aryan skrev:
Citat:
Ethanol production in Brazil is not causing deforestation in the Amazon region, says Peter Zuurbier, Associate Professor and Director the Latin America Office of Wageningen University, the world's leading center of expertise on tropical agriculture.
According to him, the notion often held by NGO's that sugarcane is displacing cattle and soybean production into the Amazon is inaccurate. “The real problem lies in illegal deforestation and lack of property rights, as around 50 percent of the Amazon region has disputed titles and this is an invitation for timber companies” he says.
In an interview with Ethanol Statistics, prof Zuurbier tries to explain a dynamic process between illegal activities in the Amazon rainforest and the expansion of agricultural lands towards that region. NGO’s often state that sugarcane production is displacing cattle and soybean production towards and into the Amazon, burning down the area to make it suitable for agriculture and pastures.
According to Zuurbier however, the process is slightly different. “Well organized groups and corporations with questionable land titles, but also official land owners began to chop down large acreages of forest to trade timber, both legally and illegally” he says. “Usually, after the empty strips of land were abandoned, cattle owners would move into these cheap lands. However, after 3 to 4 years of cattle breeding, the thin soil of the Amazon is completely useless without any form of fertilization and livestock owners usually move into the next abandoned area. Soybean farmers meanwhile replace the livestock in these areas, recognizing the opportunity to fertilize the area for soybean production.”
read more here
http://www.sucre-ethique.org/Wageningen ... -Brazilian
--------------------------
Well...
I think that conclusion is disputed.
Last week, the Brazilian environmental minister, Ms. Marina Silva, resigned. She cited the lost battle for the Amazon rainforest as the reason.
Cattle ranches are responsible for 60% of Amazon deforestation, illegal logging itself only for a few percent according to mongabay.com.
Lack of property rights is for sure an important reason and that is also giving the cattle ranchers an advantage since it becomes 'easy' to get hold of Amazon land. And sugar cane is replacing cattle ranching in the centre-southeast regions. So there is indefinently a connection between the increase in sugar cane farming and the depletion of the rainforest in the Amazon. Even if other factors also are important.
http://news.mongabay.com/2008/0514-brazil.html
/track_snake