A prime example...
Earlier this week Brazil rejected an international plan to buy and protect large tracts of the Amazon rainforest. Environment minister, Marina Silva, cited sovereignty issues and Brazilian support for their own rainforest-protection plan as the basis for their rejection. The quandry facing Brazil, a country with vast poverty and vast natural resources, is one the that is all too common around the globe. Even in developed nations like the good'ol USA -- development, oil drilling, strip mining and Federal Land Use are very contentious subjects not always decided in the environment's favor.
A gaping hole in the Kyoto protocol is the provision that exempts developing nations from playing a role in the reduction of greenhouse emissions. Until economic issues are resolved developing nations will continue to reach deep into their cookie jar of natural resources to feed their poor and line the pockets of government and business criminals.
I believe Brazil has every right to responsibly control the harvesting of their natural resources (though they've done a tragically crappy job thus far). But I would help them make the right choices through a combination of incentives and/or trade restictions that promote sustainable practices and preservation of the rainforest. If no market exists for ill-gotten gains of the burning rainforest, then the destruction will slow. They are now looking at reducing the advance of "progress" to 1990's levels, which is not enough, but probably practical. Unfortunately the ultimate end to the burning may be when the last tree goes up in flames sometime later this century.
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posted by Galli Galli Sim Sim at
10:26 AM
6 Comments:
Good post. We have a responsibility to help Brazil make the right choices, too. Drinking less coffee would be one. Eating less chocolate, all things that would be good for us, too.
One of my pet peeves is new or remodeled houses with 'hardwood flooring'. Just where do people suppose this fashionable commodity comes from? Mostly the Brazilian forests, for a start.
Bamboo is a cheap beautiful fast-growing sustainable option, if you have to have hardwood floors installed.
OK, rant over.. ;-)
By
Chandira, at 6:49 PM
You totally correct about making consumer habits and choices part of the solution. Bamboo flooring is a good example. Affluence breeds arrogance so only so much can be accomplished.
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By
Galli Galli Sim Sim, at 6:56 PM
There have been rumors circulating for years in Brazil -- almost an urban legend, really -- that the international community had a secret plan to sieze a huge chunk of the Brazilian Amazon in the name of protecting the environment, but actually to gain control of its resources (mineral, bio, etc.). Unfortunately this offer simply seemed to made this rumor appear to have foundation, playing to the worst fears of many average Brazilians.
What Marina Silva said is what every Environment Minister of Brazil, or for that matter, any President of Brazil, would have to say, given the Brazilian public's mistrust of international intentions, if they want to remain in office. I don't see that changing anytime soon.
Using the power of the marketplace is certainly an option. I'm not sure boycotting Brazilian coffee or chocolate would help matters, though. The African producers would gladly take up the slack, and its questionable that their environmental practices are any better (by a long shot). Meanwhile you'd be hurting employment in places like (the quite poor) state of Bahia (the cacao capital of Brazil), which has zero to do with Amazonian development. Does that make sense?
Probably makes more sense to target the very products and practices that influence the pace of the deforestation. For example, some of it has to do with illegal logging, so perhaps favoring bamboo and insisting of rigorously enforced hardwood certification programs would help. Also, some of the rainforest is being cleared to plant the profitable cash crop of soybeans -- in some cases, non-approved genetically modified soybean. So maybe insist on rigorously certified GMO-free soybean-based products?
Careful with the formal trade-based restrictions idea as well. If Brazil can show that the measures discriminate against it (instead of all nations not practicing sustainable forestry development, which is quite a long list), or that the measures do not have a sound environmental basis, they can challenge them in the World Trade Organization (WTO) and defeat them.
The thing is, over the last couple of years Brazil has been making progress on this front, and the satellite tracking shows it and some NGOs even admit it. This is in large part due not only to deforestation fears, but the realization that their deforestation may be contributing mightily to global climate change. And kudos go to groups like Greenpeace for keeping the government's feet to the fire by double-checking the inspection and movements of tropical timber operations. Maybe if more NGOs backstopped/helped the Brazilian enforcers, maybe with expose videos posted on the net, etc., even more progress could achieved.
So, how to sustain the progress now being shown and improve on it?
We need to not only punish, but find some way to reward the Brazilians when they do the right thing. I don't just mean the government, I mean Brazilian communities and individual Brazilians. Question is how best to do so. I'm still struggling with that one and trying to launch a dialogue about it on my own blog. We'll see if it gets anywhere...
Tem que esperar. Viver é esperar.
Best Regards,
Keith
By
Anonymous, at 10:34 PM
It is a welcome reminder that we can make some changes that would have some good effects. We aren't in the market for flooring, wood or otherwise, but coincidentally we have recently eliminated refined sugar and refined flour from our diets, so that means no chocolate at all. So it is nice to know we are helping and didn't know it.
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Anonymous, at 11:03 PM
The rain forest issue is a complex one with many cultural and economic variables. I like Keith's ideas on helping the Brazilian's with enforcement and instituting positive rewards for doing the right thing. The international community and local governments could also look to more fully susidize/set aside portions of the rain forest as wild preserves and or eco-tourism destinations managed by Brazil with some positive economic impact. The logging, mining and agri-corps make all the big money from the destruction of the rain forest not the people of Brazil.
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By
Galli Galli Sim Sim, at 7:06 AM
Interesting comment Keith, thanks. No, I wasn't suggesting a boycott of Brazilian products, just that us Americans should be more responsible for how much we consume!
All the things we buy, so much of it isn't needed, and that all comes from the natural environment, no matter which country produces it.
Deforestation and environmental destruction, whether in Brazil or Africa or China, affects all of us, no matter where it occurs.
I appreciate that Brazilians need to make a living. But perhaps if Americans weren't so greedy, they could be more self-sustaining, rather than having to pour all the natural resources into America. That I feel would enrich Brazil more in the long run. Stop US corporations draining Brazilian lifeblood, because you know you're not getting the best deal from US corporations, no matter how much we buy..
By
Chandira, at 2:31 PM
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