A sixth person within a month has been killed in the northern Amazon area in Brazil in a dispute over land use related to illegal logging.

The Pastoral Land Commission (CPT), a church-linked organisation, reported that Obede Loyla Souza was shot in the head on 9th June, although his body was only found two days later in forest surrounding his home in Pucaja, a village in the state of Pará in northern Brazil.

The CPT reported that Souza had been receiving death threats after a run-in with loggers. Hilario Lopes Costa, from the CPT, told the Associated Press: “There is in this region a really dangerous group of loggers…He had a fight with one of them over the cutting of these trees and he was a marked man from then on.”

It is the latest in a serious of six deaths in the north Brazilian states of Pará and Rondonia that began on 24^th May.

On 3rd June, Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff deployed army officers and federal police in the vast Pará stat. This was in order to “prevent new murders from happening and also to investigate the crimes that have already been committed,” according to Justice Minister José Eduardo Cardozo.

The CPT has published a list of 125 environmentalists who have received death threats because of their fight against deforestation. It is an area where illegal loggers and cattle ranchers reportedly encroach on protected areas of rainforest.

A CPT report from this month stated that 1,581 people have been killed in rural Brazil in the past 25 years – the state of Pará being the most dangerous with 18 such murders last year. But only 100 people have been convicted of these killings.

José Cláudio Ribeiro da Silva, a Brazilian rainforest activist, has been shot dead in an ambush along with his wife. He has long fought against illegal loggers, ranchers and forest burners.

The double ambush is said to have taken place earlier this week close to the couple’s home in Nova Ipxiuna, Para, around 37 miles from Marabá.

Ribeiro da Silva had received many death threats but the police refused to give him protection. Six months ago, speaking at a TEDx event, Da Silva spoke of his fear at such threats: “I’m a human being, of course I am afraid. But my fear does not silence me. As long as I have the strength to walk I will denounce all of those who damage the forest.” He knew that his life was fragile, saying “I could get a bullet in my head at any time.” Yet he vowed to protect the forest at all costs.

A 2008 report compiled by Brazilian human rights groups listed Da Silva as one of many environmental activists considered “at risk” of assassination. According to Brazilian media, the president Rousseff has asked her chief of staff, Gilberti Carvalho, to offer support to the murder investigation.

Yesterday Brazil’s National Space Research Agency (INPE) announced a sharp rise in deforestation in March and April relative to the same period last year.

New data revealed that deforestation of the Brazilian Amazon rainforest has increased almost sixfold, as was stated by BBC News today.

Brazil’s space research institute presented satellite images which shows that deforestation increased from 103 square kilometres in March and April 2010 to 593 square kilometres in the same period of 2011.

Around 80% of the recent clearing occurred in Mato Grosso, the southernmost state in the Brazilian Amazon. The state is the centre of soya farming in Brazil,which produces more than a quarter of Brazil’s soybean harvest since 1988.

This new data came shortly before a vote on new forest protection rules.

According to Brazilian Environment Minister Izabella Teixeira the figures were “alarming” and announced the setting up of a “crisis cabinet” in response to the news.

“Our objective is to reduce deforestation by July,” the minister told during a news conference.

Analysts stated that the Brazilian government was surprised by the new data, since a government report of last December revealed that deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon had fallen to its lowest rate for 22 years.

In fact, the latest data show a 27% increase in deforestation from August 2010 to April 2011.

According to some environmentalists, the rising demand for soya and cattle is prompting farmers to clear more of their land.

Others perceive a direct link between the increase in deforestation and the months of debate over easing an existing law on forest protection.

Marcio Astrini from Greenpeace told Reuters that: “The only relevant factor is the Forest Code.” The Forest Code, enacted in 1934, sets out how much of his land a farmer can deforest.

The Chamber of Deputies has delayed voting on the Forest Code amid at times acrimonious argument but could consider the issue again next week.

Regulations currently require that 80% of a landholding in the Amazon remain forest, 20% in other areas.

Proponents of change say the law impedes economic development and contend that Brazil must open more land for agriculture.

On Thursday the Brazilian Supreme Court recognised the right of indigenous communities to sole ownership of a piece of land in the Amazon rainforest. The ruling ends a struggle which has lasted for decades.

The Supreme Court decided by 10 votes to 1 in favour of the 19,000 indigenous people who live in the Raposa Serra do Sol Reserve, in Roraima State.

The reserve is made up of over 6,000 square miles of mountains, savannas, and forests and has long been occupied by powerful rice-growers.

In April 2005, Brazilia President Luis Inácio Lula da Silva ratified the reserve as Indigenous land, recognizing over 30 years of struggle of the Indigenous peoples of the area. His ruling stipulated that all non-Indigenous occupants should leave the reserve within a year, however many refused and threatened to use force in order to remain.

In 2008 some rice growers burned bridges and attacked community centres in resistance to being removed. The violence culminated on 5^th May when ten indigenous people were shot.

As a consequence the government took the issue to the Supreme Court once more. The state government hoped that the land would be split up into plots that indigenous people and farmers could use side by side. However, the indigenous community’s original claim  to the land was upheld.

After the trial, the president of the Supreme Court said, “The basis we established in this case, the conditions and procedures, will serve as a guide for other disputes. We are putting an end to the issues surrounding similar cases.”

While the majority of rice farmers already left the reserve peacefully, Luiz Albrecht, the rice farmers’ defence lawyer, argued that the departure of those who remain cannot be instantaneous because they have already planted some rice, which will soon be ready to harvest.

The 200 rice farmers that still live and work in the area maintain that abandoning their crop will bring a hault to the development of the Roraima state. 

A Brazilian ranch owner accused of assassinating a nun, was charged on Wednesday with dishonestly trying to acquire the piece of land that she died defending.

In a separate property case, the prosecution exposed documents that rancher, Regivaldo Galvão, presented to the Brazilian land reform agency, claiming the land as his own and setting out a case for its return. The land is, in fact, public property.

Galvão had originally stated that he did not want the land. The documents, therefore, undermine his main defence and provide a motive for the killing.

He is being prosecuted for hiring two other men to murder Dorothy Stang, a 73-year-old nun and missionary, originally from Ohio in the US.

A federal prosecutor said that the evidence “will help the case of Dorothy’s murder”. He added: “The case is still open and we can use facts from this land case in Dorothy’s. He’s going to be found guilty, I have no doubt.”

Stang was a naturalized Brazilian citizen after having spent 30 years preserving the rain forest and defending the rights of poor settlers threatened by powerful ranch owners who wanted their land in the Amazon.

The fourth anniversary of Stang’s assassination was on 12th February 2009. Many people attended a mass in homage to her and visited her grave. Missionary, Rebecca Spires said, “Up until this moment impunity of the highest order still reigns.”

The case has highlighted the corruption that exists within the Brazilian justice system. Galvão was first arrested in 2005 for Stang’s murder but was freed on bail in 2006 and has employed legal maneuvers to avoid trial.

A second ranch owner, Vitalmiro Moura, was sentenced to 30 years in prison in May 2007 for organizing for Stang to be killed. His sentence was repealed last year after the man who confessed to shooting Stang changed his statement to say that he had acted alone.

The film ‘They Killed Sister Dorothy’ has also helped bring Stang’s killers closer to justice, according to her brother. He said: ”This film is showing the weakness of the whole judicial system, and that is pretty powerful. When it’s over, people are cheering and clapping – they get it, they know that perhaps this judicial system will never protect us, only those with money.”

Photo by Alberto César courtesy of Greenpeace

Illegal land clearance to make way for soy production in Para, Brazil

Last month Brazilian authorities announced that in the second half of 2007 rates of deforestation in the Amazon rainforest alarmingly doubled to record levels.

The figures showed that 3,235 square kilometres of the rainforest, known as ‘the lungs of the world’ given its ability to consume greenhouse gases and produce oxygen, was cleared in the last five months of 2007. The monthly rate of destruction rose from 23rd in August, to 948 square kilometres in December.

However, the tracking system used to obtain the figures only shows preliminary deforestation rates. When higher resolution satellite images are analysed, the figure is expected to double to a massive 7,000 square kilometres.

Prior to the five month period, the Brazilian government had been enjoying credit for successful management of the Amazon, which saw continued decrease in rates of deforestation for three consecutive years. During this period, more stringent measures of control were introduced, and protective legislation was enforced.

However, the news of the increase has come as no real surprise, given that recent trends have shown that levels of deforestation are linked to the market conditions of beef and soya. An increase in price of these products in the latter part of 2007 has encouraged Brazilian farmers to clear trees in order to make space to farm the profitable products. Prior to this period, their value was considerably lower, therefore reducing the need to clear land.

“The Brazilian government can not claim to be caught by surprise,” said Greenpeace’s Amazon coordinator, Paulo Adario. “Greenpeace warned throughout last year that increases in the price of soya and beef meant that unless urgent counter measures were taken, deforestation would rise.”

Measures

In reaction to the worrying figures, Brazilian president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva called an emergency meeting with six of his ministers on 24th January, where a series of measures designed to combat deforestation were agreed.

Measures included the suspension of any new deforestation requests in 36 municipalities in an area that accounted for half of the forest destruction last year. Also, landowners in the area will now have to give evidence that they are maintaining preservation, with harsh penalties imposed upon those who do not comply with the new regulations. Financial aid will also be withdrawn from businesses that promote illegal deforestation.

Photo by Luciana Napchan courtesy of Greenpeace

Log truck in Para, Brazil

The latter measure has clearly been introduced to combat, what Adrian Garda, head of the Amazonian projects of the NGO Conservation International, describes as ‘a double language’. He said: “While the environment ministry tries to put a brake on the destruction, public banks and the agriculture ministry finance deforestation with loans and subsidies without imposing any environment-related conditions.”

Additionally, companies such as trading houses, soybean crushers and meat processors that purchase commodities which have originated from the illegally destroyed areas will also share the responsibility for deforestation.

Greenpeace is far from impressed by the government’s response, which they describe as ‘a mixture of new and repackaged old protection measures’. They claim that ‘to date, the government’s track record of enforcing protection measures in the Amazon has been woeful’.

Time magazine’s Andrew Downie welcomes the measures, which he describes as ‘thorough’ and ‘hard-hitting’ – indeed many environmentalists approve. Downie does concede, however, that: “In a remote region like the Amazon, where laws are more suggestions than commandments, perpetual question marks surround enforcement.” The government has drafted in a further 800 federal police to ensure that the moratorium is respected, although in a rainforest some 5.5m square kilometres in size, their effectiveness remains limited.

Policing and enforcement, although vital, will not solve the problem of deforestation. According to forest engineer Eleazar Volpato, of the University of Brasilia: “The fight against the destruction of the rainforest is impossible without the cooperation of the landowners. One must convince the great landowners of their importance for environmental protection and also give them financial incentives.” The government demonstrates accordance with this, maintaining that its new push to prevent deforestation is different than efforts in the past, as farmers will now be targeted as well as loggers.

Question of commitment

Brazilian environment minister, Marina Silva, has conceded that levels of deforestation are indeed linked to the demand for more land on which meat and soya can be produced. It cannot be denied that the Brazilian market relies heavily on the products; it is the number one exporter of both beef and soya in the world.

This has caused environmentalist groups to call into question the commitment of the Brazilian government in actually solving the problem of deforestation, given that the economy’s position as the world’s 10th largest relies largely on its exports. Silva dismissed these accusations, affirming: “We should not sacrifice our resources, grown over thousands of years, for the benefit of a few years or even months.”

Likewise, agriculture minister, Reinhold Stephanes, sees no reason why Brazil needs to sacrifice it’s resources, maintaining that there is plenty of land available to farm which has already been deforested: “It’s not necessary to cut a single tree to produce soy or raise cattle,” he said. “There’s plenty of land outside of the Amazon to increase the production of soy and beef.” Stephanes went on to say: “Today Brazil has the conscience not to cut down trees to increase its production.”

Photo by courtesy of Greenpeace

Illegal land clearance to make way for soy production in Para, Brazil

The bigger picture

Deforestation is responsible for 20% of global greenhouse gas emissions, thus a primary contributor to climate change. As 60% of the Amazon is based in Brazil, deforestation there makes the country the world’s 4th largest contributor to global warming.

The Woods Hole Research Institute predicts that it would cost between US$100m and US$600 per year to reduce deforestation of the Brazilian Amazon to zero within a decade. Although a large sum, these figures are significantly lower than the cost of foregone profits from deforestation-dependent agriculture.

Essentially, avoided deforestation could actually offer Brazil the most cost-effective way to end deforestation, whilst simultaneously fighting global warming.