BRASILIA - BRAZIL will pay small farmers to plant trees in deforested Amazon areas to slow rain forest degradation, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said on Friday as he unveiled a broad plan to protect the region.

The effort may help stave off growing international pressure on Brazil to reduce deforestation that scientists say spurs global warming, providing alternative livelihoods to poor Amazon dwellers who live off timber exploitation.

CONTROVERSIAL LAW Mr Lula's government is focused largely on a proposed law to regularize Amazon land ownership that he calls a 'small revolution' but that environmentalist and conservation groups charge will generate a new wave of land-grabbing. The controversial bill would give 1.2 million people and numerous companies titles to a huge chunk of the sensitive environment to bring order to decades of chaotic land use and make policies easier to implement. ... more

'We need to think about how to make those people feel that they will make more money by planting trees than by cutting them down,' Mr Lula said in an interview after a ceremony to inaugurate the 'Green Arch' program to protect the Amazon.

'The small (agricultural) producers that plant trees in areas that were degraded, we're going to pay them $51 per month.' He did not offer further details on the program.

The proposal appears similar to schemes proposed by global conservation groups that Brazil has largely resisted that would pay rain forest residents to prevent deforestation that causes 20 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions.

Known as Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation, or REDD, such projects allow wealthy nations to reduce the cost of emissions reduction by paying to keep forests standing in poorer nations.

Mr Lula, who has been criticized by environmentalists for putting development ahead of conservation, said Amazon residents had to change their old habits of deforestation due to mounting pressure from international markets.

The Green Arch initiative launched on Friday boosts coordination between government agencies to prevent illegal logging and trains some 300 officials to prevent land-grabbing in municipalities with the highest levels of deforestation.

The effort follows growing awareness within Brazil about the problem. Top retail groups last week banned the purchase of beef coming from deforested areas after a report showed the beef industry was the largest driver of Amazon deforestation.

Brazil last year presented a plan to slash Amazon deforestation in half over 10 years and thereby avoid the release of 4.8 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere - an about-face after years of opposing setting targets. -- REUTERS