Deforestation rates across the Amazon began being tracked approximately twenty-two years ago. Deforestation rates largely were high across Brazil for the majority of the tracking timeframe. However, in recent years deforestation began to drop. As of December 2010, deforestation was at its lowest in the recorded history.
However, between 2010 and 2011, deforestation rates were found to have drastically increased by approximately twenty-five percent. Some areas suffered deforestation more than others, especially those home to major soy and cattle farms. Overall, increased deforestation is attributed to the elevated demand for products popular for growth in Brazil, such as soybeans. Both cattle and soybean farming have been found to be the number one driver of deforestation in recent years.
Many environmental groups feared that a proposed change to the Brazilian Forest Code would only end in increased deforestation. The Forest Code is a land law in the country which regulates forest coverage, amongst other things. Now changes have been officially made to the Brazilian Forest Code and the results have led environmental groups to believe that it will cause another spike in deforestation.
The old Brazilian Forest Code called for farmers and landowners to maintain a certain amount of forest on their land. This percentage varies with the location, but is eighty percent in the Amazon and twenty to thirty-five percent in other areas. This has not been changed under the new law but now the owners can count steep hills and areas along rivers, drastically altering some region measurements.
Other changes include: landowners with only twenty to four hundred hectares are not required to replace missing forest areas. Landowners can also now either buy or rent land near their own land in order to meet the forested land percentage requirement. Also, those which have been fined for not meeting the forested coverage percentage now have twenty years to replace the trees. Fines will then be forgiven. Various smaller changes have also been made to the Forest Code.
The law has been approved by the Congress in Brazil and now needs to be signed by the President of Brazil, Dilma Rousseff. It is likely that it will be signed into law despite environmental groups’ concerns. Due to various inclusions to the revamped law, the president and others believe the law will not cause an increase in deforestation despite concerns. An environmental summit planned for June, Rio+20, will likely suffer if deforestation in fact do rise under the new law.
DECEMBER 8TH, 2011 BY VEGANVERVE
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