Brazil to crack down on deforestation

Marco Sibaja, Associated Press Yahoo News 25 Jan 08;

Brazil will combat rising deforestation in the Amazon by sending extra federal police and environmental agents to areas where illegal clearing of the rain forest jumped dramatically last year, officials said Thursday.

Authorities will monitor the areas in an attempt to prevent anyone from trying to plant crops or raise cattle there, Environment Minister Marina Silva said.

The new measures were announced after President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva called an emergency meeting of Cabinet ministers because new data showed an apparent reversal of a three-year slowdown in the Amazon deforestation rate.

The clearing of Brazil's Amazon rain forest jumped in the final months of 2007, spurred by high prices for corn, soy and cattle.

Agriculture Minister Reinhold Stephanes said Latin America's largest nation has plenty of available land for farming and cattle that has already been deforested. Environmentalists fear sugarcane, used here to produce ethanol, could spread through the rain forest, but most ethanol operations are in southern Brazil far from the Amazon.

"It's not necessary to cut a single tree to produce soy or raise cattle," Stephanes said. "There's plenty of land outside of the Amazon to increase the production of soy and beef."

The government says its new push to stop deforestation is different than previous efforts because farmers will now be targeted as well as loggers.

The government will target 36 areas that registered the highest rates of deforestation, environmental officials said. Officials will try to fine people or businesses who buy anything produced on illegally deforested land, the environment minister said.

The plan means a 25 percent increase in the police force assigned to the region, though Justice Minister Tarso Genro did not say how many officers will take part.

Farmers working deforested land in the targeted area will also be forced to reregister holdings with government officials to prove their holdings were not illegally cleared, and there will be no new permits for logging.

On Wednesday, the environment ministry announced that up to 2,700 square miles of rain forest was cleared from August through December.

That puts Brazil on course to lose 5,791 square miles for the year ending in August — a 34 percent increase from the previous 12-month period.

Although preliminary calculations can only prove that 1,287 square miles of rain forest were cleared from August through December, ministry executive secretary Joao Paulo Capobianco said officials are working under the assumption that the higher amount of jungle was cleared as they continue analyzing satellite data.

Environmentalists say an immediate crackdown could be well timed.

Paulo Adario, coordinator of Greenpeace's Amazon campaign, said it's important for the government to act now because slash-and-burn deforestation typically ramps up this time of year at the start of the rainy season.

Jungle is typically cleared in the Amazon to provide pasture for cattle, then soy farmers move in later and cultivate their crops. Brazil also has a booming beef export industry, and cattle ranchers have been expanding operations in the Amazon.

Associated Press Writer Alan Clendenning contributed to this report from Sao Paulo.

Brazil takes action to stop alarming deforestation of Amazon
Yana Marull Yahoo News 24 Jan 08;

Brazil announced a series of measures Thursday aimed at stopping an alarming rise in deforestation of the Amazon over the past five months.

The initiatives reinforced a number of actions unveiled a month ago and called for stepped-up police vigilance, a ban on using deforested areas, and the suspension of public funds for any group or individual found to be breaking environmental laws.

Cattle ranchers and loggers are targeted in the move, which was worked out Thursday in a cabinet meeting between President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, his ministers in charge of the environment, agriculture, justice, defense, and science, along with the country's police chief.

"What we want to do is install in the Amazon a permanent process of checks," the secretary general of the environment ministry, Joao Paulo Capobianco told reporters.

The issue has become an urgent priority for Brasilia after government figures showed the stripping of trees from the vast Amazon region -- sometimes called the "lungs of the world" for its role in producing oxygen -- had risen sharply in the last five months of 2007.

It is estimated 7,000 square kilometeres (2,700 square miles) have been devastated, with more than half of that occurring in November and December.

The total area deforestated is roughly equivalent to the area of Madrid.

Such destruction could reverse the gains Brazil has made in the past three years to slow deforestation of the Amazon.

The worst historic devastation was between August 2003 and July 2004, when 27,429 square kilometers fell to chainsaws and burning.

After that, the government tackled the problem vigorously and managed to reduce the amount of stripping to 11,224 square kilometers between August 2006 and July 2007.

Environment Minister Marina Silva on Wednesday told reporters that half the deforestation in the last five months was concentrated in the central-western state of Mato Grosso. The other problem states were Para and Rondonia.

Silva noted that "the typical activities of these states was cattle-raising and soya farming" and said: "I don't believe in coincidences."

She suggested the high prices fetched for commodities on the international market were pushing the trend.

In 2007, Brazilian soya exports grew 22 percent over the previous year, bringing in 11.4 billion dollars. Meat exports grew 31 percent and generated revenue of 11.3 billion dollars.

"The situation is alarming," agreed Paulo Adario, a Greenpeace member in charge of campaigning to save the Amazon. "Demand for soya and meat will stay high, with rises in international prices, and consumption in China and the United States," he told AFP.

The matter was all the more urgent because the dry period between May and July during which deforestation traditionally peaked was approaching.

If the government tackled the issue right away," maybe it will manage to keep deforestation under control," Adario said.