The End of Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon? (deforestation down 64% since 2005!)

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://www.whrc.org/pressroom/press_releases/PR-2009-12-3-Amazon.htm

The End of Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon?

December 4, 2009

A new article in the December 4 issue of Science addresses how the combined efforts of government commitments and market transition could save forest and reduce carbon emissions in Brazil. The Policy Forum brief, entitled “The End of Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon” was authored by contributors from the Woods Hole Research Center, Instituto de Pesquisa Ambiental da Amazonia (IPAM), Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Aliança da Terra, Environmental Defense Fund, University of Florida, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, and the Universidade Federal do Pará.

According to Daniel Nepstad, a senior scientist at the Woods Hole Research Center and the study’s lead author, “market forces and Brazil’s political will are converging in an unprecedented opportunity to end deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon with 80 percent of the forest still standing.”

Brazil has lowered deforestation rates 64 percent since 2005. This remarkable achievement was possible through a government crack-down on illegal activities in the region. It was helped by a retraction of the cattle and soybean industries, and a growing effort to exclude deforesters from the beef and soy markets. The article describes how Brazil could build upon this progress to end forest clearing by the year 2020, and the additional funding that will be required to reach this goal.

The study estimates that $6.5 to $18 billion will be needed from 2010 to 2020 to achieve the end of deforestation, resulting in a 2 to 5 percent reduction in global carbon dioxide emissions. The steps include the support of low-deforestation livelihoods for forest peoples and smallholders; identifying and rewarding responsible cattle ranchers and farmers; improved enforcement of environmental laws; and investments in protected area management. This estimate utilizes a sophisticated economic model of the Amazon region that estimates and maps the value of forgone profits from ranching and soy farming that are associated with forest conservation.

Britaldo Soares-Filho of the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, the article’s second author, describes, “Our economic models integrate the best available information on soils, roads, and the costs of production to capture the economic logic of the Amazon’s drivers of deforestation.”

Brazil has emerged as one of the most progressive nations in the world in assuming commitments to lower greenhouse gas emissions within the United Nations climate negotiations. In December of 2008, this nation declared that it would cut deforestation to 20% of its historic level by 2020. Brazil’s position going into Copenhagen next week, when climate negotiations should culminate in a new climate agreement, could be even more progressive.

Paulo Moutinho, leader of IPAM’s climate change program, in Brazil, and a scientist at the WHRC, states, “Brazil was, for many years, the country that said that rich nations must lead in developing a solution to climate change. Now, Brazil is showing that leadership.”

These lessons are key, especially in light of the UN climate conference beginning on December 7, in Copenhagen, Denmark.

[Chulanowa]

1. Keep an eye on Brazil

That country is going to go places. Not to knock the US or anything, but I do think that the focus of the western hemisphere is going to move considerably south in my lifetime.

[joshcryer]

4. Let's hope they keep it trending downward, the cattle business is quite lucrative.

Brazil has been coming down hard on it, though.

[Peace Patriot]

2. Remarkable achievement by Brazil and its steelworker, former union leader president, Lula da Silva!

Now if only the U.S. would follow Lulu's lead on this and on other policies, for instance, supporting real democracy (not the fake, US-installed puppet kind) in Honduras, ending the insane and unjustified US demonization of Hugo Chavez and other leftist leaders (Lulu and Chavez meet monthly and are good friends and allies, and Lulu has said, of Chavez: "They can invent a lot of things to criticize Chavez, but not on democracy!"), and the latest US outrage--SEVEN new US military bases in Colombia, NO LIMIT on the number of US soldiers and 'contractors' who can be deployed there, unlimited diplomatic immunity for whatever US soldiers and 'contractors' do in Colombia (or on its volatile borders with oil rich Venezuela and Ecuador), and US military use of all civilian airports and other facilities in Colombia. Lulu opposes this intrusion of the US military into South America, and the secrecy with which it was negotiated--as do most of South America's other leaders.

Two other policies they should follow Lulu's lead on: 1) His and Chavez's "raise all boats" philosophy, not only with regard to their internal populations of poor people, but also in regard to the smaller, weaker countries in their neighborhoods. Lula and Chavez have variously extended help to Bolivia, Paraguay, Ecuador, Nicaragua, El Salvador and Honduras, and others. And 2) Use of their countries' resources to benefit the poor. (Lulu just negotiated a Chavez-like deal with multinationals for retaining Brazilian control of its new big oil find and using its large share of the profits to benefit the poor.

Just think if our resources had been used to benefit the poor all these decades, and not to make multi-billionaires with tyrannical notions of taking over our government and military! Just think if the "New Deal" philosophy of "raising all boats"--instead of the rich looting everybody--had held?

Ironic, that the Brazilians are saving our butts by saving the Amazon, while we do...what? Establish SEVEN new military bases in Colombia? What FOR? To convince Colombia's rich, fascist, narco-thug elite to share the wealth and conserve the environment? $6 BILLION in US military aid to Colombia--a country with one of the worst human rights records on earth. What FOR? Hm? To save the rainforest? To give peasant farmers (the best farmers) some land to grow food on? To be a good influence for peace and social justice in South America?

Not.

I remember candidate Obama's speech to anti-Castro mafia in Miami in May 2008. He said that Latin America "needs U.S. leadership." Well, I would say that the new leftist governments of Latin America--in Brazil, Venezuela, Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, Ecuador, Uruguay, Paraguay, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Guatemala, and--until the US overthrew it--Honduras--is quite sufficient to provide the leadership that Latin Americans want and need, if good leadership means attending first of all to the needs of your people and not to the bloody-minded greed of the super-rich and their war profiteers. But I can't really say the same about the U.S. We are ones who seem to need leadership.

[joshcryer]

3. Just for perspective, that's still around 12,000 km^2 / y.

Yeah, it was that bad. :/ (At one point they were nearing 30,000 km^2.

http://www.mongabay.com/brazil.html

[Odin2005]

5. Yay, Brazil!

[bhikkhu]

6. That's very good news

I wonder what the re-forestation rate is?

In any case, good to hear, especially after reading this awful news from the other side of the planet:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8376206.stm

[joshcryer]

7. I am not aware of any re-forrestation efforts, unfortunately.

It can only shrink, they just slowed the shrinking down.

[bhikkhu]

8. I'm thinking of re-forestation like Maine, for example

which was pretty extensively logged and farmed in colonial times, then in many areas "abandoned" and left to go back to forest. I don't know if conditions are the same in the Amazon, where the forest could regenerate itself.

[joshcryer]

9. Ahh, well, I am not aware of stats on abandoned cattle farms going back to the Amazon.

From what I understand those cattle farms lead to desolate swaths of dead land. Could take some time for them to refertilize.

[OKIsItJustMe]

13. Washington Post: Looking ahead, Brazil's farmers take up reforestation

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/22/AR2009112201845.html

Looking ahead, Brazil's farmers take up reforestation

Demand for 'greener' products changes growers' tactics

By Juan Forero
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, November 23, 2009

LUCAS DO RIO VERDE, BRAZIL -- For nearly 20 years, Luiz Alberto Bortolini cleared trees and planted soybeans as fast as he could, one of many pioneers who turned this barren outpost into prosperous farmland.

Now, he and hundreds of other successful farmers are replanting trees as part of an ambitious initiative to reduce deforestation. Their goal -- to set aside one-third of their farms for native vegetation -- is revolutionary in a region long resistant to environmental controls.

"It had to happen, as soon as possible," said Bortolini, 50, who now has a 6,200-acre farm. "This is in the farmers' interests because the farmer is the one most dependent on the environment."

The initiative, driven by the market and by new pressure from regulators, comes as the government considers proposals to dramatically reduce the rainforest destruction that has made Brazil a leading producer of greenhouse gases. Earlier this month, Brazil said it would cut emissions by up to 38.9 percent from projected 2020 levels, a pledge designed to encourage other countries to take major steps at next month's global warming summit in Copenhagen.

…

[Altoid_Cyclist]

11. That was pretty depressing to read.

Some people still haven't learned their lesson when it comes to destruction of the environment. Every time that I see a story like that, it reminds me of Mont Ventoux and the consequences of logging in an irresponsible manner.

From Wiki:

Originally forested, Mont Ventoux was systematically stripped of trees from the 12th century onwards to serve the demands of the shipbuilders of the naval port of Toulon. Some areas have been reforested since 1860 with a variety of hardwood trees (such as holm oaks and beeches) as well as coniferous species, such as Atlas cedars and larches. A little higher, junipers are common.

Its biological distinctiveness was recognised by UNESCO in 1990 when the Réserve de Biosphère du Mont Ventoux was created, protecting an area of 810 square kilometres (200,150 acres) on and around the mountain.

It still hasn't recovered from all of the years of logging, but at least they're trying.




At least some countries have seen the light and put aside greed and profit. Any good news is better than none.

[Deja Q]

10. HUGE step in combating climate chaqnge, this is AWESOME news!!

Gloom'n'doomers can STFU and RiH. Things CAN change (for the better).

[silverweb]

12. Excellent news!

:dem: