Deforestation in Brazil

A satellite image of the Amazon rainforest. Areas of forest removal can be seen clearly

Brazil once had the highest deforestation rate in the world and as of 2005 still has the largest area of forest removed annually . Since 1970, over 600,000 square kilometers (232,000 square miles) of Amazon rainforest have been destroyed by logging.

By the end of the 1980s the problem had become such a global issue not only with loss of the biodiversity and ecological disruption caused by removal of the forests but due to heavy emissions carbon dioxide released from its burning in the forest in Brazil and the loss of a valuable sink to absorb global CO2 emissions. At the 1992 UN Framework Convention on Climate Change deforestation in Brazil became a major concern at the Summit in Rio de Janeiro where in collaboration with various environmental groups working in the region to give the Brazilian government an incentive to reduce forest removal and curb the rate of deforestation.

By 2005 forest removal had fallen to 9,000 sq km (3,475 sq miles) of forest compared to 18,000 sq km (6,950 sq miles) in 2003 and on July 5 2007 Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, announced at the International Conference on Biofuels in Brussels that more than 20 million hectares of conservation units to protect the forest and more efficient fuel production have allowed the rate of deforestation to fall by 52% in the last three years alone since 2004. However, despite reductions in the rate of deforestation the forest continues to be removed extensively and between May 2000 and August 2006, Brazil lost nearly 150,000 square kilometers of forest, an area larger than Greece.

History of deforestation in the Amazon

In the 1940s Brazil began a program of national development for the Amazon Basin. President Getúlio Vargas once declared emphatically that:

The Amazon, under the impact of our will and labor, shall cease to be a simple chapter in the history of the world, and made equivalent to other great rivers, shall become a chapter in the history of human civilization. Everything which has up to now been done in Amazonas, whether in agriculture or extractive industry... must be transformed into rational exploitation .

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Getúlio Vargas aimed to transform the Amazonas

Vargas established of many government programs to begin developing his vision, including the Superintendency for the Economic Valorization of Amazonia (SPVEA) in 1953, the Superintendency for the Development of Amazonia (SUDAM) in 1966, and the National Institute for Colonization and Agrarian Reform (INCRA) in the 1971. It is in the 1960s where deforestation in the Brazil Amazon became more widespread, chiefly from the removal of forest to make way for cattle ranching to raise national revenue during a period of high world beef prices, to eliminate hunger and to pay off international debt obligations . Extensive transportation projects, such as the Trans-Amazon Highway, were promoted in 1970 meaning that huge areas of forest would be removed for commercial purposes.

Before the 1960’s, due to the restrictions in access to the Amazon aside from partial clearing along the river banks much of the forest remained intact, the poor soil also made plantation based agriculture unprofitable. The key point in deforestation of the Amazon was when the colonists established farms within the forest during the 1960s. Their farming system was based on crop cultivation and the slash and burn method. The colonists were unable to successfully manage their fields and the crops due to the loss of soil fertility and weed invasion. The soils in the Amazon are productive for just a short period of time, and the farmers are therefore constantly moving and clearing more and more land.

Large areas of forest are removed to make way for plantations and cattle ranches

Amazonian colonization was ruled by cattle raising because ranching required little labor, generated decent profits, awarded social status in the community and grass can grow in the poor amazon soil. However the results of the farming lead to extensive deforestation and caused extensive environmental damage. An estimated 30% of the deforestation is due to small farmers and the intensity within the area that they inhabit is greater than the area occupied by the medium and large ranchers who possess 89% of the Legal Amazon’s private land. This emphasizes the importance of using previously cleared land for agricultural use, rather the typical easiest political path of distributing still-forested areas. In the Brazilian Amazon, the amount of small farmers versus large landholders changes frequently with economic and demographic pressures.

Causes of deforestation in the Amazon

Cattle ranching and infrastructure

The annual rate of deforestation in the Amazon region has continued to increase from 1990 to 2003 because of factors at local, national, and international levels. 70% of formerly forested land in the Amazon, and 91% of land deforested since 1970, is used for livestock pasture. The Brazilian government initially attributed 38% of all forest loss between 1966 and 1975 to large-scale cattle ranching. According to the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), "between 1990 and 2001 the percentage of Europe's processed meat imports that came from Brazil rose from 40 to 74 percent" and by 2003 "for the first time ever, the growth in Brazilian cattle production, 80 percent of which was in the Amazon was largely export driven."

The removal of forest to make way for cattle ranching was the leading cause of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon from the mid 1960s. In addition to Vargas's earlier aim for commercial development in the country, the devaluation of the Brazilian real against the dollar had the result of doubling the price of beef in reals and gave ranchers a widespread incentive to increase the size of their cattle ranches and areas under pasture for mass beef production, resulting in large areas of forest removal. rainforest. Access to clear the forest was facilitated by the land tenure policy in Brazil that meant developers could proceed without restraint and install new cattle ranches which in turn functioned as a qualification for land ownership .

Deforestation in Brazil

The removal of the Amazon forest for cattle farming in Brazil was also seen by developers as an economic investment during periods of high inflation where the appreciation of cattle prices providing a way of outpacing the interest rate earned on money left in the bank. Brazilian beef more competitive on the world market at a time when extensive improvements in the road network in the Amazonas in the early 1970s through the Trans Amazonian highway and subsequent other new roads gave potential developers access to vast areas of previously inaccessible parts of the forest. This coincided with the reduction of transportation costs through cheaper fuels such as ethanol which lowered the costs of shipping the beef from denser areas of the forest giving ranchers an incentive to maximise profits.

In the 1970s, Brazil planned a massive development in its transportation infrastructure with a 2,000-mile highway that would completely pass through the Amazon forest, which had the effect of increasing the vulnerability of poor farmers by colonizers using the new infrastructure to seek out new areas for commercial development. Studies by the Environmental Defense Fund have revealed areas affected by the road network were eight times more likely to be deforested by cultivators than untouched lands and that the roads allowed developers to increasingly exploit the forest reserves not only for pastural production but to export the reserves of wood and use it as fuel and for building. Developers were often given a six month salary and substantial agricultural loans to remove the forest alongside the roads in 250-acre lots into new cattle ranches for production. The Brazilan government granted land to approximately 150,000 families in the Amazon between 1995 and 1998. Poor farmers were also encouraged by the government through programmes such as the National Institute for Colonization and Agrian Reform in Brazil (INCRA) to exploit the unclaimed forest land and after a five year period were given the rights to ownership and rights to sell it, giving them a clear purpose to use reform the land for financial gain. The problem is worsened by the short-term productivity of the soils following forest removal for arable farmers and after only a year or two the fields became infertile and the farmers are forced to exploit new areas of forest to maintain income. In 1995 nearly half, 48% of deforestation in Brazil was attibuted to the poorer farmers removing lots under 125 acres (50 hectares) in size.

Hydroelectric dams and mining activities

Hydroelectric dam projects in the Amazon have also been responsible for flooding significant areas of the forest. In particular the Balbina dam flooded approximately 2,400 km² (920 square miles) of rainforest on completion and its reservoir itself has been responsible for contributing to global warming by emitting 23,750,000 tons of carbon dioxide and 140,000 tons of methane in only its first three years of operation. Mining has also impacted on deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon particularly since the 1980s with miners often clearing forest to open the mines, often also using them for building material, collecting wood for fuel and subsistence agriculture.

Soybean production

In addition, Brazil is currently the second-largest global producer of soybeans after the United States, mostly for livestock feed, and as prices for soybeans rise, the soy farmers are pushing northwards into forested areas of the Amazon. As stated in Brazilian legislation, clearing land for crops or fields is considered an ‘effective use’ of land and is the beginning towards land ownership. Cleared property is also valued 5–10 times more than forested land and for that reason valuable to the owner whose ultimate objective is resale. As stated by Michael Williams,“The people of Brazil have always thought of the Amazon as a communal possession which they felt free to hack, burn, and abandon at will.” The soy industry is the principal source of foreign currency for Brazil; therefore, the needs of soy farmers have been used to validate many of the controversial transportation projects that are currently developing in the Amazon. The first two highways: the Belém-Brasília (1958) and the Cuiaba-Porto Velho (1968) were the only federal highways in the Legal Amazon to be paved and passable year-round before the late 1990’s. These two highways are said to be “at the heart of the ‘arc of deforestation’,” which at present is the focal point area of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon. The Belém-Brasilia highway attracted nearly two million settlers in the first twenty years. The success of the Belém-Brasilia highway in opening up the forest was re-enacted as paved roads continued to be developed unleashing the irrepressible spread of settlement. The completions of the roads were followed by a wave of resettlement and the settlers had a significant effect on the forest.

Scientists using NASA satellite data have found that clearing for mechanized cropland has recently become a significant force in Brazilian Amazon deforestation. This change in land use may alter the region's climate and the land's ability to absorb carbon dioxide. Researchers found that in 2003, the peak year of deforestation, more than 20 percent of the Mato Grosso state’s forests were converted to cropland. This finding suggests that the recent cropland expansion in the region is contributing to further deforestation. In 2005, soybean prices fell by more than 25 percent and some areas of Mato Grosso showed a decrease in large deforestation events, although the central agricultural zone continued to clear forests. But, deforestation rates could return to the high levels seen in 2003 as soybean and other crop prices begin to rebound in international markets. Brazil has become a leading worldwide producer of grains including soybean, accounting for more than one-third of the country's gross national product. This new driver of forest loss suggests that the rise and fall of prices for other crops, beef and timber may also have a significant impact on future land use in the region, according to the study.[1]

Measured rates of deforestation in the Amazon

The zig-zag patterns across the road resulting from deforestation in Brazil can be seen from space

Cleared land

In 1996, the Amazon was reported to have shown a 34% increase in deforestation since 1992. The mean annual deforestation rate from 2000 to 2005 (22,392 km² per year) was 18% higher than in the previous five years (19,018 km² per year) . In Brazil, the Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais (INPE, or National Institute of Space Research) produces deforestation figures annually. Their deforestation estimates are derived from 100 to 220 images taken during the dry season in the Amazon by the Landsat satellite, also may only consider the loss of the Amazon rainforest biome – not the loss of natural fields or savannah within the rainforest. According to INPE, the original Amazon rainforest biome in Brazil of 4,100,000 km² was reduced to 3,403,000 km² by 2005 – representing a loss of 17.1% .

Period	Estimated Remaining Forest Cover in the Brazilian Amazon (sq. km)	Annual forest loss (sq. km)	Percent of 1970 cover remaining	Total forest loss since 1970 (sq. km)
pre-1970	4,100,000
1977	3,955,870	21,130	96.50%	144,130
1978-1987	3,744,570	21,130	91.30%	355,430
1988	3,723,520	21,050	90.80%	376,480
1989	3,705,750	17,770	90.40%	394,250
1990	3,692,020	13,730	90.00%	407,980
1991	3,680,990	11,030	89.80%	419,010
1992	3,667,204	13,786	89.40%	432,796
1993	3,652,308	14,896	89.10%	447,692
1994	3,637,412	14,896	88.70%	462,588
1995	3,608,353	29,059	88.00%	491,647
1996	3,590,192	18,161	87.60%	509,808
1997	3,576,965	13,227	87.20%	523,035
1998	3,559,582	17,383	86.80%	540,418
1999	3,542,323	17,259	86.40%	557,677
2000	3,524,097	18,226	86.00%	575,903
2001	3,505,932	18,165	85.50%	594,068
2002	3,484,727	21,205	85.00%	615,273
2003	3,459,576	25,151	84.40%	640,424
2004	3,432,147	27,429	83.70%	667,853
2005	3,413,354	18,793	83.30%	686,646
2006	3,400,254	13,100	82.90%	699,746

Effects of Deforestation

One of the major concerns arising from deforestation in Brazil is the global effect it produces on climatic change. The rainforests are of vital importance in the carbon dioxide exchange process. and are second only to oceans as the most important sink on the planet to absorb increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide resulting from industry. The most recent survey on deforestation and greenhouse gas emisions reports that deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon is responsbile for as much as 10% of current greenhouse gas emissions due to the removal of forest which would have otherwise absorbed the emissions having a clear effect on global warming. The problem is made worse by the method of removing the forest where many trees are burned to the ground emitting vast amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, not only affecting air quality in areas of Brazil but affecting the carbon diovide levels globally in addition as a result. Carbon present in the trees is essential for ecosystem development and plays a key role in the regional climate in Brazil and also globally. Fallen leaves resulting from deforestation leaves behing a mass of dead plant material known as slash, which on decomposition provides a food source for invertebrates which has the indirect effect of increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide levels through respiration and microbial activity. Simultaneously the organic carbon within the soil stucture becomes depleted and the presence of carbon plays a vital role in the functioning of life in any ecosystem.

The Brazilian rainforest is one of the most biologically diverse regions of the world. Over a millions species of plants and animals are known to live in the Amazon and many millions of species are unclassified or unknown. With the rapid process of deforestation the habitats of many animals and plants that live in the rainforests are under threat and species may face extinction. The defoestation has the effect of reducing a gene pool amongst species meaning that there is less genetic variation that is needed to adapt to climate change in the future. The Brazilian Amazon is known to possess a vast resource for the treatments of medicines and scientific research into the basin has been conducted to find a cure for major global killers such as AIDS, cancer, and other terminal deseases.

A Urarina shaman in 1988. Deforestation impacts upon the livelihoods of indigenous peoples in the Brazilian rainforest

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The removal of the forest by developers affects the social and economic lives of the indigenous people who live in the forests whose families have lived their in relative isolation for many centuries. The rainforest is their home, and a fundamental source of food, shelter, fuel, nourishment and also their cultural heritage and recreation. Deforestation and removal of the forest specifically for the export of timber also removes a valuable protection of the soils in a dynamic ecosystem and the region prone to heavy rainfall has suffered with flooding of the rivers and silting on the river banks as rivers become clogged with washed away soils in sparse areas. If too much timber is cut, the soil that once had sufficient cover often gets baked and dried in the sun, becoming subject to erosion and degradation of soil fertility meaning that farmers cannot profit from the land even after removal.

The other two groups of traditional rainforest dwellers also suffered greatly from the effects of deforestation. There was widespread mercury poisoning, pollution from mine sludge, and the intensive us of herbicides to control the growth of vegetation near powerlines and roads. fish populations and agriclutural production was declining further implicated by dams. They changed fish migrating patter and flooded numerous communities. The large shallow Tucurui reservoir in Para brought plagues of misquitos. Motorized commercial fisherman came and overfished the region and deprived the local people of their main source of protein and a principle source of cash. Consequently, many flood plain cultivators left to clear parcels in remaining forests elsewhere or to join the partially employed in urban area.

Response

By the end of the 1980s the problem had become such a serious issue not only with loss of the biodiversity. ecological disruption and carbon dioxide from the mass slash and burning in the forest in Brazil but because of the loss of a valuable sink to absorb increasing carbon dioxide emissions at the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change deforestation became a key issue addressed at the Summit in Rio de Janeiro. The plans on The Compensated Reduction of greenhouse gas emissions from tropical forests (CR) was set up to give nations such as Brazil an incentive to reduce rates of deforestation and tropical degradation, something endorsed by the Coalition for Rainforest Nations, which currently represents 29 countries in the agreement.

Biosphere reserves in Brazil aim to protect areas of forest from deforestation

"We are encouraging the Brazilian government to fully endorse the Compensated Reduction proposal", Paulo Moutinho, Scientist and Coordinator of the Climate Change Program of the Amazon Institute for Environmental Research (IPAM), a NGO research institute in Brazil stated . In Brazil, the cost of reducing deforestation emissions by half will be less than $5 per ton of carbon dioxide, as estimated in an unpublished study of IPAM and the Woods Hole Research Center.

On May 11 1994, two scientists, Compton Tucker and David Skole, presented the results of a NASA survey at the Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere Affairs of the United States Congress, a formal scientific assessment of deforestation in Brazil aimed at putting to rest the debate on the rate of forest removal and questions on the effectiveness at Brazilian environmental policies. Whilst undertaking a monitoring and complete assessment was very difficult due to the size of the rainforest, they concluded that satellite observations had shown a reduction in the rate of forest removal between 1992 and 1993 and World Bank estimates of 600,000 square kilometers (12%) cleared by that year was exaggerated and that the findings of the Brazilian National Space Research Institute (INPE) with an estimated 280,000 square kilometers (5%) for the same period was presented accurately.

Presient Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva

Daniel Nepstad, a Senior Scientist at the Woods Hole Research Center which focuses on tackling deforestation issues in Brazil has demonstrated that Brazil's deforestation rates have been cut nearly in half in recent years through a combination of government intervention and economic trends. Since 2004 the country has established more than 20 million hectares of parks, nature reserves, and national forests in the Amazon rainforest. These protected areas, if fully enforced, aim to prevent an estimated one billion tons of carbon from being transferred to the atmosphere through deforestation by the year 2015.

In 2005 Brazilian Environment Minister Marina da Silva announced that 9,000 sq km (3,475 sq miles) of forest was felled in the last year compared with more than 18,000 sq km (6,950 sq miles) in 2003 and 2004.

On July 5 2007 current Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, spoke at the International Conference on Biofuels in Brussels announcing that the government targets of leaning towards ethanol and biodiesel in fuel production and establishing more than 20 million hectares of conservation units to protect the forest have allowed the rate of deforestation to fall by more than 50% in the last three years alone since 2004.

These methods have also reduced the illegal appropriation of land and logging encouraging the use of land for sustainable timber harvesting.

Future of deforestation

At the current rate, in two decades the Amazon Rainforest will be reduced by 40%. The 2005-2006 year had a 41% drop in deforestation, this was the lowest figure since 1991.