On Wednesday (7th), Ivo Cassol, Governor of Rondônia, defended the creation of economic incentives as a manner of encouraging the sustainable development in his state. Cassol, who attended the 3rd Amazon Symposium in the Chamber, suggested the retention by the state of a part of the ICMS (Tax on Circulation of Goods and Services) resulting from the electric power supply by future hydroelectric power plants of Jirau and Santo Antônio; the exemption from the PIS/Cofins (Social Integration Program) for the installation of a shoemaking industry in the region and, furthermore, environmental compensations for the producers that preserve the environment.

He said that these measures will allow the generation of jobs and provide citizenship to Rondônia's population, preventing the deforestation, once that population will have other ways of living. He said: "We cannot agree with solutions found in Brasília, since the reality is different there", reminding that the state has reduced the deforestation.

Like Cassol, Armando Mendes, a retired professor from Universidade Federal do Pará (UFPA) and an expert in regional planning, stated that the country must think carefully about Amazon, contemplating all characteristics of a region that is not homogeneous and has 25 millions of inhabitants. He said that the region shall not be considered as a natural space, but as the habitat of a population that must make use of the natural resources in order to survive.

Also from the point of view of Deputy Silas Câmara,(PSC-AM), Chairman of the Committee on the Amazon, National Integration and Regional Development, the concerns of this population must be contemplated in the first place, even if the region is considered strategic for the country and for the world.

Projects
At the Symposium, Armando Mendes also criticized the drawing of projects that, according to him, are developed in the Amazon region, only to benefit other states. That would be the case of the Jirau and Santo Antônio hydroelectric power stations, by which other states would be mainly benefitted, and which would give only temporary jobs to the state population.

"As the electric power sources are there, these projects are present in Amazon due merely to a geographical fate. The final purpose of these projects it is not the improvement of Amazon, but the supporting of the economic capacity growth in the country. Some direct jobs allow a minimum amount of royalties and generate a huge responsibility for the States to address health and education requirements, created by the geographic consolidation", the Professor criticized.

Due to this reason, Ivo Cassol suggested new economic incentives specifically focused on the region. In the case of the shoemaking industry, his idea would be to take advantage locally of the leather of 12 millions heads of cattle of the state, employing the local population. However, this project could be affected by the lack of incentives. "Without the generation of profits, which industry will have a facility in Amazon?”, the governor asks.

Discrimination
From the point of view of Professor Armando Mendes, Amazon and its population are discriminated by the country, especially when it is accused of being the "villain" of the global warming, due to the deforestation. "Nobody reports on the erroneous policies that devastated the Parana pine forests, in Parana. Nobody reports on the Mata Atlantica’s deforestation, that still occurs. The discrimination against Amazon is gigantic."

The theme of the 3rd Amazon Symposium is Sustainable development and climate changes and it is coordinated by the Committees on Amazon, on Environment and Sustainable Development; National Trade Confederation; and Centro de Desenvolvimento Sustentável da Universidade de Brasília (UnB).

Reporting – Noéli Nobre
Edition - Natalia Doederlein
Translation - Grupo Solucion-SP Language/Maria Carolina Ogata