| NOTE ABOUT THE AMAZON Salvador, August 23, 2019 The Brazilian Business Council for Sustainable Development (CEBDS), on behalf of its associated companies that represent revenue equivalent to 45% of the national GDP, defends the improvement of control and monitoring systems to eliminate illegal deforestation in the short term in the Amazon and throughout biomes, and reduce legal deforestation. This is one of the 10 proposals delivered to the current Government in a CEBDS Agenda for a Sustainable Country, aligned with the CEBDS Leaders Council, which includes the participation of CEOs from 60 large business groups in the country. For CEBDS, controlling deforestation is the lowest cost option (private and social) for reducing Greenhouse Gas emissions in Brazil. Combining financial instruments, including carbon pricing and international financial compensation mechanisms, is fundamental to the viability of such strategies. The CEBDS also argues that, in addition to avoiding mitigation costs for productive sectors, combating deforestation needs to be at the center of the strategic agenda not only of governments, but of the country, to combat climate change and for all the benefits arising from conservation of Brazilian biomes, such as bioeconomy business opportunities, and the valorization of Brazilian historical and cultural heritage. Finally, it is necessary to emphasize once again that there is no controversy between producing and preserving. Vanguard companies in all productive sectors, especially in Brazilian agribusiness, already recognize the path to sustainable development and the good business opportunities generated from best practices in the social and environmental sphere. |
