Brazil: growth, adaptive capacity & new green technologies
environmental opportunities and antagonisms for Brazil in the 21st CenturyArchive for deforestation
Latest Amazon deforestation
Inpe’s figures show that last month 541 km2 were cut down or degraded. 233km2 in Mato Grosso and 218km2 in Para, and 8% down on September’s figure. Inpe caution that the results are not wholly accurrate as the real-time satellite images show up clouds, obscuring detail of the land below.
Last week Inpe released figures for the period August 2007- July 2008. Almost 1,100 km2 was cut down or degraded, a 2.8% increaseon the preceding year.
Deforestation vs Agrarian Reform
The Institute of colonization and agrarian reform (Incra) has been revealed (by another government department Ibama) as having caused 44% of all deforestation that has taken place in the last 4 years. Incra have cried foul, claiming that they have legally settled impoverished groups and have called for figures to be reassessed.
Rory Carroll Guardian article here and Estadao interactive feature here looking at where, who, how much and what type of deforestation has taken place.
Soya, climate change, agribusiness
New research says Brazil will experience a 25% fall in soya exports over the next 12 years due to rising temperatures caused by the climate crisis, according to the FT. Sugar cane , which thrives in higher temps and high CO2 could could see a rise in production… Read the rest of this entry »
Audio interview: Problems for Amazon
Audio interview (eng) with Paulo Moutinho, Director of the Insitute for Environmental Research of Amazonia (IPAM). Lack of a cost attached to destroying standing forest as the overarching problem facing the region. Other topics broached include the dessicating impact of El Nino in excarcebating the problems of the spread of Amazonian forest fires.
Integrar para nao entregar 2008
The Brazilian Institute for Geography and Statistics has announced that it will release new maps of the Amazon in 2009 which will be 20 times more precise than their previous maps first put together in the 70s and last updated in 2004. Currently they cover… Read the rest of this entry »
Deforestation rate and industrial production up
A number of slides from E de SP showing deforestation rate and a good representation of the arc of hotspots. Another chart tracks the growth of industrial production- up over 10% from April last year
Financial Times: Feb 25th – March 1st
Collection of reports this week from the FT looking at tax reform, the reasons behind the deficit in the current account, the rise to the top of the recently released MSCI Global Emerging Markets index (video comment here), the year ahead for the Bovespa and its advantages over other emerging market indices, the composition of energy supply, and finally coverage of the developments in Tailandia, Para and the progress of Operation Arc of Fire with additional comment on the relative costs associated with deforestation, cattle ranching and soya bean production in the Amazon.
What’s left of the Mata Atlantica, Cerrado and Amazon
Last night Jose Padua, Professor at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, spoke about the cultural /historic logic of deforestation. His recent research has been looking at the almost total destruction of the Mata Atlantica (7.5% remaining) since colonization. The legacy of ideas of abundance still colour all conversations about deforestation. How to square this with fragility of ecosystems in Brazil will take concerted effort involving stronger institutions, better enforcement and a plan to control the frontier capitalism that characterises current Amazonian deforestation. Jose also touched on how we are at the start of a process of working out how to stop deforestation and are there with almost all the forest still intact. What chance/implications for the Cerrado?
