[Gasification] Brazil's deforestation laws a flop

[Richard Haard]

On Feb 14, 2008, at 11:02 AM, Benjamin Domingo Bof wrote:

> Brazil's deforestation laws a flop - 02/14/2008     Link to original  
> article here


Residents of my home state, Washington need also to understand that  
our new regional biodiesel plant, touted by our governor Christine  
Gregoire as a local economic stimulus,  is using palm oil imported  
from Indonesia  and they are just as guilty as ADM subsidiary, the  
Wilmar Group, the largest producer of palm-based biodiesel in the  
world for clearing tropical rainforests in Indonesia that are among  
the last remaining habitats of the endangered orangutan. Cargill also  
is pushing palm oil production into Papua New Guinea, home of the  
world's third largest intact rainforest.

Agribusiness giants ADM and Cargill with their lobbying for subsidies  
large scale production are complacent in this endemic lawlessness by  
playing a major role in this national sovereignty confrontation with  
South American governments. In addition, Cargill operates an illegal  
soy port in the Brazilian city of Santarem, in the heart of the  
Amazon. Deforestation rates have doubled in the region since the port  
opened. Soy is the leading cause of deforestation in the Amazon, and  
ADM, Cargill and U.S. agribusiness Bunge account for 60 percent of its  
funding.

The United Nations has predicted that as many as 5 million Indigenous  
people worldwide could be adversely affected by the continued  
expansion of agrofuels.

Some of our American politicians are beginning to get the message  
about the environmental and human rights impact of deforestation in  
Amazon Basin of Brazil, Bolivia, Columbia, Peru and Venezuela; as well  
as the the Pantanal which is part of the Paraná-Paraguay river basin  
(in Bolivia, Paraguay, Brazil) and Mato Grosso (Brazil). It extends  
over approximately four times the size of the Everglades. Link to  
regional map here

In front of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's (D-Calif.) San Francisco  
office, Representatives from Rainforest Action Network (RAN), Student  
Trade Justice Campaign, Food First and Grassroots International  
January 29 called for a moratorium on all incentives and renewable  
fuels targets for agrofuels in federal energy legislation until  
standards can be developed to ensure that plant-based fuels such as  
biodiesel show significant environmental benefits over fossil fuels,  
and that they do not contribute to world hunger or human rights abuses.

Supporting the moratorium was Rafael Alegría, former president of Via  
Campesina, the largest family farmers' organization in the world. More  
than 35 organizations around the world have signed on to the call for  
a U.S. moratorium.

Supporting Statements for the moratorium were made by:

Michael Brune, Executive Director of Rainforest Action Network, who  
said: "Politicians paint agrofuels as the fuels of the future. But the  
fuels of the future shouldn't emit more greenhouse gases than  
gasoline, degrade priceless ecosystems, and force people off their  
land. The future demands better solutions."

Eric Holt Gimenez, Executive Director of Food First, said: "The side  
effects of biofuels-the rise in food costs, shrinking water tables,  
deforestation and displacement of rural people-are rarely discussed.  
The question is not whether ethanol and biodiesel have a place in our  
future, but whether or not we allow a handful of global corporations  
to transform our food and fuel systems, destroy the planet's  
biodiversity and impoverish the countryside."

Nikhil Aziz, Executive Director of Grassroots International, said:  
"This new 'green rush' is a reckless race towards disaster - one that  
endangers food security for millions, while doing little to help stem  
the negative impacts of climate change. We have the science and the  
resources needed for real solutions, we just need the politicians to  
climb their way out of corporate pockets."

Lorena Rodriguez organizer with the Student Trade Justice Campaign,  
said: "We support this moratorium because we believe that industrial  
agriculture, core to the agenda in free trade and investment  
agreements continue to serve the interest of large agribusinesses at  
the expense of the livelihoods of small farmers and indigenous people  
throughout the world."

Rachel Smolker of the Global Justice Ecology Project said: "Proponents  
of biofuels claim that the problems created by using food crops will  
be solved when the next generation of cellulosic technologies becomes  
viable, but as the chair of our House Agriculture Committee stated  
just a few days ago, that may not happen for 10 years, if ever. Those  
technologies depend heavily on biotechnology like genetically  
engineered trees, which could contaminate native forests with  
unpredictable and irreversible consequences."