Posted on 19 May 2011
As politicians consider rolling-back longtime
legal protections for Brazil’s forests,
new data shows a massive increase in deforestation
in part of the country.
Data published by the
National Institute for Space Studies (Inpe)
on Wednesday shows a 540% increase in deforestation
in the month of April in the state of Mato
Grosso, as compared to March.
Environment Minister
Izabella Teixeira expressed concern over
the figures, saying: “This is a very serious
fact, atypical and contradictory. In a single
month there has been more deforestation
in Mato Grosso than occurred in the whole
of last year,” she said.
The data comes as Brazil’s
lower chamber is consideration altering
the country’s Forest Law, saying it impedes
economic growth. A proposed amendment to
the law by the ‘ruralistas’, and put forward
by Federal Representative Aldo Rebelo of
the Brazilian Communist Party would make
profound alterations to the law.
Brazil’s Forest Law
(also known as the Forest Code) was first
enacted in 1934 and determines how much
a landowner can deforest and how much must
be kept as a "legal reserve".
The percentage of a forested property that
needs to be set aside as a legal reserve
varies from region to region. Currently
in the Amazon, the law states that 80% of
a property has to remain forested. For the
Cerrado, this figure is 20%.
The vote is expected
to come up again on May 24 or 25. Civil
society organisations on May 12 addressed
an open letter to the government and the
House of Representatives requesting that
a new parliamentarian be named to conduct
the amendment process in view of the partiality
and lack of equilibrium shown by Representative
Aldo Rebelo throughout the process so far.
The deforestation figures
released this week were produced by the
Inpe’s Deter system which detects large
areas of deforestation in real time and
is designed to warn the government of any
increases in deforestation.
In March, the system
detected 74.7 square kilometres of newly
deforested areas in Mato Grosso. In April
however, the figure leapt up to a startling
405.6 square kilometres.
For the Amazon region
as a whole, the figures show an increase
of 115.6 square kilometres to 477.4 square
kilometres of deforestation during that
time, of which the state of Mato Grosso
accounted for 85% of the deforestation surge.
The agribusiness connection
The increase in deforestation
is happening in the regions where Mato Grosso’s
agribusiness is expanding, and is directly
linked to the expectation that the amendment
to the Forest Law will be approved.
WWF-Brazil’s Conservation
Director Carlos Alberto de Mattos Scaramuzza
said: “The numbers reflect confidence in
the promise made by the ‘ruralista’ faction
(representing agribusiness interests) in
parliament that there will be a general
amnesty for all illegal deforestation brought
about by agribusiness,” he said.
Sharing that opinion,
Greenpeace’s public policies coordinator
Nilo d’Ávila said that the ruralistas
are placing their bets on the amnesty on
illegal deforestation being extended to
cover all deforestation up to the date when
the amended legislation comes into force.
He pointed out that: “What is symptomatic
is that the deforestation in indigenous
reserves and protected areas, which normally
accompanies the national rates, has not
increased at all.”
George Porto Ferreira
is the general coordinator for environmental
zoning and monitoring at the Brazilian Institute
for the Environment and Renewable Natural
Resources (IBAMA) and said that the significant
increases in deforestation have been registered
in the areas surrounding the municipality
of Sinop which is a big soya producing area.
“Previously unregistered areas of deforestation
have been detected. There has been expansion
from properties that are already engaged
in agriculture into the neighbouring areas,”
explained Porto Ferreira.
WWF-Brazil’s own analyses
show that, on average, the profitability
of soya is somewhere between 300 and 500
reais (US$187.50 and US$312.50) a hectare.
But at the moment that
value is up to 1,000 reais (US$ 625) a hectare,
so that it has become extraordinarily lucrative.
“That assurance of extremely high profits
associated with the expectation of generalised
impunity as a consequence of the Forest
Law amendment, has contributed immensely
to stimulating the criminal deforestation
we are witnessing in Mato Grosso today,”
Scaramuzza said.
Taking action
IBAMA also made it known
that rudimentary land-clearing techniques
like the “big-chain” approach are being
used to clear big areas in a hurry. That
technique involves a long thick, heavy chain
attached to a tractor at each end, and with
the chain stretched between them the tractors,
dozens of yards apart, advance in parallel
across the land.
“The amber warning light
is on in Mato Grosso” says the Environment
Minister, Izabella Teixeira.
More than 500 Ibama
inspectors have been sent to the state to
curb the environmental crimes in progress.
According to Izabella Teixeira, deforestation
will be vigorously combated.
Those who take part
in deforestation for livestock raising purposes
will be liable to have their cattle confiscated
and utilised for the Zero Hunger social
programmes. “Our main aim is to completely
stifle these environmental crimes,” warned
the Minister.
WWF-Brazil’s conservation
director said that the actions announced
by the Minister are important, but that
the recent cuts in the Ministry’s budget
may make it difficult to carry them out.
In March the Government
announced a cut 398 million reais (US$ 248,75
million), equivalent to 37% of the originally
budgeted amount for that Ministry for the
year 2011.
The press conference
where the deforestation figures were released
was also attended by the Minister of Science
and Technology Aloízio Mercadante,
Inpe director Gilberto Câmara, and
the President of Ibama Curt Trennepohl.
The complete set of
data on Amazonian deforestation detected
by the Deter early warning system can be
accessed at: http://www.inpe.br/noticias/noticia.php?Cod_Noticia=2545
(Portuguese only).
