The Rape of the Rainforest... and the Man Behind it ...image

[ElsewheresDaughter]

A stream winds through a strip of once virgin Amazon rainforest destroyed by loggers, in Mato Grosso State, one of the Brazilian states of greatest deforestation, May 18, 2005. The Brazilian government announced the latest data on deforestation of the Amazon Basin, with a total of 26,130 square km (10,089 square miles) of rainforest destroyed, equivalent to more than nine football fields every minute, during the 12-month period ending in August, 2004. The total is the highest recorded during the government of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, in spite of his administration's announced efforts to contain the destruction. REUTERS/Rickey Rogers


http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0520-06.htm

It is stark. It is scarcely believable. But the ruthless obliteration of the Amazon rainforest continues at a headlong rate new figures reveal - and today we reveal the man who more than any other represents the forces making it happen.

He is Blairo Maggi, the millionaire farmer and uncompromising politician presiding over the Brazilian boom in soya bean production. He is known in Brazil as O Rei da Soja - the King of Soy.

Brazilian environmentalists are calling him something else - the King of Deforestation. For the soya boom, feeding a seemingly insatiable world market for soya beans as cattle feed, is now the main driver of rainforest destruction.


A stream winds through a strip of once virgin Amazon rainforest destroyed by loggers, in Mato Grosso State, one of the Brazilian states of greatest deforestation, May 18, 2005. The Brazilian government announced the latest data on deforestation of the Amazon Basin, with a total of 26,130 square km (10,089 square miles) of rainforest destroyed, equivalent to more than nine football fields every minute, during the 12-month period ending in August, 2004. The total is the highest recorded during the government of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, in spite of his administration's announced efforts to contain the destruction. REUTERS/Rickey Rogers

Figures show that last year the rate of forest clearance in the Amazon was the second highest on record as the soy boom completed its third year. An area of more than 10,000 square miles - nearly the size of Belgium - was cut down, with half the destruction in the state of Mato Grosso, where Mr Maggi, whose Maggi Group farming business is the world's biggest soya bean producer, also happens to be the state governor.

Mr Maggi sheds no tears over lost trees. In 2003, his first year as governor, the rate of deforestation in Mato Grosso more than doubled

http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/press/releases/government-announces-second-hi

Government Announces Second Highest Rate of Amazon Deforestation in Brazilian HistoryMay 19, 2005Print Send Manaus, Brazil — Greenpeace today reacted with condemnation and outrage to the new Amazon deforestation figures released by the Brazilian government. The annual rate of Amazon deforestation for August 2003-August 2004 reached 26,130 square kilometers, the equivalent of six football fields destroyed every minute.

More than 70 percent of Amazon loss occurred between May and July 2004, after President Lula's "Action Plan to Curb Deforestation" had been adopted. The plan, which was presented in March 2004, took seven months of elaboration and had the participation of 13 ministries committing resources, defining responsibilities and setting a timetable.

"Clearly Lula's administration has failed up to now to implement the Action Plan and to protect the Amazon," said Paulo Adario, Greenpeace Amazon Campaign Coordinator. "Although there have been positive measures taken by the government, such as the creation of protected areas and demarcation of Indigenous lands, the fact that the annual average of deforestation has been more than 23,000 square kilometers for the last three years is simply unacceptable. This is a national shame."

During the same period, Lula's Government has celebrated the rapid expansion in grain production and world leadership in meat exports, with the Minister of Treasury Antonio Palocci declaring, "Agribusiness is the best business of Brazil."

Almost half (48 percent) of the deforestation occurred in the Amazon basin state of Mato Grosso, governed by the largest individual soy producer in the world, Blairo Maggi. Of the 12,576 square kilometers lost in the State, 4,176 square kilometers were authorized by the government. The rest was illegal. Maggi doesn't hide his opinion about deforestation, "A 40 percent increase in deforestation doesn't mean anything at all, and I don't feel the slightest guilt over what we are doing here," Maggi said in an interview to The New York Times in September 2003, referring to the Amazon deforestation rate of the previous year.

"Agribusiness and illegal logging are key culprits of deforestation," said Adario. "Lula's administration is facing a fundamental contradiction: to fight Amazon deforestation or to promote the expansion of agribusiness to pay the Brazilian external debt. To make a real difference on the ground, the government needs to restrict soy plantations to areas already deforested, combat illegal logging and effectively implement their own anti-deforestation plan."

By allowing this level of Amazon destruction, the government is also contributing to the devastating impacts of global warming. Carbon dioxide emissions from deforestation and burning in the Amazon are the main Brazilian contributions to climate change and there is growing evidence that climate change is drying out the forests.

[htuttle]

1. Ya see what's under the trees in a rainforest? SAND!

That's because almost all the nutrients in a tropical rainforest are kept in the organic life above the topsoil, unlike temperate forests, where the topsoil stores nitrogen, etc...

Once you do a season of slash and burn, and use up the nutrients that were in the burned organic matter, you can't grow much there anymore.

And generally, the rainforest takes a LONG time to 'grow back', if ever.

Look for an growing desert where the Amazon rainforest once was...

[rodeodance]

3. oh so so sad

[ananda]

2. on BBC World yesterday

This story was on BBC World yesterday. It turns out that a huge 20% of the Amazon rainforest has been cut down in order to grow soya, and that the leader of Mata Grosso owns soya fields.

Can they say: conflict of interest!!!

Also, BBC reported that the balance of CO2 is being seriously compromised by this destruction and burning of trees. Man, that's so bad I hardly want to think about it.

Sue

[Roland99]

4. Look for more hurricanes off of Brazil, too, as surface wind speeds change