VZCZCXRO3914
RR RUEHRG
DE RUEHBR #2678/01 3601556
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 261556Z DEC 06
FM AMEMBASSY BRASILIA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 7715
INFO RUEHRI/AMCONSUL RIO DE JANEIRO 3599
RUEHRG/AMCONSUL RECIFE 6040
RUEHSO/AMCONSUL SAO PAULO 8900
RUEHLP/AMEMBASSY LA PAZ 5067
RUEHPE/AMEMBASSY LIMA 3297
RUEHBO/AMEMBASSY BOGOTA 4051
RUEHMN/AMEMBASSY MONTEVIDEO 6662
RUEHAC/AMEMBASSY ASUNCION 5854
RUEHBU/AMEMBASSY BUENOS AIRES 4488
RUEHSG/AMEMBASSY SANTIAGO 5995
RUEHTO/AMEMBASSY MAPUTO 0087
RUEHLU/AMEMBASSY LUANDA 0128
RUEHLI/AMEMBASSY LISBON 0412
RUEHRC/USDA WASHDC

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 BRASILIA 002678 
 
SIPDIS 
 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPARTMENT PASS EPA, HHS, CEQ 
USAID FOR AA/LA 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: SENV PREL ECON EAID BR
SUBJECT:  Visit of Professor Jeffrey Sachs to Brazil 
 
 
¶1.  Summary.  During a December 12-13 visit to Brasilia and Sao 
Paulo, noted economist Jeffrey Sachs met with high-level government 
policymakers, NGO representatives, and business representatives.  In 
his meetings with Brazilian interlocutors, Sachs stressed that the 
U.S. and Brazil need to find a way to work together to tackle key 
problems such as poverty, development, climate change, disease, and 
deforestation.  He emphasized the interrelated nature of all these 
issues and suggested that the two governments look to partner to 
help Luso-phone Africa deal with these problems.  In his public 
remarks to the media and the business community in Sao Paulo, the 
Ambassador underscored the responsibility of the private sector to 
promote development through training and education.  The Sachs visit 
was extremely helpful to the Mission in bringing to the fore the 
United State's desire to move forward on the pressing environmental 
and development issues within this hemisphere and the Third World. 
By highlighting our desire to build bridges between our two 
countries, this kind of programming is invaluable to our efforts to 
improve the image of the U.S. abroad. End Summary. 
 
----------------------- ------------------------------- 
Meeting with Presidential Advisor Marco Aurelio Garcia 
----------------------- ------------------------------- 
 
¶2.  In his December 13 meeting with Presidential foreign policy 
advisor Marco Aurelio Garcia, Sachs focused on (1) sustainable 
development cooperation efforts between the U.S. and Brazil, 
particularly in Africa, (2) the role of both bio-fuels and effective 
malaria prevention as components of these efforts, and (3) a 
post-Kyoto system for climate control that involves incentives for 
avoidance of de-forestation.  He sought Brazilian involvement in all 
of these areas, in conjunction with UN, bilateral or private 
projects, and emphasized that Africa looks to Brazil and Lula for 
leadership, expertise and technology assistance. 
 
¶2.  On malaria, Sachs previewed his participation in President 
Bush's Prevention of Malaria Initiative (PMI), reviewed the gravity 
of the malaria threat in Africa (two million dying per year), and 
also noted Brazil's substantial malaria problem.  For very low cost 
in comparison to the potentially profound benefits, prevention 
projects (e.g., distribution at low cost of thousands of bed nets) 
and innovative pricing/distribution of modern medicines could -- 
"from one day to the next"  -- make a drastic difference in Africa's 
malaria problem, he declared. 
 
¶3.  According to Sachs, bio-fuels technology also offers enormous 
hope and promise in Africa, and here Brazilian leadership and 
technology are absolutely key.  Biofuels offers the potential for 
employment, industrialization, profitable agriculture, and business 
- all elements that, like health, are essential to the village-based 
development model Sachs' Millennium Project has implemented with 
success in some African states.  Creating a "payment stream" to 
provide incentives for poor countries to avoid deforestation is also 
a transformational concept that ought to be implemented, Sachs 
continued, noting that Brazilian leadership here would also be 
crucial. 
 
¶4.  Sachs proposed Sao Tome as one micro-state in which low cost but 
thoughtfully coordinated initiatives in both malaria and bio-fuel 
development would literally transform the country in a short period. 
 Mozambique, on a much larger scale in terms of bio-fuel capacity, 
is another nation receptive to, and ripe for, transformational 
programs.  Sachs urged consideration of U.S.-Brazil joint efforts in 
both states. 
 
¶5.  Garcia replied that Africa is a major element in contemporary 
GOB foreign policy;  he noted the recent Brazil-Africa summit, 
multiple Lula visits to Africa, and the fact that 20 African heads 
of state have visited Brazil.  Lula sees Africa as an important 
vocation for Brazil, not only Lusophone Africa, he said, with 
African countries looking to Brazil for leadership and help. 
 
¶6.  Garcia said Brazil would welcome "trilateral cooperation" 
projects with the U.S. in Africa.  In health, Brazil is planning a 
factory in Africa for the production of HIV medicines and the GOB is 
 
BRASILIA 00002678  002 OF 003 
 
 
also focused on malaria there.  He noted that he had visited Sao 
Tome, and opined that the tiny country is "completely dominated by 
malaria."   But "with just 20 million dollars you could end the 
problem there once and for all." 
 
¶7.  On bio-fuels, Garcia reviewed the integral role in Brazil's 
energy matrix now played by various forms of bio-fuels.  He 
discussed Brazil's evolving program to provide tax breaks to 
bio-diesel producers who purchase raw product from family farms - 
e.g., a small bio-diesel plant with 20 or 30 employees can generate 
rural employment for around 20,000 people.  In Africa, the potential 
for such projects would be highly promising, both in terms of energy 
and economic development, and for employment - especially keeping 
people gainfully employed in the countryside, and away from the 
chaotic cities. 
 
¶8.  Sachs replied that Brazil's timing and ideas are perfect, and 
Sao Tome and Mozambique would be excellent starting points for 
collaborative efforts.  He urged the GOB to send a high-level 
delegation to the January African Union meeting in Ethiopia, where 
these issues could be discussed with interested nations. 
 
------------------- ----------------------- 
Meeting with Chief of Staff Dilma Rousseff 
----------------- ------------------------- 
 
¶9.  Sachs reviewed the same prime issues with Rousseff:  i.e., 
cooperation on malaria and bio-fuels in Africa, the President's 
Malaria Initiative, and de-forestation. 
 
¶10.  On malaria, the Brazilian Health Minister and his malaria 
program director were also present in the meeting, and they provided 
information on the scope of Brazil's malaria problem.  Brazil 
registered 500,000 cases last year, but with fewer than a dozen 
fatalities, they said.  All states but Acre are show a decrease in 
malaria.  The outbreaks are concentrated in Amazonas and Acre, and 
are spread by bites in outdoor environments, as opposed to African 
bites, which often occur within dwellings - hence use of bed nets 
has not been a priority in Brazil -- although the Health Ministry 
will expand their usage in the near future, Sachs was told. 
 
¶11.  Sachs expressed admiration for Brazil's leadership and 
technological progress in bio-fuels, and said bio-fuels are a key 
component for African poverty alleviation, one "that makes good 
development and political sense." He again proposed Sao Tome and 
Mozambique as good pilot states - in  different ways -- for 
bio-fuels and health projects. 
 
¶12.  Rousseff welcomed enthusiastically Sachs' interest in 
cooperation with Brazil on bio-fuels and development projects in 
Africa.  "We can make a partnership," she declared explicitly, 
underscoring, like Garcia, Lula's strong commitment to Africa.   She 
noted that Lula had instructed his ministers to develop, in his 
second term, a structured program of assistance to Africa, and that 
a task force is now being formed for this.  The task force will 
include several ministries, EMBRAPA, and Petrobras. 
 
¶13.  Rousseff discussed at some length the various types of 
bio-fuels in development and use in Brazil, and their applicability 
to different situations in developing states.  For Africa, 
bio-diesel could be the best solution in some agricultural 
environments, while ethanol could work elsewhere, although ethanol 
requires larger scales of production for viability then bio-diesel 
production, which can be usefully carried out on a micro scale. 
Rousseff also said Brazil is looking at providing some of its 
successful R&D in soils and seeds to Africa - she noted that Sao 
Tome is located at the "continental breakage point" from which the 
South American continent appears over the millennia to have 
separated from Africa.  Hence soil conditions there could be 
amenable to successful Brazilian soil/seed projects that have vastly 
increased Brazilian agricultural productivity in previously fallow 
areas. 
 
¶14.  Rousseff also noted the African Union Summit in Ethiopia in 
 
BRASILIA 00002678  003 OF 003 
 
 
January, and said Brazil planned to send a delegation. 
 
--------------------- ---------------------------- 
Meeting with Minister of Environment Marina Silva 
---------------------- --------------------------- 
 
¶15.  In his call on Environment Minister Marina Silva, Sachs 
expressed interest in Brazil's plan for payment for avoided 
deforestation (note: Foreign Ministry officials at the December 13 
Common Agenda Meetings clarified that the GOB avoids the use of the 
term "avoided deforestation" in favor of "positive incentives to 
reduce deforestation emissions").  Marina Silva characterized the 
"positive incentive" proposal presented by Brazil at the November 
U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change meeting in Nairobi as a 
paradigm shift, and the "challenge of the century," asserting that 
reductions in deforestation during the past two years are 
attributable to coordinated action of thirteen ministries to fight 
illegal deforestation.  Minister Silva described the positive 
incentive payment program as results-based and entirely voluntary. 
Payments would only be made when and if a developing country 
succeeds in reducing deforestation beyond an agreed reference 
emissions rate.  She described this initiative as a positive example 
and fruit of long-term international scientific collaboration in 
Brazil (note: background field science and policy analysis on this 
issue were supported by USAID/Brazil.  Jeffrey Sachs described the 
positive incentive proposal as a very powerful approach to 
sustainable development, one that could become a signature issues in 
the search for practical solutions to greenhouse gas emissions, 
biodiversity loss, malaria outbreak, and rural poverty resulting 
from tropical deforestation. 
 
--------------------------- ----------------------------- 
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Event in Sao Paulo 
--------------------------- ----------------------------- 
 
¶16.  Late in the afternoon on December 13, Sachs spoke at the US 
Consulate in Sao Paulo to an audience of approximately 100 CEOs, 
business leaders, academicis and NGO leaders.  Sachs spoke at the 
invitation of the Ambassador, who since his arrival in August 2006 
has been committed to the development of a public-private CSR 
partnership between the US Embassy and the US corporate sector in 
Brazil. 
 
¶17.   Sachs discussed the various roles of corporate social 
responsibility programs in fighting extreme poverty, promoting 
regional economic development and growth, investing in the 
individual for societal good, and maintaining economic development 
aligned with environmental sustainability.  Emphasis was placed on 
the importance of investment in education and technology. Sachs also 
compared poverty and the economic situations of Africa, China, India 
and Brazil.  Sachs presentation generated much interest not only 
with the audience present, but received extensive press coverage as 
well.  Indeed, he granted exclusive interviews to two prominent 
print and television outlets.  Afterwards, he attended a dinner 
including former president Fernando Henrique Cardoso, leading 
bankers, businessmen, and academics and continued the discussion 
there, once again stressing the role of technology and education in 
reducing the extreme levels of poverty in developing countries. 
 
Sobel