A target date for Brazil to reach zero net deforestation, something climate activists have been asking for, is not expected to be a part of a U.S.-Brazilian joint climate declaration to be issued next week when President Dilma Rousseff visits Barack Obama in Washington, climate specialists say.

 

The specialists are, however, hoping the two countries will at least announce plans for a bold cooperation to tackle the main causes of deforestation in Brazil, home to the world's largest tropical forest.

 

Brazil and the United States plan to issue a joint declaration expressing both countries' commitment to the success of the United Nations Climate Change Conference to be held in Paris later this year.

 

The text should "indicate what the two countries are willing to do to ensure the summit is fruitful," Brazilian Foreign Ministry official Carlos Paranhos told journalists on Thursday, without giving further details.

 

Brazil has managed to reduce deforestation sharply in the past 10 years, but close to 5,000 square km (2,000 sq miles) of forests are lost every year.

 

Tasso Azevedo, a forestry and climate consultant in Sao Paulo, says there is no sign Rousseff will bring anything like a deforestation freeze to the meeting, but he said he believes the United States could play a role on the issue.

 

Paulo Moutinho, director of the Amazon Environmental Research Institute (IPAM), says that even if a zero deforestation target is not announced in Washington he expects it to be part of Brazil's INDCs (Intended Nationally Determined Contributions), the actions countries are expected to present at the Paris climate talks.