Amazon rainforest: Proposed law threatens to cripple preservation efforts

Driven by powerful agribusiness interests, a bill is moving through the Brazilian Congress that could cripple the decades-long effort to protect the Amazon rainforest.

The bill would change Brazil’s 1965 Forest Code, which requires that Amazon landowners preserve 80% of their property as forest, and allow states to set the minimum amount of forested land. Soybean farmers and ranchers, responding to high global commodity prices, are considered to hold more sway in state governments.

The legislation would also lift the Forest Code’s strict limits on logging near waterways and on mountain slopes. It would grant amnesty for illegal deforestation that occurred in protected areas before July 2008 — allowing vast swaths of the rainforest to be cleared and farmed. That, according to 10 former Brazilian environment ministers who oppose the legislation, would  open the door to more illegal logging.

The bill passed the Chamber of Deputies last week. A struggle is expected in the Senate, but, according to Mongabay.com, a website that tracks forest issues, it is likely to pass. Dilma Rousseff,  Brazil’s newly elected president, has said she opposes amnesty for illegal logging and has the power to veto parts of the measure.

The Amazon rainforest stores massive amounts of carbon, which, if released, would make a major contribution to changing the global climate. According to a 2010 World Bank study, a 20% reduction in forest cover, combined with droughts, fires and climate change, could cause a dramatic dieback of the Amazon, converting large areas to savannah.

Tropical forest scientist Thomas Lovejoy, who chaired the bank’s scientific panel, said the study “indicates a tipping point in the South and Southeast Amazon of 20% -- it is currently at 18%. What is needed is reforestation to lower risk of dieback, rather than promoting more deforestation."

Lovejoy, who has led research projects in Brazilian forests for four decades, said the new legislation “is driven by short-term interests and ignores the rainfall benefits provided by the Amazon for agro-industry and hydropower.”

Brazilian farm groups have praised the legislation, saying it would lead to increased exports and boost the nation's economy.  Aldo Rebelo, the bill’s chief sponsor and a leader of Brazil’s communist party, has cast it as a boon to small, poverty stricken landowners. “If some of these international institutions could, they would remove our people from here because there are many things that interest them, a lot of water, land and minerals,” he said in a recent speech attacking foreign enviornmental groups.

The growth in the international appetite for meat, along with the vagaries of weather on crop yields, is driving high commodity prices. To counter those incentives for logging, diplomats have been working on the details of a plan to offer financial rewards for forest preservation. The program, known as Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) is part of the United Nations' global climate talks, but negotiators failed to reach a final agreement in Cancun last December.

California officials adopted a carbon trading program in December that would eventually allow the state's industries to offset part of their greenhouse gas emissions by purchasing credits generated by forest preservation in Brazil and other nations.

“Brazil has been a leader in international efforts to protect rainforests and slow climate change,” said Steve Cochran, an official with the Environmental Defense Fund, which has been active in the Amazon region. “But its vote to throw open hundreds of thousands of currently protected acres to deforestation threatens to undermine its position on the world stage."

Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon, tracked closely by Brazil's National Space Research Agency (INPE), dropped dramatically in recent years. From 2006 to 2010, it was two-thirds below the annual average from 1996 to 2005. But in March and April, it spiked 470% compared with the same period last year, which experts link to an expected relaxation of the Forest Code.

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-- Margot Roosevelt

Photos, from top: Slash-and-burn agriculture and charcoal-production, as in this land outside Manaus, has destroyed as much as 18% of Brazil's Amazon rainforest; an Amazon villager harvests Brazil nuts as part of a program to increase income, and incentives for forest preservation. Credits: Brian Vander Brug / Los Angeles Times

Comments

[clx]

Yes, the carbon program... Simply search for "carbon program europe theft" on the Internet and find out how that has been going.

Why is the most money made with abstractions (intangible assets)? The carbon-emission limitations would have been so simple and so not-necessarily-lucrative. Now, they too will join the other abstractions.

Take a photo of the rain forests and the animals, measurements of the air quality and seal this information safely for our children to see. It'll all be history soon enough.

Furthermore, doesn't everyone know what happens after two years of crops or cattle on what used to be a rainforest? Brazil will be host to the next Sahara Desert (minus any possible the oil reserves under the ex-rainforest). Are we/they mad?

[gadea]

on top of the Cree prophecy, there is one in France wich say: when the last bee will die, soon is coming the end of man

[sacto43]

Earth activist are the original property rights activist! The earth is all our responsibility to take care off, not just for a few to profit from. Grade school kids know this.

[Linda Lorden]

China and Brazil made a trade agreement , they bought up all kinds of land in Brazil for soybean production. Money talks and the Amazon has no big money backers

[Wyinson]

Only after the last tree has been cut down.
Only after the last river has been poisoned.
Only after the last fish has been caught.
Only then will you find that money cannot be eaten.
—Cree Indian Prophecy

[Linda Lorden]

Thank China and short sighted Brazilians for that move. I just read China wants their soybeans for pig food, not even human food..... to feed pigs. sad.

[Todd M]

I live outside Astoria Or and while I am sure Xexon does nothing that cold harm the earth, including not using over priced Apple products made in treacherous factories around the world, I am as well sure she is not polluting the airwaves with her wireless router and cell phone....:( I am just as sure that those who own, harvest and care for the forest in the US want to make sure it stays healthy and productive, if for no other reason than their own financial gain!

Maybe Xexon can spike a tree, release some animals, burn down a tree farm, protest in front of a legitimate legal business, throw paint on someones fur coat, paint graffiti on someones shop in protest and think that everything she does is right because it is in line with her ideals!

If it was as simple as everything is right because I believe this way, it would be real easy! Hitler felt that way and the wacko, left wing, progressives who are often very hypocritical would eliminate those they do not like if they could...:) They fantasize about such things as they brush their teeth in the shower under all that hot wasted water, because it feels good & justify it because taking care of self is very important...:)

T

[Joy, Sacramento]

Property rights end when what you're doing endangers the lives of your neighbors. And if you think deforestation does not endanger the lives of neighbors, go visit Joplin. It's called climate change, which is being hurried along by people who feel that they have the right to do whatever they want to land that they temporarily "own", no matter who or what it endangers.

[xexon]

I live in a coastal rainforest here in the Pacific NW. If we didn't get tough on these people, they would have cut down every single tree we have. Brazil is still a 3rd world country and money talks. There's not much we can do about that. It's no lie when they say these areas are the lungs of the earth. You couldn't live here without the oxygen they produce for your lungs. You better think about that next time you want to kill a tree.

x

[2cents]

it's called "property rights" - looks like they're better protected there than in the US