The Amazon Rainforest – Earth’s Brazilian Lung Being Burned Down For Profit

Tropical rainforests are the lungs of the planet. Photosynthesis makes them massive carbon absorbers, regulating global climate. These rainforests generate most of the world’s rainfall and form a cooling band around the equator, acting as the Earth’s thermostat.

Amazon deforestation through burning. Photo courtesy Chris Neill/Marine Biological Laboratory.Cutting down forests causes two major problems - removing the planet’s natural carbon absorber, and adding more carbon into the atmosphere because many trees are cleared by burning. Too much carbon dioxide heats up the atmosphere, which then causes erratic global weather patterns.

Today in Brazil it’s still a lot cheaper to clearcut into the virgin Amazon rainforest to open up new pastures for grazing cattle than it is to rehabilitate existing pastures, says a new report from Brighter Green, a public policy action group.

“The most severe deforestation is occurring in South America, particularly in the Brazilian Amazon,” says a United Nations report. The information comes through the use of over 200 satellite images, maps, and graphs that highlight the most pervasive environmental issues in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Brazil is dealing with the conflicting goals of conserving its rainforest and continuing to be an export leader in agricultural commodities – most extensively beef and soybean.

Nearly 100 countries import fresh and frozen beef from Brazil, including Russia, Iran, China, (through Hong Kong), Egypt, Algeria, Lebanon, and Venezuela. In 2009, these exports were valued at $6.3 billion. Brazil’s cattle population - numbering about 190 million - is the world’s second largest behind India.

Brazilian cattle in the Amazon. Photo courtesy of Rachel Kramer/National Wildlife Federation.

Brazil has also become world’s second largest soy exporter, and its land area planted with soy beans keeps growing (up seven percent in 2010 from the prior year). In 2009, trade in soybean meal and soybean oil earned Brazil $17 billion, nearly a five-fold increase from a decade earlier, according to Brighter Green.

“A major reason why Brazilian agricultural producers keep moving further into both the Amazon forest and the Cerrado (the Brazilian savannah) is that it’s cheaper and easier to clear virgin land, [that’s] often owned by the government, than to reclaim land that has already been used for agriculture,” says Brighter Green.

The soil in older cattle pastures erodes quickly and is rapidly overtaken by vegetation. For small and medium size producers, rehabilitating these pastures requires skills they don’t have or can’t afford, and there aren’t government subsidies or technical assistance programs to help them do this. Large producers also cut into the rainforest for comparable reasons – it costs less and is faster to burn new land than rehabilitate older used land.

In Brazil, cattle and soy production have magnified each other’s ecological impact, and spurred additional clearing of land. A common pattern is that a cattle rancher clears land and puts one or two cows on each hectare, which helps establish his ownership of the property. He then sells the parcel (called a posse) to a soybean producer.

Whoever burns the forest can get a double benefit: the use of the land itself, plus money from the sale of the cleared trees. Another factor magnifying the rate of destruction is that the Brazilian government has granted easy access to credit to producers of export commodities traded in U.S. dollars, so those wanting to plant soybeans often have the means to purchase land from the ranchers.

The Brazilian soy industry’s ecological impact is most visibly seen by viewing the destruction of the Cerrado, which is the world’s most biologically diverse savannah - containing grasslands, woodlands, and riverine ecosystems.

The Cerrado savannah is cleared through burning. Photo courtesy of Joel Sartore.

Every year, about 6,000 square miles of the Cerrado is destroyed according to a joint study by the University of Brasilia and Friends of the Earth – Amazonia. The Cerrado supports 15,000 species of plants, 700 species of birds, and 200 species of mammals, including the jaguar and the maned wolf.  Brazilians also call the Cerrado region the ‘birth of all waters’ since nearly 80 percent of the country’s rivers originate there.  

Another major issue of concern continues to be climate change resulting from the deforestation of the Amazon. As trees are burned to make way for pastures and crops, not only is more carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere, but the carbon absorbing ability of the forest and soil is also decreases.

The destruction of the Amazon rainforest changes weather patterns (as previously mentioned), which results in less rain and makes the forest more susceptible to fires that further damage the ecosystem and release more carbon dioxide.

In 2005, the Amazon experienced a severe drought that led to extensive forest fires in its southwest region. When the rains returned in early 2006, the parched ecosystem could not absorb all the water, resulting in serious flooding.

A study done by the Woods Hole Research Center later in 2006 predicted that the Amazon ecosystem could not withstand more than two successive years of drought without severe consequences, including the long-term risk of transforming into a near desert.

Brighter Green is currently making recommendations to both the Brazilian government and private companies for curbing the destruction of the Amazon and Cerrado.

 Brighter Green is prompting the Brazilian government to alter existing incentives so that burning new forest or vegetation is no longer as cost-effective as reusing and restoring already cleared land. Among the ideas are to create new training programs and offer technical assistance in land management and conservation.

Another idea is for the government to make conservation and the reduction of greenhouse gases more profitable than deforestation. There is discussion of creating incentives for reforestation and creating carbon credits. Simply put –getting paid by international investors because you have a lower carbon output. They pay you because they are generating too much carbon and they need to buy credits from you to offset their allowable carbon output in their own countries.

Greenpeace has also been working to curb destruction in the Amazon and Cerrado, both by working with the Brazilian cattle and soy industries, and creating more awareness among American retailers.      

Last year, Adidas, Timberland, and Nike announced a policy agreement with Greenpeace that would help ensure that the leather they use is not contributing to new deforestation of the Amazon or global warming. Also, McDonalds agreed to stop selling chicken raised on soy from newly deforested areas of the Amazon.

Reader comments and input are always welcomed!

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