Brazil Toughens its Response to Excessive Livestock Population
Brazil’s new environment minister has announced that his government will begin to impound cattle grazing on illegally cleared pastures.
The operation, named “Rogue Bull,” is the next step in the Brazilian government’s efforts to battle deforestation. The announcement marked the first step Minc has taken to prevent deforestation since being named to the post last month
"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.
Amazon deforestation appears to be accelerating again as international demand for agricultural products skyrocket. The acceleration is being driven by the demand for food for the Amazon’s 73 million cows, which already outnumber the human population by about three to one.
The announcement came in response to a movement by Brazilian ranchers to create loopholes to avoid fines for illegal logging by turning public forests into grazing land.
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.
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. Not to mention the fact that the livestock themselves are sources of methane, one of the greenhouse gases blamed for global warming.
Minc replaced Marina Silva, a renowned Amazon defender who resigned May 13, citing stagnation in promoting the federal environmental agenda.
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.