[Terrapreta] DEFORESTATION guy is crazy

[MFH]

Lorenzo,

 

I’m stunned by the figures you have listed. Presumably there are restraints
however, e.g. lack of water, lack of infrastructure, distance from markets
or ports, nutrient deficiencies,,,,,  

 

But the opportunities for agricultural development must be vast – why aren’t
the Doles of the world interested?

 

Max H

 

 

 

 

  _____  

From: terrapreta-bounces at bioenergylists.org
[mailto:terrapreta-bounces at bioenergylists.org] On Behalf Of Biopact
Sent: Friday, 9 May 2008 11:28 PM
To: Benjamin Domingo Bof; terrapreta at bioenergylists.org
Subject: Re: [Terrapreta] DEFORESTATION guy is crazy

 

Thanks for this article. It goes to show some people with power will not
hesitate to use crises to push destruction. 

Using the food crisis to legitimize deforestation is outrageous. 

What's more, deforestation guy is a bit crazy when he says there's no more 

land for agriculture on this planet. 

All he should do is take a look at the FAO's Terrastat database and he will 
see there are huge tracts of non-forest land currently not being used across

Africa.

A quick list of selected countries:

-Number indicates percentage of potential arable land actually in use (check

below for total number of hectares of potential arable land available in 
Africa):

Angola: currently uses only 4% (it's a huge country, so that leaves tens of 
milllions of hectares; to be precise: 84,605 million hectares)

Benin: 19.3%

Botswana: 4.6

Burkina Faso: 17.5

Burundi: 83.5

Cameroon: 19.6

CAR: 4.2 (very large country; that leaves 45,867 million hectares)

Chad: 9.9

Congo D. R.: 4.7 ( a country the size of Western Europe; that leaves: 81,931

million hectares, while keeping 80 million hectares of pristine forest
intact; 
research shows the DRC can produce food for 3 billion people)

Congo Republic: 0.7

Cote d'Ivoire: 14.1

Djibouti: 0

Equatorial Guinea: 14.0

Eritrea: 88.0

Ethiopia: 25.6

Gabon: 2.6

Gambia: 21.9

Ghana: 23.6

Guinea: 5.5

Guinea-Buissau: 14.7

Kenya: 28.5

Lesotho: 88.4

Liberia: 6.0

Madagascar: 8.7

Malawi: 25.1

Mali: 9.4

Mauritania: 15.1

Mozambique: 5.0 (a huge country; that leaves 60,364 million hectares)

Namibia: 5.6

Niger: 35.1

Nigeria: 49.4

Rwanda: 100

Senegal: 17.7

Sierra Leone: 13.7

Somalia: 42.8

South Africa: 46.9

Sudan: 15 (Africa's largest country; its fertile South has 73,753 million 
hectares available)

Swaziland: 23.7

Tanzania: 5.2 (huge: that leaves 63,785 million hectares)

Togo: 56.6

Uganda: 48.0

Zambia: 9.0 (large: that leaves 53,198 million hectares)

Zimbabwe: 11.7 (once the bread basket of Africa; huge potential left)

TOTAL: Total potential arable land currently not being used for agriculture 
in Africa: 952,243 million hectares - almost a billion hectares available.

Add that you can easily double or triple African smallholders' output with 
very basic means (access to seed, fertilizer, other inputs and outputs, and
in many cases: biochar).

Abusing the food crisis to make a case for deforestation in the Amazon is 
shameful. This food crisis should be used to promote the modernisation of 
agriculture in Africa.

Cheers,
Lorenzo




----- Original Message ----- 
From: Benjamin Domingo Bof 
To: terrapreta at bioenergylists.org 
Sent: Friday, May 09, 2008 12:14 AM
Subject: [Terrapreta] DEFORESTATION TO PRODUCE FOODS?


Interview with Blairo Maggi: "Will you leave humanity starving or occupy new
areas to produce food?" - 05/08/2008 

Locality: São Paulo - SP 
Source: Amazonia.org.br 
Link: http://www.amazonia.org.br 


Thais Iervolino 

After having criticized the Mato Grosso deforestation report, released by
the National Institute of Space Research (INPE), and making statements
defending deforestation as a solution to the food crisis, the governor of
the state of Mato Grosso, Blairo Maggi, had an exclusive interview with the
site Amazonia.org.br. 

Last week, the newspaper Folha de S. Paul published an article in which he
claimed that one of the possible solutions to the food crisis would be
deforestation. 

My statement has been made within the food crisis context. As a matter of
fact, the world does not have more area to increase food production. In
Brazil, there are many conducive areas to some form of agriculture, such as
the west of Sao Paulo and the east of Mato Grosso do Sul. But they are not
very good areas for food agriculture. 

For soybeans, beans, maize and sunflower, these areas are considered
marginal. Those areas do not benefit from very regular rainfall so the risks
involved with food production is very important. But if you have sugar cane
in this region, the plantation would do quite well. 

The return on investment in those food production places are not very good.
Thus Mato Grosso uses only 8% of its land for food agriculture. Brazil, as a
whole, uses a relatively small area in comparison to what it could use. 

Currently we have managed to grow our productivity, in an average of 1% per
year. But consumption has grown in a range of 3% to 4% per year. In the long
term, it just does not work. Then it has to be planed forward. In the
future, we must have a responsible discussion. Will you let the humanity
starving or occupy new areas to produce food?

And the areas that exist for the incorporation of agriculture are not very
large. The people think: "Oh, we will occupy the Amazon to produce food and
ethanol". It is not possible. In the whole Amazon, only a small portion can
be use and serve for this [planting]. 

Again: is it possible to increase productivity if consumption increases
greatly. The food crisis is real. In my assessment, Brazil is making its own
lesson. We are growing. Over the last 20 years, we increased our production
from 30 million tonnes to 120 million tonnes. We are feeding the country
population, there are no problems of supply, we are even selling food for
the rest of the world. 

You mentioned that in the future it will be necessary to clear-cut. What is
the prospect of this "future"? 
I think that we can maintain the growth pace, with gains in biotechnology
and productivity during about ten years. Until that time we can keep things
as they are. 

Then we will have to choose between planting in rainy areas, where
production is guaranteed, or occupy marginal areas, which bring many
problems for farmers. The lack of rain causes important losses in Sao Paulo
or in Mato Grosso do Sul. To have food in these regions, we must make a
policy of guaranteed incomes and prices, if not the producers will colapse. 

The MT will take any measure to contain the food crisis? 
We can not do anything more than what we actually do. To produce more, we
need access to new areas. Even the MT producers have decided that they will
not increase any more the planting areas. Firstly because of the
environmental issues. Then because, for more than 20 or 30 years, the world
eats a very cheap food, and this brings debts for agriculture. The decision
is that you can not open new areas, or only in case of a great agreement,
because we can not do it in illegality.

Recently your State has been quite criticised about the deforestation
problem. What do you think of the policies that the Ministry of Environment
is making to solve it? 
If you look at the MT deforestation graphics, since 1984, you will not see
deforestation levels lower than those of 2005. The reduction since 2005 has
been constant. In the latter period, the data showed 120 km ², 140 km ² of
deforestation, which are around 12 thousand hectares. In terms of
territorial size it is very small. Now the problem is not the size but the
illegality. 

The policies of the State government have followed the legislation, and the
Ministry decision of blocking these areas is correct. Those who clear-cut
will think a bit more: "I'll clear, I'll spend money and then I won't be
able to use the property". 

I think that this is the policy. We have also deliver the zoning to the
assembly. I hope that this document will be able to guide the State of MT,
showing where agriculture can be made, where are the conservation areas,
etc. 

What is your opinion on the Arc of Fire operation in the State? 
The numbers that were placed as deforestation, of the Deforestation
Detection in Real-time (Deter, Detecção de Desmatamento em tempo real),
shows a huge decline [after the operation]. The MT participated in about 80%
of the reduction, although I still continue contesting the data. 

I also gave a document to the President of the Republic. We will make an
audit, I mean, the government should make an audit about the data that have
been given. 

The state of the MT does not agree with those numbers. Until today we did
not agree because the methodology was different from the one traditionally
employed. If you collect data with a methodology and then change it, the
results are different. 

I want to, and I have insisted on that, correct statistically the data of MT
which are not those that have been disclosed. The MT effort against
deforestation is very important. Producers who have address, CPF (Register
of Individual) and liability do not make this. The problem is that we have
land grabbing, people invade the land, clear-cut a zone and then think that
they own it. So in addition to the environmental issue, we also have the
land division problem, and the State fight to put this into order. 

What measures are taken by the government of MT to reduce deforestation? 
The same than the Ministry of the Environment takes: surveillance, control
by satellite, we have people in the field, helicopter flying, we sue all the
people who deforest in the wrong way. We are not only responsible for the
deforestation, but also for the control of the forest in the State because
this task has been transferred by Ibama in 2005. 

Our territory is really huge, but we do not have a lot of resources. We have
an helicopter, this is very expensive, we don't have financial help from the
Government [federal], or anyone. Thus, within the possibilities that we
have, we make what is in our competence. Figures from the reduction of
deforestation, that occurs here since 2005, clearly show that the government
has done the necessary actions to reduce the deforestation in the state. 

The IBAMA disclosed the list of the embargoed areas. Into it, the institute
points out that your company would be embargoed... 
First, nobody is embargoed. It is a list of irregularities. Specifically,
the Amaggi [the Governor of the MT company], bought an area of waste wood.
Since it has an industry in Cuiaba, we need steam for the energy to the
soybeans crushing. That's why we bought this area of waste wood. The IBAMA,
then, asked for the environmental licensing. 


A staffmemeber who was 'in the know' regarding the events [of the company]
sent a copy of the process, the Institute received it, but still it wanted
to sue the company. Then, it is not a deforestation issue but a bureaucratic
one, between our Secretary of the Environment and the company. 

And you had to pay a fine? 
I do not know because I am not in the company. It seems that they have given
a fine, but the company is appealing because it had no fault in this
process. 

Could you Comment the fact that you have received the prize "Gold Chainsaw",
delivered by the non-governmental organisation Greenpeace, which is
equivalent to the Champion of Deforestation Award. 
Firstly, it was a long time ago. I even say to the producers here that this
chainsaw is not mine but theirs. Because my company, for over ten years, has
not opened any new areas. 

Now, as governor, it is logical that I represent the state for good things
and bad things as well. The other day I had a meeting with the timber
industry and they said that they have no link with deforestation. I said to
them that they were also responsible because they buy illegal timber, and
this supports the continuation of defrestation. 

I am obliged to accept, with resignation , the chainsaw award because I am
the governor of the state. But not as the owner of my company. This I do not
accept in any way.





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