VZCZCXRO0593
RR RUEHAST RUEHDH RUEHHM RUEHLN RUEHMA RUEHPB RUEHPOD RUEHSL RUEHTM
RUEHTRO
DE RUEHBR #1324/01 3211604
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 171604Z NOV 09
FM AMEMBASSY BRASILIA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 5372
INFO RUEHSO/AMCONSUL SAO PAULO 0077
RUEHRI/AMCONSUL RIO DE JANEIRO 0036
RUEHRG/AMCONSUL RECIFE 0108
RUEHZA/WHA CENTRAL AMERICAN COLLECTIVE
RUEHZN/ENVIRONMENT SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 BRASILIA 001324 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR F: AFULGHAM , WHA 
USAID FOR LAC: JBALLANTYNE 
 
E.0. 12958 
TAGS: EAID SENV BR
SUBJECT: USAID/BRAZIL ENVIRONMENT PROGRAM MEETING. 
 
BRASILIA 00001324  001.2 OF 002 
 
 
¶1. SUMMARY: On October 27-30, 2009, USAID/Brazil Environment Program 
held its annual meeting in Belm, State of Par. The objective of 
the event was to promote cooperation and better integration among 
Program partners, as well as to discuss current themes of 
sustainable development in the Amazon region.  To accomplish this, 
six panels were organized that facilitated the sharing of best 
practices, lessons learned, and discussions on technical issues 
relating to sustainable development.  END SUMMARY. 
 
¶2. The 17th USAID Brazil Environment Program was held in Belm, 
Par, 27-30, October, 2009. The meeting was attended by 123 people 
from 13 states of Brazil, representing 51 institutions - both 
governmental and non-governmental, including Program partners and 
other invited institutions.  Participants from USAID/Washington 
included Anne Dix, LAC Regional Environment Team Leader, Peter 
Keller, LAC Biodiversity Advisor, and Ilya Fischoff, EGAT/GCC AAAS 
Fellow. 
 
¶3. Annual coordination meetings have been held in Brazil since the 
inception of the Environment Program in 1990, with the goals of 
promoting synergies and better integration among program partners, 
as well as to discuss current themes of sustainable development in 
the Amazon region. The core theme of the 2009 meeting, "Valuing the 
Forest in Times of Change", included six round-table discussions on 
different aspects of this topic. 
¶4. Other meeting sessions included presentations on:  (a) an outline 
of a draft USAID/Brazil Strategy for FY 2010-2014, presented by 
Environment Program Coordinator Eric Stoner, (b) an overview of the 
Environment Program, presented by USAID/Brazil Senior Environment 
Officer Elke Costanti; and (c) results from the capacity building 
training course on monitoring and evaluation developed by 
USAID/Brazil Consultant Neusa Zimmermann. 
¶5. Opening the meeting, the Environment Program Coordinator 
presented a draft of the Environment portion of the  USAID/Brazil 
Development Strategy for FY 2009-2014, which included input from 
partners and stakeholders.  The Strategy focuses on the contribution 
of sustainable landscapes to biodiversity conservation and climate 
change stability, and includes new activities for implementation in 
upcoming years.  It is structured around USAID's three development 
pillars addressing global climate change:  (a) clean energy, (b) 
sustainable landscapes, and (c) adaptation to climate change. 
¶6. Under the above mentioned development objectives, the draft 
Environment Program strategy includes three components: (a) 
strengthening the capacity of institutions and individuals, in 
forest and grassland areas under pressure to convert to economic 
use, by providing support to communities and civil society groups to 
promote environmental governance, improve community natural resource 
management, and increase use of landscape knowledge; (b) 
environmentally sound management of public lands to improve 
management of officially designated protected areas, establishing 
ethno-environmental corridors, and increasing the sustainable use of 
protected areas; and (c) environmentally sound management of private 
lands, with the goal of improving monitoring systems of land-based 
greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, territorial governance, and 
opportunities for carbon stock enhancement and emission reduction in 
soils and forests. 
¶7. Also, two cross-cutting issues were noted that are relevant for 
the success of the strategy: (a) leveraging public-private 
partnerships to engage private sector involvement in international 
development; and (b) streamlining gender and women in development 
activities in all implementing mechanisms. 
¶8. USAID advancements achieved during the last year highlighted the 
new partnership with the Government of Brazil (GOB), through the 
Brazilian Cooperation Agency (ABC) of the Ministry of the External 
Relations (MRE), for trilateral actions. The USG and GOB have 
established joint activities to support Mozambique in HIV/AIDS and 
food security issues. This partnership will continue and may be 
expanded to other countries and areas of development. 
¶9. The meeting highlighted the importance of an efficient system to 
monitor and evaluate Environment Program performance.  During FY 
2009, USAID/Brazil conducted a Data Quality Assessment and developed 
a monitoring and evaluation training course for its partners. 
Courses were held in Belem, Manaus, Porto Velho and Brasilia 
involving 171 participants representing 73 NGOs and 24 public 
institutions.  Results of the training courses were presented and 
discussed.  During discussions, course participants described how 
they applied the course material including the development of their 
own training programs. 
¶10. Continuing efforts to strengthen Environmental Program oversight 
of projects, USAID/Brazil outlined two new consultancy services: (a) 
a program performance evaluation to verify monitoring systems, data 
collection and the reporting process, and (b) a monitoring and 
evaluation assessment of indigenous-based projects. 
¶11. The event key-note speaker, Special Advisor of the Ministry of 
the Environment for Climate Change, Tasso Azevedo, presented a 
summary of various schools of thought on forest and natural 
 
BRASILIA 00001324  002.2 OF 002 
 
 
resources valuation. 
¶12. The meeting included the following sessions, in a panel format 
of four to six speakers per session: (a) Reducing Emissions from 
Deforestation and Degradation (REDD): Trends and Opportunities; (b) 
Building Relationships Between Communities, Private-Sector and 
Natural Resource Management; (c) People of the Forest: Conservation 
and Autonomy; (d) Women of the Forest: Agenda, Concerns and 
Perspectives; (e) Responsible Sourcing and Purchasing; and (f) 
Conservation and Recuperation of Degraded Lands. 
¶13. A highlight of the panel on Responsible Sourcing and Purchasing 
was a presentation by Adnan Demachki, mayor of Paragominas, on its 
program called, "Green Municipality."   Paragominas has successfully 
addressed deforestation through strong public and private support 
for responsible production practices and efforts to eliminate 
illegal logging.  This experience resulted in the field trip 
organized on October 30, 2009, when a group of thirty participants 
took a trip to Paragominas, Par, to visit a project integrating 
crops and pasture, a reforestation area, a wood flooring plant, and 
the Environmental Park of Paragominas.  In FY 2010, USAID/Brazil 
will support the  implementation of a system of land registration 
for all rural properties in Paragominas through a partnership with 
The Nature Conservancy (TNC). 
¶14. During the meeting, USAID awards of appreciation were given to 
partner representatives and community leaders in recognition of 
outstanding efforts in support of the Environment Program in FY 2009 
and overall contributions to sustainable development in the Amazon 
region.  The recipients included:  (a) Paulo Amaral, Researcher, 
Institute for People and the Environment in the Amazon - IMAZON; (b) 
Manuel Amaral, Technical Coordinator, International Institute of 
Education in Brazil - IEB; (c) Vasco Van Roosmalen, Director, Amazon 
Cooperation Team Brazil (ACT-Brazil); (d) Major Alessandro Mariano 
Rodrigues, Fire Brigade of Mato Grosso, (e) Enrico Bernardi, Project 
Manager, World Vision, (f) Luzia Santos da Silva, Union of Rural 
Workers of Boca do Acre, Amazonas (g) Vanderleide Ferreira de Souza, 
National Council of Extractivist Population, Lbrea, Amazonas, and 
(h) Kleber Karipuna, Executive-Manager, Coordination of Indigenous 
Organizations in the Brazilian Amazon (COIAB), who received the 
award on behalf of COIAB, as an institution. 
¶15. COMMENT.  The 17th Annual Environment Program Meeting was a 
success.  It facilitated the sharing of best practices, lessons 
learned, and discussions on technical issues relating to the issues 
outlined in the six panels.  In addition, it addressed a wide range 
of issues essential for the sustainable development of the Brazilian 
Amazon region.  END COMMENT. 
KUBISKE