Deforestation: The Amazon burns once again*

The restraint of the last few years is brought to an end by rising
demand for crops the land could bear

Tom Phillips in Alta Floresta
Tuesday October 16, 2007
The Guardian

Veteran Amazon pilots such as Fernando Galvao Bezerra are hard men to
shock. During 20 years in aviation Mr Bezerra, 45, has ferried
prostitutes and wildcat miners to remote, lawless goldmines. He has
taxied wealthy loggers between ranches, lost countless colleagues to
malaria and once survived when his plane plummeted out of the sky.

But as his 10-seater Cessna banked over a vast expanse of burning
rainforest in the state of Mato Grosso, the pilot, who now works for the
environmental group Greenpeace, was virtually speechless. "Holy shit,"
he blurted over the plane's PA system, as the plane swung sharply to the
right towards an image of destruction which owed more to a scene from
Apocalypse Now than the Amazon rainforest. "Just look at the size of
what this guy is burning."

It is burning season in Brazil, and across the Amazon region, where
illegal loggers, cattle ranchers and a growing number of soy producers
continue their advance into their world's largest tropical forest,
similar scenes are taking place. In August government satellites
registered 16,592 fires across Brazil, the overwhelming majority in the
Amazon.

For environmentalists the fires are one of the first indications that
deforestation is once again on the rise. Over the last two years fears
for the future of the Amazon have been tempered by news of a reduction
in deforestation. In August the Brazilian government heralded a 30% drop
in rainforest destruction - the result, it said, of a government
deforestation plan launched in March 2004. The plan outlined the
creation of conservation units and 19 anti-deforestation units in
deforestation hotspots such as Novo Progresso and Apui.

Great achievement

Marina Silva, Brazil's environment minister, claimed the drop was a
clear indication that the Action Plan for Amazon Deforestation
Prevention and Control was working. "It is a great achievement for
Brazilian society," she said.

Many, however, believe the good news is about to run out.

Already there are signs that rainforest destruction is gathering speed.
Deforestation in the states of Mato Grosso and Para is reportedly
rising, with chainsaws and forest fires levelling thousands of hectares
of pristine forest. Figures released last week by Brazil's space agency,
INPE, show that between May and July of this year there was a 200% rise
in deforestation in Mato Grosso.

Further north, in the Amazon state of Para, local ranchers and
environmental activists claim a similar process is under way. Flying
over the south-western corner of Para the tell-tale signs that logging
continues at a staggering rate are everywhere: in the illegal dirt
tracks that trail through the forest and the trucks that are dotted
along them; in the charred trees that litter the landscape; and most
strikingly in the newly deforested areas, which have turned the
landscape into a messy patchwork of dark green and dull brown.

"It [the level of deforestation] is definitely going to rise," said
Agamenon da Silva Menezes, the president of the Rural Workers Union in
the Amazon town of Novo Progresso and one of the region's most powerful
farmers.

"Lula [president of Brazil) says what he says because it is beneficial
for him. But this year they have chopped down much more. What I am
supposed to say to the guys [to stop them?]" added Mr Menezes.

Mr Menezes compared the illegal actions of the loggers to the American
invasion of Iraq. If George Bush could attack a country out of financial
interest, why could the loggers not do the same to the rainforest, he
wondered.

"If you were stood next to your house and there was a mahogany tree next
to you which would be worth R$5,000 (£1,360) if you chopped it down and
your son was there crying out with hunger what would you do?"

Activists claim that the spike in deforestation is a sign that the
government's action plan has been largely ineffective. They argue that
the recent reductions owe more to external economic factors such as the
market price of soy and beef.

With ranchers now looking to cash in on rising prices, Marcelo
Marquesini, a former inspector for Ibama (Brazilian ministry of the
environment's enforcement agency) who now works for Greenpeace, says the
outlook for the rainforest is bleak. "Brazilian society has to celebrate
the reduction of deforestation over these three years. It genuinely did
fall," said Mr Marquesini, whose organisation will next month launch a
report criticising the government's failure to control this notoriously
lawless region.

But, he added, "everything now leads us to believe that deforestation is
going to rise again".

On the frontline of the government's battle against deforestation are
men such as Decio Luiz Motta, a fresh-faced 38-year-old environmental
inspector from Rio de Janeiro who heads a six-man taskforce in the dusty
frontier town of Novo Progresso. Sitting at a rickety wooden table in
the unit's improvised HQ, Mr Motta said progress was being made,
pointing to the apprehension of 13 lorries carrying illegal wood the
previous day. "Just our being here reduces what is happening," he said.

"The infrastructure we have is much better, you have people who know how
to use satellite imagery, GPS. It used to be much more about following
your nose. The monitoring teams would see smoke coming from a certain
area and head there to check it out. Now we are much better equipped for
this work."

Yet the challenges facing such inspectors are clear. Mr Motta's team has
just three cars to police a huge and remote area of rainforest, for example.

The collusion of local residents with the loggers also made tackling
deforestation more difficult. Mr Motta claimed that after a recent
seizure of illegal wood in the nearby town of Castelo dos Sonhos the
local petrol stations began to boycott the government inspectors,
putting their vehicles temporarily out of action.

The region's loggers meanwhile are adamant that as long as the
government gives them no economically viable alternative to logging, the
deforestation will continue. "It is a farce," said Mr Menezes. "How are
you going to take an area that has been mine for 20 years and tell me it
is a conservation unit all of a sudden?"

Zero deforestation

He described the idea that a policy of "zero deforestation" could be
introduced as "the biggest load of rubbish I have ever heard". Mr
Menezes asked: "Where is he [President Lula] going to get 30,000
soldiers from to police the insides of this whole forest?"

Three thousand feet over the burning forest Paulo Adario, the Amazon
director of Greenpeace, let out a sigh of resignation. "It's like a
scene from a world war," he said gazing down at the forest, which now
more resembled the aftermath of a napalm bombing.