Since taking office on Jan. 1, left-leaning Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has moved quickly to reverse the environmental policies of his right-wing predecessor, Jair Bolsonaro. Among his first steps was to create a 19-member inter-ministerial commission charged with drafting a nationwide plan to combat deforestation, which accelerated dramatically under the Bolsonaro administration. The decree reflects the approach he launched in 2004 while serving the first of two presidential terms during an eight-year period that began on Jan. 1, 2003. That earlier drive, following a historic spike in deforestation, successfully cut annual Amazon deforestation by 83% from 2004 to 2012. Like the 2004 plan, the new blueprint calls for a broad set of actions. These include stepped-up forest-protection monitoring and enforcement, restoration of degraded areas, and resolution of property disputes that have fueled land-grabbing and violence in the rainforest. The... [Log in to read more]