Comments on: Brazil: Land reform or deforestation boost for the Amazon?

By: Global Voices Online » Brazil: Digital mob demands the Senate President’s resignation

Sat, 11 Jul 2009 11:13:46 +0000

[...] going to be in the news headlines and debates on the blogosphere, now that they have voted for the redistribution of land in the Amazon forest (to be signed or vetoed by Lula) and they are about to investigate the national oil giant [...]

By: The Amazon is Dying « roger hollander

The Amazon is Dying « roger hollander — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 02:10:08 +0000

[...] worrying example of the widening chasm between rhetoric and reality is a new bill that has just passed through the Brazilian senate. If Lula gives his consent, it will legalise [...]

By: The Amazon is Dying « Chrisy58’s Weblog

The Amazon is Dying « Chrisy58’s Weblog — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 20:51:59 +0000

[...] worrying example of the widening chasm between rhetoric and reality is a new bill that has just passed through the Brazilian senate. If Lula gives his consent, it will legalise [...]

By: The Understory » Send an email - save the Amazon

The Understory » Send an email - save the Amazon — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 12:38:50 +0000

[...] Such a grant would be devastating for the Amazon rainforest – amounting to the legitimization of a huge land grab by agribusiness and illegal logging. [...]

By: Eduardo Rombauer

Eduardo Rombauer — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 11:15:50 +0000

Thiana,
Congratulations for your report, very necessary to bring this issue internationally. Marina Silva is the main stakeholder for the Amazon today here in Brazil. It is worth supporting her. There is a fast-growing movement of citizens working on promoting Marina Silva’s name for candidate for the presidency: http://www.marinasilvapresidente.org.

By: Lou Gold

Lou Gold — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 01:07:04 +0000

Thanks Thiana for bringing this lawlessness-into-law to global attention. I think that it’s important to understand exactly what is driving not only the illegal land-grabbing in the Amazon but also the illegal deforestation that comes with it.

It’s COWS. It’s COMMODITIES. It’s even the possibility of landowners receiving payments for protecting the forest and its ecosystem services. In brief, the land of the interior of Brazil is becoming more valuable. I recently did a short description of a bunch of the contradictory forces at http://lougold.blogspot.com/2009/06/slaughtering-amazon-in-series-of-high.html

All things considered, the most significant current driver of deforestation is the expansion of beef industry. Greenpeace’s new report SLAUGHTERING THE AMAZON found that, “The cattle industry is now the driving factor in deforestation in the Amazon, with cattle pastures now occupying land the size of Iceland. Cattle raising in Brazil is responsible for 14% of all the tropical deforestation in the world, and is their largest source of greenhouse gas emissions.”

It also found that Brazilian beef companies are important suppliers of raw materials used by leading global brands, including Adidas/Reebok, Nike, Carrefour, Eurostar, Unilever, Johnson & Johnson, Toyota, Honda, Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Prada, IKEA, Kraft, Tesco and Wal-Mart, among others.

That’s the bad news. The better news is that there’s actually something that GVO readers and our friends might do.

A few years ago a campaign targeting large agricultural corporations actually caused the major soya producers to declare a moratorium on planting in any land that had been deforested illegally.

Now, something similar can be done. Tell Nike, Timberland, Adidas, Reebok, Clark’s, and Geox that you don’t want your shoes contributing to global climate change by increasing deforestation in the Amazon. (According to Greenpeace, “Cattle raising in Brazil is responsible for 14% of all the tropical deforestation in the world, and is their largest source of greenhouse gas emissions.”)

I reposted a bunch of material pulled together by treehugger about the next steps that we can take at http://lougold.blogspot.com/2009/06/next-steps-according-to-treehugger.html

Thanks again for doing a round-up about this and thanks also for introducing us to the photography of Ana Cotta whose photostream is worth checking out at http://www.flickr.com/photos/ana_cotta/

By: Maureen

Maureen — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 15:42:20 +0000

This is the worst thng that could have happened. The death of the Amazon Forest is now iminent. I have lived in Brazil nearly all my life and consider this a tragedy. The meat lobby is so powerful here even the well intentioned Carlos Minke cannot hold them back. What I find ironic is that most of the meat produced in the Amazon region goes to Europe! Land grabbers must be allready heading north!!