addressing the themes of production without deforestation, the importance of the Rural Environmental Registry (CAR) and the Green Municipalities Program, with popular language, from plays, documentaries, video classes and music.

Since 2018, 95 local pacts have been signed, involving 2,830 people or institutions that have committed to deforestation control, CAR advancement and the structuring of Municipal Environmental Management (GAM). This action also contributed directly to 31 municipalities being qualified to carry out the analysis and validation of CAR in the state of Pará. 

The structuring of the Terras do Pará Institute (Iterpa) and the Technical Assistance and Rural Extension Company of the State of Pará (Emater) for CAR issuance began, with the donation of vehicles, equipment and furniture. 4,824 rural properties were directly supported for registration in the CAR, totaling the registration of about 90 thousand hectares.

Regarding the CAR validation activity, the contracting was carried out to perform services that will include the analysis of about 20,000 rural properties. 8,639 registrations (equivalent to an area of 1,787,726.41 h) were analyzed, which corresponded to a total of 8,729 analyses. SEMA has qualified 24 municipalities to carry out CAR analysis, which have already analyzed 1,112 registrations.

High-resolution satellite images were acquired, allowing Pará to monitor deforestation with greater precision and speed. This led to more frequent and agile publication of complete Field Deforestation Survey (VDC) municipal bulletins.

With regard to support for land regularization, more than 5,000 processes have already been filed in SICARF/PA, thus reaching about 90% of the target.

The project set up 100 municipalities with the donation of 4x4 vehicles and equipment (one vehicle and four computers with nobreaks for each municipality). Além disso, 34 municípios receberam dois GPS, uma câmera fotográfica e um notebook para a verificação em campo do desmatamento (VDC).

99 technicians were trained in VDC, 1049 in environmental management, 167 in licensing rural activities, 50 in computerized systems for environmental management.

As for the development of the Electronic Municipal Environmental Licensing System (SISLAM), adjustments were made for the completion of the system; equipment was purchased and training was carried out on the system's functionalities for SEMAS/PA technicians and technicians from the municipal environmental departments of the municipalities of Belém, Castanhal, Barcarena and Canaã dos Carajás.