Brazil to continue reducing deforestation

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said Tuesday that Brazil will continue its effort to reduce deforestation rate by 70 percent by 2017, and by 80 percent by 2020.

Lula made the remarks during a one-day EU-Brazil Summit in Sweden, the country holding the EU presidency.

But Lula said the goal of zero deforestation was impossible to achieve in Brazil.

“It is a goal which will demand an incommensurable effort from the Brazilian society,” Lula said, adding that in 2009, Brazil would register the lowest deforestation rate in two decades.

Jose Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission, considered Brazil’s deforestation target ambitious, and urged other countries with tropical forests to commit to the same effort.

“Brazil adopted a very ambitious plan in terms of deforestation, which can be an example to other countries which also have tropical forests,” Barroso said.

Lula and Barroso agreed that countries should take a more active role in the protection of the environment and a more transparent stance on the reduction of their carbon emissions.

The Brazilian president also stressed the role of biofuels in the reduction of those emissions.