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Agriculture and Cattle Ranching Threatening Global Rainforests
Agriculture and Cattle Ranching Threatening Global Rainforests
22/05/2015 (Bloomberg) - The Brazilian city of Altamira used to be in the middle of Amazon forest. Not anymore, not after decades of deforestation.
Now it’s a two-hour drive to the nearest native forest areas still standing. The view along the way is mostly pastures, with a few tall nut trees surrounded by cattle.
Lots of cattle. The expansion of the herd in the Brazilian Amazon is emblematic of global economic forces that are driving deforestation to support the growth of farms, ranches and other commercial enterprises, according to a report released Thursday in Berlin by the Club of Rome, a research group that studies global issues.
“The world may literally eat up the tropical rainforests,” said Claude Martin, author of the report On The Edge: The State and Fate of the World’s Tropical Rainforests. They may be “the only large areas still available for agricultural expansion.”
Almost 50 percent of the world’s rainforests have disappeared since the start of the 1970s, when the first scientific studies began to raise awareness about their value. Tropical deforestation and forest degradation are estimated to contribute between 10 percent and 12 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, according to the report.
Converting rainforest for commercial agriculture -- primarily cattle, soybean and palm oil -- has been the main driver of deforestation for the past 25 years, Martin said in a telephone interview from Zurich.
Shrinking Amazon
Of the more than 100 million hectares of agricultural land added in the tropics from 1980 to 2000, more than 55 percent came from cutting down rainforests, according to the report. That includes small-scale cultivation and subsistence farming, and large-scale commercial plantations.
Brazil’s portion of the Amazon, the largest remaining tropical forest, has shrunk by 20 percent in the last 40 years, according to government data.
Meanwhile, the number of cattle in the Brazilian Amazon more than doubled between 1990 and 2002, driven by growing global demand for food that made Brazil the world’s biggest beef exporter. That accounted for more than two-thirds of the annual deforestation in the region over that period, Martin said in the report.
“Altamira nowadays has the largest herd in Para state,” said Joao Batista Uchoa, 44, who has been living for 15 years in the Brazilian city. “The government has been absent in this region for decades.”
Palm Oil
Palm oil and pulp production are significant contributors to deforestation in Indonesia, Malaysia and Central Africa.
Deforestation in Indonesia increased by 185 percent from 2000 to 2012, the most in the world. Sumatra and Kalimantan together lost 1.15 percent of their forest cover annually from 2000 to 2008, an area larger than Costa Rica. Malaysia lost 1.34 percent of its rainforest annually, according to the report.
Forests in Africa are under threat from illegal logging, small farmers and a growing population, Martin said.
Some nations are taking steps to protect rainforests. Brazil, for example, has monitoring programs, policies to regulate deforestation, and has curbed financing for projects that would require cutting down trees. Even with those efforts, soybean and beef production have been increasing in the country.
“A number of measures have been undertaken to avoid deforestation and degradation of forests around the world,” said Martin. “It shows we are not without alternatives.”
Now it’s a two-hour drive to the nearest native forest areas still standing. The view along the way is mostly pastures, with a few tall nut trees surrounded by cattle.
Lots of cattle. The expansion of the herd in the Brazilian Amazon is emblematic of global economic forces that are driving deforestation to support the growth of farms, ranches and other commercial enterprises, according to a report released Thursday in Berlin by the Club of Rome, a research group that studies global issues.
“The world may literally eat up the tropical rainforests,” said Claude Martin, author of the report On The Edge: The State and Fate of the World’s Tropical Rainforests. They may be “the only large areas still available for agricultural expansion.”
Almost 50 percent of the world’s rainforests have disappeared since the start of the 1970s, when the first scientific studies began to raise awareness about their value. Tropical deforestation and forest degradation are estimated to contribute between 10 percent and 12 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, according to the report.
Converting rainforest for commercial agriculture -- primarily cattle, soybean and palm oil -- has been the main driver of deforestation for the past 25 years, Martin said in a telephone interview from Zurich.
Shrinking Amazon
Of the more than 100 million hectares of agricultural land added in the tropics from 1980 to 2000, more than 55 percent came from cutting down rainforests, according to the report. That includes small-scale cultivation and subsistence farming, and large-scale commercial plantations.
Brazil’s portion of the Amazon, the largest remaining tropical forest, has shrunk by 20 percent in the last 40 years, according to government data.
Meanwhile, the number of cattle in the Brazilian Amazon more than doubled between 1990 and 2002, driven by growing global demand for food that made Brazil the world’s biggest beef exporter. That accounted for more than two-thirds of the annual deforestation in the region over that period, Martin said in the report.
“Altamira nowadays has the largest herd in Para state,” said Joao Batista Uchoa, 44, who has been living for 15 years in the Brazilian city. “The government has been absent in this region for decades.”
Palm Oil
Palm oil and pulp production are significant contributors to deforestation in Indonesia, Malaysia and Central Africa.
Deforestation in Indonesia increased by 185 percent from 2000 to 2012, the most in the world. Sumatra and Kalimantan together lost 1.15 percent of their forest cover annually from 2000 to 2008, an area larger than Costa Rica. Malaysia lost 1.34 percent of its rainforest annually, according to the report.
Forests in Africa are under threat from illegal logging, small farmers and a growing population, Martin said.
Some nations are taking steps to protect rainforests. Brazil, for example, has monitoring programs, policies to regulate deforestation, and has curbed financing for projects that would require cutting down trees. Even with those efforts, soybean and beef production have been increasing in the country.
“A number of measures have been undertaken to avoid deforestation and degradation of forests around the world,” said Martin. “It shows we are not without alternatives.”