*[Enwl-eng] Feature: China Dramatically Reshapes the BrazilianAmazon
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Mar 1, 2013, 3:49:20 PM3/1/13
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*How Beijing is shaping the Amazon*
China has now replaced the United States and Europe as Brazil's
main trading partner, giving Beijing significant influence over what
happens in the Amazon forest -- and over attempts to protect it.
Illustration Omitted:
Deforestation in the Amazon forest near Pará. China is
increasingly exerting economic influence on Brazil's land management.
Photo by Leonardo F. Freitas/flickr
Feb. 21, 2013
By Jan Rocha
Climate News Network
SAO PAULO -- When I arrived in the Amazon in the '60s, there were no
roads. The rivers were the highways, crowded with boats of all shapes
and sizes.
You travelled on what was available, be it a trading boat -- stopping at
riverside villages for fishermen to carry aboard giant pirarucu (one of
the world's largest freshwater fish, reaching up to two metres in
length) -- or a precarious canoe powered by an outboard motor, getting
soaked in sudden downpours.
Roads have facilitated the penetration of foreign companies into every
corner of the rainforest.
I slung my hammock in passenger boats and slept to the sound of the
thump-thump-thump of the engines. Or in cattle boats, kept awake by the
restless shuffle of cows on the way to the slaughterhouse. Once I got a
lift on a missionary boat that stopped at a lonely shack for a nervous
young priest to give the last rites to a dying man.
Occasionally we would be rocked in the wake of the big Booth Line
steamers chugging their way a thousand miles upriver to Manaus after
crossing the Atlantic from Liverpool.
Road building
In the '70s the military, which had taken power, decided that the vast
Amazon region must be "integrated" with the rest of the country, which
had developed along the coast, to stop foreign powers occupying it to
exploit its natural resources.
Amazon kidsThey began building roads and moving in Brazilians from other
regions to populate what they called an "empty" region, ignoring the
existing population of indigenous peoples and descendants of the tappers
who had migrated there during the turn-of-the-century rubber boom.
Roads now link the Amazon region to the rest of the country, but
ironically they have facilitated the penetration of foreign companies
into every corner of the rainforest, as well as cattle ranchers, soy
farmers, loggers and mineral companies from the more developed parts of
Brazil. Almost 20 percent of the rainforest has been destroyed since the
roads came.
The Amazon basin is now China's No.1 supplier of natural resources,
replacing its Asian neighbors as their resources have become depleted.
In a relatively short time, China has become Brazil's major trading
partner, overtaking the United States and Europe.
Voracious demand
But China's voracious demand for iron ore and timber, as well as soy and
beef, is not only fuelling deforestation but negatively influencing
Brazil's environmental protection laws, in the view of researchers.
In a 2012 paper published by three Brazilian scholars in the journal
Environment, Development and Sustainability, the authors found that "the
rapid rise in exports of soy and beef products to China are two of the
major drivers of Amazonian deforestation in Brazil."
The paper further argues that Chinese purchases of agricultural and
forest land and Chinese imports of commodities such as timber and
aluminum also cause environmental impacts in the Amazon.
Chinese financing and investment in Amazonian infrastructure such as
railways and mineral processing facilities have additional impacts. The
authors say the "direct impact of commodity exports is only the tip of
the iceberg of Chinese influence on Amazonia."
"Money earned from this trade is strengthening Brazilian agribusiness
interests, with profound effects on domestic politics that are reflected
in legislative and administrative changes, weakening environmental
protection."
One recent example: A successful attempt by the agribusiness lobby in
the Brazilian Congress to weaken the existing Forest Code, which,
although often flouted, has still played an important role in conserving
rainforest, rivers and biodiversity.
"Impacts can also be expected from Chinese financing under negotiation
for infrastructure such as a railway linking the state of Mato Grosso to
a port on the Amazon river," the authors write.
Chinese purchases
Mato Grosso, an Amazonian state twice the size of the US state of
California, is a major focus of expansion of soy, cotton and intensified
cattle production. Chinese purchases of land for agriculture and timber
imply an increasing direct role in commodity production, the study found.
Other impacts come from exports from mining and from the processing of
minerals, especially the demands for charcoal for pig-iron smelters and
for electricity from hydroelectric dams for aluminum smelters, the
scholars said.
They add that Chinese demand for aluminum, an electricity-intensive
industry, "contributes to Brazil's push for a massive increase in
building hydroelectric dams in Amazonia over the next decade."
Brazil's ten-year energy-expansion plan calls for 30 large dams to be
built in the greater Amazon basin by 2020, a rate of one dam every four
months.
The Chinese-Brazilian alumina plant will be an important beneficiary of
the Belo Monte dam, the authors note. Now under construction on the
Xingu River, its transmission lines will connect Barcarena, where the
plant is located, to the dam near Altamira, Para."
Social impacts
Belo Monte has environmental and social impacts that extend far beyond
the areas that will be directly flooded, and the dam is likely to
justify much larger upstream reservoirs to regulate the river's flow,
according to an 2006 study by Philip Fearnside of the Instituto Nacional
de Pesquisas da Amazônia in Manaus,.
He also concluded from other studies that "the dam has functioned as a
'spearhead' in creating precedents that weaken Brazil's environmental
licensing system and prepare the way for the many dams proposed under
the energy-expansion plan" and that "the influence of both Brazil and
China in expanding carbon credit for hydroelectric projects under the
Kyoto Protocol's Clean Development Mechanism has further increased the
profitability of dams."
Amazon fires"It should therefore not come as a surprise that China
exerts multiple influences on events in Brazil, often to the detriment
of the Amazon forest", concludes the 2012 paper.
It notes that Brazil's boom in agricultural commodities, which earned
$85 billion in 2011, has contributed hugely to the country's recent
economic growth and has reduced its vulnerability to external economic
crises.
Easy to clear more forest
Meanwhile a recent study produced by Imazon (Amazon Institute of People
and the Environment), a research institute based in Belem, has shown
that deforestation could be drastically reduced by increasing productivity.
Traditionally, Amazon cattle farmers have never bothered about
productivity, because it has been so easy just to clear more forest. The
Imazon study shows that future projected demand could be entirely met
without the need to cut down a single tree, if productivity was
increased from the present average of 80 kilos of beef per hectare to
300 kilos.
To help farmers learn the new techniques, Imazon suggests that an annual
investment of about $500 million would be enough to pay for technical
assistance, reference centers for each region, and model farms to
demonstrate good practice. Credit could then be linked to performance.
Imazon points out that if nothing is done to increase productivity a
further area of almost 13 million hectares will be cleared to meet
demand, leading to an annual deforestation rate three to four times
greater than the government's target of no more than 380,000 hectares a
year until 2020.
Fines never paid
Traditionally the government has relied on hefty fines for illegal
clearing. This has two big disadvantages: the deforestation is detected
only when it has already happened, and because of Brazil's complex and
lengthy judicial process, the fines are almost never paid. In addition,
the powerful farmers' lobby in Congress is adept at voting through
"amnesties" at regular intervals to pardon unpaid fines.
A more intelligent way to inhibit deforestation has been found, this
time by the Central Bank. A bank resolution, passed in 2008, compels
farmers to prove they are in compliance with environmental laws before
they can obtain credit from any official bank.
A study by the Nucleus for the Evaluation of Climate Policies of Rio de
Janeiro's Catholic University, PUC, found that, as a result, between
2008 and 2011 a total of 2,700 square kilometers was saved from
deforestation, because the farmers, deprived of capital, lacked the
funding to extend their activities. The study found the correlation
between credit and deforestation was stronger in cattle raising.
The government recently celebrated new statistics showing a reduction in
deforestation, but as these various studies show, there are many
variables involved. If China maintains or increases its demand for the
natural resources of the Amazon and for the commodities produced in
surrounding areas, the threat to the rainforest will continue.
Jan Rocha is a freelance journalist living in Brazil and a former
correspondent there for the BBC World Service and The Guardian.
http://wwwp.dailyclimate.org/tdc-newsroom/2013/02/beijing-amazon-deforestation
*** NOTICE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this
material is distributed, without profit, for research and educational
purposes only. ***
From: "Yahoo Newsgroups" <vasi...@ramapo.edu>
Sent: Sunday, February 24, 2013 1:50 PM
Subject: Feature: China Dramatically Reshapes the Brazilian Amazon
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China has now replaced the United States and Europe as Brazil's
main trading partner, giving Beijing significant influence over what
happens in the Amazon forest -- and over attempts to protect it.
Illustration Omitted:
Deforestation in the Amazon forest near Pará. China is
increasingly exerting economic influence on Brazil's land management.
Photo by Leonardo F. Freitas/flickr
Feb. 21, 2013
By Jan Rocha
Climate News Network
SAO PAULO -- When I arrived in the Amazon in the '60s, there were no
roads. The rivers were the highways, crowded with boats of all shapes
and sizes.
You travelled on what was available, be it a trading boat -- stopping at
riverside villages for fishermen to carry aboard giant pirarucu (one of
the world's largest freshwater fish, reaching up to two metres in
length) -- or a precarious canoe powered by an outboard motor, getting
soaked in sudden downpours.
Roads have facilitated the penetration of foreign companies into every
corner of the rainforest.
I slung my hammock in passenger boats and slept to the sound of the
thump-thump-thump of the engines. Or in cattle boats, kept awake by the
restless shuffle of cows on the way to the slaughterhouse. Once I got a
lift on a missionary boat that stopped at a lonely shack for a nervous
young priest to give the last rites to a dying man.
Occasionally we would be rocked in the wake of the big Booth Line
steamers chugging their way a thousand miles upriver to Manaus after
crossing the Atlantic from Liverpool.
Road building
In the '70s the military, which had taken power, decided that the vast
Amazon region must be "integrated" with the rest of the country, which
had developed along the coast, to stop foreign powers occupying it to
exploit its natural resources.
Amazon kidsThey began building roads and moving in Brazilians from other
regions to populate what they called an "empty" region, ignoring the
existing population of indigenous peoples and descendants of the tappers
who had migrated there during the turn-of-the-century rubber boom.
Roads now link the Amazon region to the rest of the country, but
ironically they have facilitated the penetration of foreign companies
into every corner of the rainforest, as well as cattle ranchers, soy
farmers, loggers and mineral companies from the more developed parts of
Brazil. Almost 20 percent of the rainforest has been destroyed since the
roads came.
The Amazon basin is now China's No.1 supplier of natural resources,
replacing its Asian neighbors as their resources have become depleted.
In a relatively short time, China has become Brazil's major trading
partner, overtaking the United States and Europe.
Voracious demand
But China's voracious demand for iron ore and timber, as well as soy and
beef, is not only fuelling deforestation but negatively influencing
Brazil's environmental protection laws, in the view of researchers.
In a 2012 paper published by three Brazilian scholars in the journal
Environment, Development and Sustainability, the authors found that "the
rapid rise in exports of soy and beef products to China are two of the
major drivers of Amazonian deforestation in Brazil."
The paper further argues that Chinese purchases of agricultural and
forest land and Chinese imports of commodities such as timber and
aluminum also cause environmental impacts in the Amazon.
Chinese financing and investment in Amazonian infrastructure such as
railways and mineral processing facilities have additional impacts. The
authors say the "direct impact of commodity exports is only the tip of
the iceberg of Chinese influence on Amazonia."
"Money earned from this trade is strengthening Brazilian agribusiness
interests, with profound effects on domestic politics that are reflected
in legislative and administrative changes, weakening environmental
protection."
One recent example: A successful attempt by the agribusiness lobby in
the Brazilian Congress to weaken the existing Forest Code, which,
although often flouted, has still played an important role in conserving
rainforest, rivers and biodiversity.
"Impacts can also be expected from Chinese financing under negotiation
for infrastructure such as a railway linking the state of Mato Grosso to
a port on the Amazon river," the authors write.
Chinese purchases
Mato Grosso, an Amazonian state twice the size of the US state of
California, is a major focus of expansion of soy, cotton and intensified
cattle production. Chinese purchases of land for agriculture and timber
imply an increasing direct role in commodity production, the study found.
Other impacts come from exports from mining and from the processing of
minerals, especially the demands for charcoal for pig-iron smelters and
for electricity from hydroelectric dams for aluminum smelters, the
scholars said.
They add that Chinese demand for aluminum, an electricity-intensive
industry, "contributes to Brazil's push for a massive increase in
building hydroelectric dams in Amazonia over the next decade."
Brazil's ten-year energy-expansion plan calls for 30 large dams to be
built in the greater Amazon basin by 2020, a rate of one dam every four
months.
The Chinese-Brazilian alumina plant will be an important beneficiary of
the Belo Monte dam, the authors note. Now under construction on the
Xingu River, its transmission lines will connect Barcarena, where the
plant is located, to the dam near Altamira, Para."
Social impacts
Belo Monte has environmental and social impacts that extend far beyond
the areas that will be directly flooded, and the dam is likely to
justify much larger upstream reservoirs to regulate the river's flow,
according to an 2006 study by Philip Fearnside of the Instituto Nacional
de Pesquisas da Amazônia in Manaus,.
He also concluded from other studies that "the dam has functioned as a
'spearhead' in creating precedents that weaken Brazil's environmental
licensing system and prepare the way for the many dams proposed under
the energy-expansion plan" and that "the influence of both Brazil and
China in expanding carbon credit for hydroelectric projects under the
Kyoto Protocol's Clean Development Mechanism has further increased the
profitability of dams."
Amazon fires"It should therefore not come as a surprise that China
exerts multiple influences on events in Brazil, often to the detriment
of the Amazon forest", concludes the 2012 paper.
It notes that Brazil's boom in agricultural commodities, which earned
$85 billion in 2011, has contributed hugely to the country's recent
economic growth and has reduced its vulnerability to external economic
crises.
Easy to clear more forest
Meanwhile a recent study produced by Imazon (Amazon Institute of People
and the Environment), a research institute based in Belem, has shown
that deforestation could be drastically reduced by increasing productivity.
Traditionally, Amazon cattle farmers have never bothered about
productivity, because it has been so easy just to clear more forest. The
Imazon study shows that future projected demand could be entirely met
without the need to cut down a single tree, if productivity was
increased from the present average of 80 kilos of beef per hectare to
300 kilos.
To help farmers learn the new techniques, Imazon suggests that an annual
investment of about $500 million would be enough to pay for technical
assistance, reference centers for each region, and model farms to
demonstrate good practice. Credit could then be linked to performance.
Imazon points out that if nothing is done to increase productivity a
further area of almost 13 million hectares will be cleared to meet
demand, leading to an annual deforestation rate three to four times
greater than the government's target of no more than 380,000 hectares a
year until 2020.
Fines never paid
Traditionally the government has relied on hefty fines for illegal
clearing. This has two big disadvantages: the deforestation is detected
only when it has already happened, and because of Brazil's complex and
lengthy judicial process, the fines are almost never paid. In addition,
the powerful farmers' lobby in Congress is adept at voting through
"amnesties" at regular intervals to pardon unpaid fines.
A more intelligent way to inhibit deforestation has been found, this
time by the Central Bank. A bank resolution, passed in 2008, compels
farmers to prove they are in compliance with environmental laws before
they can obtain credit from any official bank.
A study by the Nucleus for the Evaluation of Climate Policies of Rio de
Janeiro's Catholic University, PUC, found that, as a result, between
2008 and 2011 a total of 2,700 square kilometers was saved from
deforestation, because the farmers, deprived of capital, lacked the
funding to extend their activities. The study found the correlation
between credit and deforestation was stronger in cattle raising.
The government recently celebrated new statistics showing a reduction in
deforestation, but as these various studies show, there are many
variables involved. If China maintains or increases its demand for the
natural resources of the Amazon and for the commodities produced in
surrounding areas, the threat to the rainforest will continue.
Jan Rocha is a freelance journalist living in Brazil and a former
correspondent there for the BBC World Service and The Guardian.
http://wwwp.dailyclimate.org/tdc-newsroom/2013/02/beijing-amazon-deforestation
*** NOTICE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this
material is distributed, without profit, for research and educational
purposes only. ***
From: "Yahoo Newsgroups" <vasi...@ramapo.edu>
Sent: Sunday, February 24, 2013 1:50 PM
Subject: Feature: China Dramatically Reshapes the Brazilian Amazon
------------- * ENWL * ------------
Ecological North West Line * St. Petersburg, Russia
Independent Environmental Net Service: http://www.bellona.ru/enwl/
Russian: ENWL(discussions), ENWL-inf(FSU information), ENWL-misc(any topics)
English: ENWL-eng (world information)
en...@lew.spb.org, enwl...@lew.spb.org, en...@lew.spb.org, en...@lew.spb.org
Subscription, Moderator: vf...@lew.spb.org or en...@enw.net.ru
Archive: http://enwl.bellona.ru/pipermail/
and http://groups.google.com/group/enwl/
SEE ALSO: http://www.bellona.org (English)and http://www.bellona.ru
(Russian)
RSS: http://groups.google.ru/group/enwl/feeds?hl=ru
(C) Please refer to exclusive articles of ENWL
-------------------------------------
ONLY if your address is subscribed:
Enwl-eng mailing list
Enwl...@enwl.bellona.ru
http://enwl.bellona.ru/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/enwl-eng
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