LETTER OF INTENT
Palmas, November 28, 2011.
To the Governors' Climate and Forests Task Force (GCF),
The state of Tocantins demonstrates their interest in participating in the Governors'
Climate and Forests Task Force, herein represented by its Secretary for the Environment
and Sustainable Development, Divaldo Rezende, as a state observer in the activities
developed by the GCF.
Tocantins is one of nine states that form the Amazon region, its savannah vegetation
(91% of the territory) divides space, especially with the Amazon transition forest.
More than half the territory of Tocantins (50.25%) is composed of conservation areas,
protected areas and watersheds, which include natural sanctuaries like Bananal Island
(the largest river island in the world) and the state parks Guangzhou, the Jalapao, and
the Paved National Monument Fossil Trees, among others.
The state of Tocantins is in the geographical transition zone between the cerrado and
the Amazon, with a strong presence in areas ecotonais. Of the five major vegetation
types that form the provinces of vegetation covering the country, Tocantins has two: the
Amazon Rainforest of land, or Rain Forest, and Savannah, named, respectively, of the
Amazon and Cerrado Biome. In these regions, there are Areas of Ecological Tension or
contact between vegetation types and Pioneer Formations. The latter almost always
correlated with aquatic environments.
In the Amazon Biome and the Cerrado are found in Tocantins called ecotones, which are
important contacts between two or more biomes, with regard to the encounter and
interaction between biotic components, and are laboratories for studying the pulses of
expansion and retraction of biomes during the geological ages. In Brazil, these are three
transition zones (tension), two of which are partially inserted into the TocantinsAraguaia Basin Region, the ecotone Cerrado-Caatinga-Cerrado and the Amazon.
As seen, the State of Tocantins is located in a region of great ecological importance, with
unique characteristics, the major sheltering Tocantins-Araguaia basin, representing a
transition zone between three major biomes: Amazon, Cerrado and Caatinga. On the
other hand is a region of strong anthropogenic influence, with many areas devastated.
For all that needs to be better preserved by increasing the percentage of protected
areas, protected areas and implementation of economic mechanisms as a means of
preserving the environmental good.
The current situation of production processes, where environmental degradation is a
characteristic present, leads us to understand the urgent need to reduce the effects of
degradation, when unable to finish them completely.
Global Climate Changes (GCC) represent one of the greatest challenges facing humanity,
which needs an awareness of the importance of the issue and requires changes in
consumption habits and behavior, especially the incisive role of government in drafting
policies that ensure sustainable development.
Given these projections the demand for shares in repair, maintenance and preservation
of environmental capital, highlighting the need for identification of a Revenue Reserve
for Environmental Contingencies, being, however, due to a very specific situation in
which it is envisaged the existence of a significant and unavoidable loss in the future.
Within this context the state of Tocantins is advancing its efforts on several levels to
reduce their emissions where we can cite the law No. 771 of July 7, 95 establishing the
Forest Policy of the State of Tocantins, Resolution No. 07 of 2005 establishing the
Integrated Environmental Control - SICAM; Decree No. 3007 of April 18, 2007,
establishing the state Forum on Climate Change and Biodiversity, Law No. 16497 of 10
February 2009 establishing the State Policy on Climate Change.
In addition, the state of Tocantins has been conducting inventory studies of carbon
emissions throughout the state; feasibility studies for the legal incorporation of the
environmental heritage of the state assets; fostering environmental commodities
(carbon credit). The Plan of Vehicular Pollution Control of Tocantins (PCPV / TO) is
running, but the pilot Payment for Environmental Services - PSA, which aims to protect
the banks of the creek Taquaruçu. How innovative format the state has a computerized
management system of protected areas, known as MANAGEMENT-Management System
of Conservation Units of the State of Tocantins, and that from the National Sustainable
Cerrado Program is running a project by the Fund Global Environment Facility-GEFSavannah Initiative, a partnership between the Ministry of Environment (MMA) and the
World Bank (IBRD), which is among the actions planned to extend the area of full
protection of 291,000 hectares to 541,000 hectares .
In this context, the state of Tocantins declared their interest in participating and
contributing to the overall objective of promoting technical cooperation and training, as
well as develop recommendations for policy makers and regulators in the United States
and elsewhere who are considering whether and way to incorporate the reduction of
emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG) from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD)
as well as other international forest carbon activities and emerging GHG compliance
systems . For this, I set myself the arrangement as a focal point with the GCF, and make
available my contacts: divaldo@semades.to.gov.br mail and telephone (63) 9951-7300 /
(63) 3218-2180.
Sincerely,
Divaldo Rezende
Secretary of Environment and Sustainable Development of the State of Tocantins
SEMADES-TO