Brazilian cattle sector drives global deforestation: report

The Brazilian cattle industry is the largest driver of global deforestation, a new report says.

Commercial cattle herding is responsible for 14 per cent of the world’s annual deforestation, accounting for 80 per cent of all deforestation in the Amazon region, according to a report released today by Greenpeace.

The environmental group argues that targeting the sector, which includes beef and leather production, is essential to efforts to halt global deforestation.

The industry is “responsible for more forest loss than the total deforestation in any country outside Brazil except Indonesia,” the report says.

The Brazilian government projects that the country’s share in the global trade of beef products will double by 2018, after a sixfold surge in volume between 1998 and 2008.

It forecasts that Brazil will supply two out of every three tonnes of beef traded internationally by that year.

Legalising

The report contends that the Brazilian government is effectively legalising the expansion of the lucrative cattle ranching industry, which generated $6.9 billion in 2008.

In addition, corruption, a lack of governance and a lack of coordination between local and federal governments have created a large economic incentive to expand the industry.

Bills before the Brazilian Congress would effectively encourage illegal land-grabbing, making it rampant in the Amazon region, the report finds.

“Rather than fixing the problem, a bill before the Brazilian Congress would reward land grabbers by giving them property rights for illegally occupied land,” the report says.

It also cites another bill proposed in the congress that would double the percentage of forest that can be legally cleared within a property.

“If passed, the effect of both these bills would be to legalize increased deforestation,” Greenpeace contends.

Bank rolling

The group also finds that Brazil is financing deforestation via its National Development Bank (BNDES) by forming “strategic alliances” with global players in the cattle sector.

The report cites three meat processors – Bertin, JBS and Marfrig – which have been “receiving the lion’s share of Brazilian government investment,” totaling $2.65 billion from BNDES between 2007 and 2009 in exchange for government shares in the company.

Action plan?

Finally, the report highlights the discrepancy between Brazil presenting itself as a global leader on deforestation and its domestic actions that encourage the practice.

Last year at global climate change negotiations in Poznan, Poland, the Brazilian government unveiled its national climate change plan centred on a 72 per cent cut in the deforestation rate by 2018.

But this goal won’t be reached if Brazil continues to finance and legalise deforestation, the report concludes.