The first episode of the series of webinars by OCAA (Observatory of Trade and the Environment in the Amazon) has been released, investigating the possible consequences of the trade agreement between Mercosur and the European Union for the Amazon forest. This was signed in 2019, after two decades of negotiations, and still needs to be ratified by the 31 states involved before entering into force. The discussion was based on two studies about the subject and their different conclusions with respect to the relationship of deforestation and development: Is the EU Mercosur Agreement Deforestation Proof? , by Imazon (Institute of People and the Environment of the Amazon), and a Sustainability Impact Assessment , by the London School of Economics.
Stefania Lovo, a senior specialist in environmental analysis at the British university, said that the agreement should increase the growth of the agricultural sector and that the future of the environment in Brazil depends more on internal public policies. Paulo Barreto, a senior researcher at Imazon, on the other hand, presented a survey that shows a significant increase in the deforestation in 189 countries three years after international trade agreements came into force. According to him, there are possibilities for Brazil to produce without deforestation, but the current political conditions of the country indicate a real risk of the opposite effect.
