The Guardian UK
Friday 25 January 2008
Space imaging gives the lie to Brazil's recent "great achievement" of halting rainforest destruction.
Rio de Janeiro - In a world of climate change and general environmental degradation, it was one ecological disaster that had apparently been averted.
After decades of steady obliteration, the tide appeared to have turned against the illegal deforestation that has disfigured the world's largest tropical rainforest. Brazil's president, Lula da Silva, went on the radio in August to trumpet the breakthrough. His environment minister, Marina Silva, hailed "a great achievement for Brazilian society".
Yesterday, however, the good news came to a halt when ministers admitted that after three years on the wane deforestation had once again risen sharply.
Government satellite images show that at least 1,280 sq miles (3,235 sq kilometers) of rainforest were lost between August and December last year, mainly because of soy planting and cattle ranching. Environment ministry officials believe the true figure could be as high as 2,700 sq miles (7,000 sq kilometers).
"Never before have we detected such a high deforestation rate at this time of year," said Gilberto Câmara, the head of the National Institute for Space Research (Inpe), which is responsible for monitoring the Amazon region. "We had never seen this before in Amazonia."
The Brazilian Amazon has been decimated by a combination of loggers, farmers and ranchers over the last 40 years. Environmentalists say as much as 20% of the rainforest has already been destroyed, mostly since the 70s. A further 40% could be lost by 2050 if that trend is not reversed, they estimate.
Yesterday, after Lula called an emergency cabinet meeting, officials announced a crackdown on loggers and farmers. João Paulo Capobianco, the executive secretary of the environment ministry, said the figures were "extremely worrying".
They show that the state with the highest level of deforestation is Mato Grosso, an agricultural frontier that produces the bulk of Brazil's soy exports.
Paulo Adario, the Amazon director of Greenpeace in Brazil, said government measures had brought some success but that "what the government does not control is the economic reality. It is the economy that controls deforestation. Each time the prices of meat and soy rise so does deforestation."
Adario said it was particularly worrying that the rise had taken place towards the end of the year, a period when traditionally less deforestation takes place because rain makes cutting or burning down trees more difficult.
Environmental campaigners first began to voice concern over a possible rise in deforestation in May last year. In September the Guardian flew over the north of Mato Grosso and the south of Para with a group of Greenpeace activists. In both regions signs of increasing deforestation were easy to spot. In Mato Grosso vast tracts of land smouldered, clearing the way for soy plantations. The landscape was littered with fallen, scorched trees scattered like matchsticks. In Para state a web of illegal dirt roads was visible, meandering through the relatively intact rainforest towards newly cleared areas.
In the Amazonian frontier town of Novo Progresso one of the region's leading farmers, Agamenon da Silva Menezes, described government plans to eradicate deforestation as "the biggest load of rubbish I have ever heard.
"It is definitely going to rise," he said.
Marina Silva, the environment minister, yesterday announced a new anti-deforestation drive focusing on 36 areas. One of these is Sao Felix do Xingu, a cattle ranching town in the state of Para, where the mayor recently banned the use of motorcycle helmets because gunmen employed by powerful ranchers had used them to disguise their identities when carrying out killings. Also on the list is Colniza, an agricultural town in Mato Grosso, which has Brazil's highest murder rate.
Silva compared the government's attempts to preserve the rainforest to a doctor trying to save a patient: "Sometimes a doctor does everything he can for the patient but there are variables," she said. "So the doctor adjusts the medication."
"The government needs to act now," said Adario. "Otherwise the measures will have an effect one year, and the next the patient's fever will return and he will end up back in hospital."
Generous US subsidies for biofuel crops are a big factor behind the sudden deforestation. Thousands of US farmers have switched from soya to maize to produce ethanol, which has increased the world soya price and encouraged Brazilian farmers to clear forests for soya farms and buy up large expanses of cattle pasture.
This has pushed ranchers further into the Amazon and made cattle food more costly, creating another incentive for forest conversion to pasture.
A report in the journal Nature warned that 40% of the Amazon could be lost by 2050 if the trends continue. Much of the soya is shipped to Europe to feed cattle.
Brazil's Army to Help Combat Amazon Destruction
By Inae Riveras
Reuters
Friday 25 January 2008
Brasilia - Brazil on Thursday unveiled measures to slow deforestation of the Amazon region including one that calls for the army to help carry out inspections.
The steps came one day after Brazilian officials said Amazon destruction had surged during the last five months of 2007. Deforestation rose from 94 square miles in August to 366 square miles in December.
"Our aim is to establish institutional mechanisms to prevent deforestation," Justice Minister Tarso Genro told reporters after an emergency meeting between Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and his ministers.
The government also put on hold any new deforestation requests in 36 municipalities in an area that accounted for half of the forest destruction last year.
Landowners in the area will have to prove they maintain preservation areas, and could face penalties like being denied official credit if they fail to meet some requirements.
Additionally, companies like trading houses, soybean crushers and meat processors that buy commodities originating from destroyed areas of the forest will be considered responsible for deforestation.
Environment Minister Marina Silva said the recent rise in commodity prices may have contributed to the stepped-up pace of deforestation.
"It's not a problem planting grains in Brazil because they can be planted in sustainable conditions. But you cannot deny that there was a rise in deforestation in the last months," Silva said.
"Something new is happening and new measures have to be taken," she added.
Agriculture Minister Reinhold Stephanes said he backed the government's actions but rejected arguments that a rise in planted areas was causing destruction of the Amazon region.
"From an agricultural point of view, there is no need to increase deforestation in order to boost soy and beef output in the country," Stephanes said.
From August to December last year, 1,250 square miles of the Amazon forest, known as "the lungs of the world" for its ability to consume greenhouse gases and produce oxygen, were destroyed, according to the government.
This figure is expected to double when higher resolution satellite images are analyzed.
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