Brazilian Amazon Threatened by Expanded Agriculture & Illegal Logging
04/20/01
OVERVIEW & COMMENTARY by Forests.org
The Brazilian Amazon's existence is threatened as never before. Illegal logging is rampant and increasing. And a legislative threat to the Forest Code that would allow increased agricultural clearance of rainforests has resurfaced. The following articles are full of information that highlights how local Brazilian and international conservation organizations are mobilizing to confront these dual threats. In particular, the SOS Forest Campaign, a coalition of some eleven environmental groups that are mobilizing to stop the increased agricultural clearing, warrants our support and praise. In the future we will likely be responding to their appeals for international letters. In addition, Greenpeace is pursuing a very innovative approach - personally identifying and then making known specific instances of illegal logging. When we all work together, each doing our bit, there emerges real hope for the World's forests. g.b.
For more information: Brazil Rainforest Conservation News & Information, Most Recent
http://forests.org/forests/brazil.html
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ITEM #1
Title: NGOs unite to defend Brazil's forests
Source: Brazil WWF Press Release
Date: April 19, 2001
A new phase of the SOS Forest Campaign was launched yesterday to stop legislation in Brazil being weakened to allow increased clearance of forests for agricultural use.
The SOS Forest Campaign was initiated by WWF-Brazil last year. It brought together almost all Brazilian NGOs to defend a Forest Code which prevents unsustainable clearance of the forest.
The campaign led to one of the greatest mobilizations of public opinion in the country's history in the form of a e-mail petition. 100,000 members of the public sent messages to Congressmen demanding proper protection of Brazil's forests. This, along with intensive media coverage, resulted in the withdrawal of proposed legislation that would have weakened the laws safeguarding forests.
However, the issue is now due to be discussed again by the Brazilian Congress and could be voted on next month. This has led WWF and other NGOs to formally announce a coalition to defend Brazilian forests.
"There are 160.000 km2 of degraded land in the Brazilian Amazon already clear cut and abandoned, which could be used for agriculture and cattle farming. There is no need for further forest conversion for agricultural use", said Dr. Garo Batmanian, Chief Executive of WWF-Brazil. "And agricultural production in Brazil has been increasing year on year under the existing rules which have been in place for the last 5 years. This clearly demonstrates that the current Forest Code does not oppose development".
The 1965 Forest Code was designed to promote sustainable use of the forest. It stipulated that at least 20 per cent of any property area covered by forest should be kept as forest - thus allowing the owner to clear- cut up to 80 per cent of its area. In the Amazon region, 50 per cent of property in areas covered by native forest were designated as Legal Reserves. These areas are intended to protect the forest from being clear- cut while allowing sustainable forestry to continue within their boundaries. However, the lack of law enforcement frequently led to deforestation beyond these limits.
After record deforestation in 1995, when 29,000 km2 of Amazon rainforest was destroyed in a single year, the Brazilian government used a Presidential Transitory Act to strengthen the Forest Code. This raised the Legal Reserve area for the Amazon region from 50 per cent to 80 per cent of the property in an attempt to stop the devastation of the rainforest. This has succeeded in bringing the annual deforestation average down to 17,000 km2.
In the face of large landowning interests WWF and other 10 NGOs are campaigning to keep these current rules for forest use and for the Congress to approve them in the form of a permanent law.
For further information, please contact WWF-Brazil: Ulisses Lacava ulisses@wwf.org.br Regina Vasquez - regina@wwf.org.br
ITEM #2
Title: GREENPEACE EXPOSES NEW SEASON OF ILLEGAL LOGGING IN THE AMAZON
Source: Greenpeace
Date: April 17, 2001
Manaus, Brazil - Greenpeace announced that information they supplied to the Brazilian Environmental Agency (IBAMA), led officials to fine two loggers the equivalent of US$200,000 for illegal logging. After an unannounced inspection over the holiday weekend, IBAMA officials seized three rafts containing over 1,000 illegal logs (approximately 2,100 cubic metres) on the Amazon River. Two tugboats were also seized.
According to IBAMA, the softwoods in the rafts, primarily samauma and virola logs, were destined for the Manaus based, Chinese owned, plywood factory Compensa. A smaller volume of hardwood was being transported to two locally owned companies. "The result of this investigation confirms that illegal logging in the Amazon continues to be the rule, and not the exception," said Paulo Adario, Greenpeace Amazon Campaigner.
Greenpeace has undertaken an ongoing investigation to document and expose illegal cutting and transport of timber in different areas of the Amazon since the beginning of the year. The data on the origin of the logs, location of rafts, volume, species, owners and intermediaries is cross checked against official data from IBAMA. In mid-February, early in the investigation, two tugboats were spotted by the Greenpeace team on the Tapaua River, some 600 kilometres from Manaus. The team regularly monitored their collection of logs and the construction of the rafts with the aid of an airplane, GPS (Global positioning systems) and digital cameras. The information gathered was passed to IBAMA as soon as the evidence was conclusive.
The seized logs will be donated to low-income housing projects in Amazonas State.
Both Compensa and one of the loggers, Raimundo Santos, have previous records for dealing in illegal timber. Compensa was fined twice in 1999 for buying 7,232 cubic metres of illegal logs, and Santos received four fines in 1997 alone.
"The logging industry's long standing and customary practice of ignoring the law, and of ignoring the fragility of the ecosystem itself, has virtually legitimised a pattern of destruction in the Amazon," said Adario. "When this is coupled with the government's inability to enforce the law, the final result can only be the destruction, with impunity, of this last great tropical rainforest."
According to Adario, a shortage of money for salaries and equipment allows IBAMA to only capture a fraction of the illegal timber in the Amazon. One reason for this, according to data from the Institute of Socio-Economic Studies (INESC), is that of the US$32 million of federal funds allocated for forest protection in Brazil in 2000, only US$19 million was actually spent on forest protection.
Besides investigating and exposing illegal logging operations, Greenpeace is also committed to working with the industry. A recent Greenpeace proposal to Federal Prosecutor's Office in Amazonas State put forward a comprehensive plan to regulate the sector. Under the proposal, the industry would have four years to get their operations up to the standards defined by the Forest Stewardship Council(1) for logging in an environmentally, socially and economically viable manner. The plywood companies and sawmills would have 12 months to legalise their contracts with loggers and suppliers, and would be obliged to help them to comply with current legislation.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:
For more information contact: Paulo Adario, Greenpeace Amazon Campaigner +55 92 627 9001 Gina Sanchez, Greenpeace International Press Desk, +31 6270 00 064
NOTE:
1. The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) is the only international certification system to give consumers a label providing a verifiable guarantee that wood products are coming from ecologically well managed forests.
ITEM #3
Title: Greenpeace Amazon Team Catches Illegal Loggers in Brazil
Source: c Environment News Service (ENS) 2001
Date: April 18, 2001
MANAUS, Brazil, April 18, 2001 (ENS) - Acting on information supplied by Greenpeace, the Brazilian Environmental Agency (IBAMA) has seized three rafts of illegal logs on the Amazon River and two tugboats used to transport them.
After an unannounced inspection over the holiday weekend, IBAMA officials seized rafts containing over 1,000 illegal logs, approximately 2,100 cubic metres of wood.
According to IBAMA, the softwoods in the rafts, primarily samauma and virola logs, were destined for the Manaus based, Chinese owned, plywood factory Compensa. A smaller volume of hardwood was being transported to two locally owned companies.
IBAMA officials fined two loggers the equivalent of US$200,000 for illegal logging.
The Brazilian Amazon is the largest continuous region of tropical forest in the world, containing nearly 31 percent of the global total. Deforestation due to logging and clearing for agriculture increases atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) and other trace gases, possibly contributing to climate change.
Conversion of forests to cropland and pasture results in a net movement of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere because the concentration of carbon in forests is higher than that in the agricultural areas that replace them.
Although they occupy less than seven percent of the Earth's land surface, tropical forests provide homes to at least half of all plant and animal species. The primary adverse effect of tropical deforestation is massive extinction of species, according the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration which monitors the Amazon by satellite.
In May 1999, with the approval and support of the Brazilian government, Greenpeace set up a permanent base in Manaus, from which it is conducting investigations in remote areas of the Amazon to document and expose illegal cutting and transport of timber. The data on the origin of the logs, location of rafts, volume, species, owners and intermediaries is cross checked against official data from IBAMA.
"The result of this investigation confirms that illegal logging in the Amazon continues to be the rule, and not the exception," said Paulo Adario, Greenpeace Amazon campaigner.
In mid-February, early in the investigation, two tugboats were spotted by the Greenpeace team on the Tapaua River, some 600 kilometres from Manaus.
The Greenpeacers monitored their collection of logs and the construction of the rafts with the aid of an airplane, Global positioning systems equipment and digital cameras. The information gathered was passed to IBAMA as soon as the evidence was conclusive.
The seized logs will be donated to build low income housing projects in Amazonas State.
Both Compensa and one of the loggers, Raimundo Santos, have previous records for dealing in illegal timber. Compensa was fined twice in 1999 for buying illegal logs, and Santos was fined four times in 1977.
"The logging industry's long standing and customary practice of ignoring the law, and of ignoring the fragility of the ecosystem itself, has virtually legitimised a pattern of destruction in the Amazon," said Adario. "When this is coupled with the government's inability to enforce the law, the final result can only be the destruction, with impunity, of this last great tropical rainforest."
Adario says a shortage of money for salaries and equipment allows IBAMA to capture but a fraction of the illegal timber cut in the Amazon.
Data from the Institute of Socio-Economic Studies shows that of the US$32 million of federal funds allocated for forest protection in Brazil in 2000, only US$19 million was actually spent on forest protection.
The Brazilian Amazon takes in the states of Acre, Amap , Amazonas, Mato Grosso, Par , Rond"nia, Roraima, Tocantins and portions of Maranhao and Goi s, totaling an area of approximately five million square kilometers, about equal to the area of all Western Europe.
The latest report by the Brazilian National Institute for Space Research, issued last April after extensive satellite monitoring of forest cover, shows that the mean rate of gross deforestation across the Brazilian Amazon has slowed slightly from 17.38 percent in 1998 to 16.92 percent in 1999.
Greenpeace has proposed to the Federal Prosecutor's Office in Amazonas State that the logging sector be regulated according to forestry certification standards. Under the proposal, the industry would have four years to get their operations up to the standards defined by the Forest Stewardship Council for logging in an environmentally, socially and economically viable manner.
The plywood companies and saw mills would have 12 months to legalize their contracts with loggers and suppliers, and would be obliged to help them to comply with current Brazilian forestry legislation.