Brazil to crack down on Amazon cattle invasion
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil—Destruction of the
The minister, Carlos Minc, says Brazil's government will impound cattle caught grazing on illegally cleared pastures with an operation, dubbed "Rogue Bull," to attack deforestation in the rain forest.
"The price of meat and soy has skyrocketed and there is a historic relationship between prices and deforestation," Minc said as he announced the new measures late Monday.
Officials are going after livestock because ranchers routinely find ways to avoid fines for illegal logging by felling public forests for grazing land.
After three years of decline, Amazon deforestation appears to be accelerating again as international demand for agricultural products skyrocket. Minc's announcement marked his first step to prevent deforestation since being named environment minister last month.
He replaced Marina Silva, a renowned Amazon defender who resigned May 13, citing stagnation in promoting the federal environmental agenda.
Government researchers said Monday that preliminary data indicate the Amazon lost at least 2,258 square miles (5,850 square kilometers) of forest cover from August to April 2008. That was up from 1,920 square miles (4,974 square kilometers) over the same period a year before.
The Amazon's 73 million cows outnumber the human population about three to one and feeding them is the biggest driver of deforestation.
Cattle pasture already covers 7.8 percent of Brazil's 1.6-million-square-mile (4.1-million-square-kilometer) Amazon region, according to the National Statistics Institute.
Burning to clear new or overgrown pasture in the Amazon region accounts for about 75 percent of Brazil's total greenhouse gas emissions.
On top of that, cows themselves are living greenhouse-gas machines, emitting methane, one of the gases blamed for global warming.
Rogue Bull is only the latest operation to crack down on profits from illegally cutting the rain forest.
Brazil's environmental protection agency in May seized 4,300 tons of grain, mostly soy and corn, grown on illegally deforested land.
The government also says it will start denying loans to farmers who have ignored requirements to leave 80 percent of their forested areas standing.
The measures have been opposed by powerful ranchers and farmers in the region, particularly Blairo Maggi, governor of the Amazon state of Mato Grosso and one of the world's largest soy producers.
