Tackling desertification in Brazil

By Alexandre Pires
Director of Combating Desertification at the Ministry of the Environment

Since 1997, Brazil has been a signatory to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD). The UNCCD is one of the three conventions that resulted from Rio 92, the other two being the Biodiversity Convention (CBD) and the Climate Change Convention (UNFCCC).

In 2003, under the leadership of Minister Marina Silva, in President Lula’s first government, work began on the National Action Plan to Combat Desertification and Mitigate the Effects of Drought (PAN Brasil), published in 2004. By 2015 the agenda had progressed: the Semi-arid states had created their state plans and laws creating state policies; in 2008 the National Commission to Combat Desertification (CNCD) was created; and in 2015 Law 13.153 was published, creating the National Policy to Combat Desertification and Mitigate the Effects of Drought (PNCD).

But the setbacks began in 2016 and were deepened during the Bolsonaro administration. The desertification agenda was completely interrupted, the Commission ceased to function, the relationship with the states was not maintained and Brazil became isolated internationally.

In 2023, with the start of the third Lula administration, and under the command of Minister Marina Silva, in the now Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change, the agenda was taken up again with great force. One of the main aspects was the creation of the Department for Combating Desertification and Mitigating the Effects of Drought. Even with financial fragility and a reduced team, one of the department’s many measures was the decision, after 20 years, to draw up the second Brazilian Action Plan to Combat Desertification (PAB Brasil).

In collaboration with a group of Semi-Arid research organizations, such as the Federal Rural University of Pernambuco (UFRPE), the Joaquim Nabuco Foundation (FUNDAJ), the National Semi-Arid Institute (INSA) and the Federal University of Campina Grande (UFCG), the MMA launched a listening process involving the productive sector, state and municipal governments, civil society organizations and representatives of traditional communities and peoples, and held 15 seminars, attended by just over 1,200 people.

An effort to recognize the progress made since the first plan, update the context in the face of the worsening climate emergency and propose concrete actions to guide the federal government’s actions over the next 20 years to combat desertification.

Hundreds of actions and short-, medium- and long-term goals were proposed at the seminars. A preliminary version of the Plan also underwent public consultation on the Participa Mais Brasil platform, where it received around 59 suggestions.

The MMA is now responsible for agreeing the PAB Brasil targets with other ministries and federal government bodies and submitting them to the National Commission to Combat Desertification (CNCD), which was recreated by presidential decree in 2024 and reinstalled in April 2025.

The PAB is structured around 5 axes, actions, goals, responsible parties and co-responsible parties or partners. Issues such as land regularization and agrarian reform, restoration of the Caatinga, an approach centered on coexistence with the Semiarid and agroecology, and the recognition of the knowledge of the traditional peoples and communities of the Semiarid, are highlights of the PAB Brazil for the coming years.

The Plan is an instrument that should guide policies for the Semi-Arid territory and this will be a great effort and legacy that we will leave to Brazilian society. Some of the challenges for implementing the Plan are Brazil’s political stability, in the sense of maintaining a government committed to the agenda and, on the other hand, a process of periodic monitoring and review.