US Forest Report May Fuel More Deforestation in Brazil

Brazilian agribusiness interests are igniting a firestorm in their national Congress that may end up eroding a vital rainforest protection law, and for tinder, they're using a months-old report written by a U.S.-based coalition of forest protection advocates.

These local agribusiness advocates say the report shows U.S. lawmakers see stopping deforestation in the Amazon as a way to open markets worth billions of dollars for American agriculture at the expense of Brazil.

The report by Washington, D.C.-based Avoided Deforestation Partners (ADP) said that ending tree loss through U.S. and global climate incentives would net $190 to $270 billion by 2030 for American beef, soy timber and oil seed producers. It would do so by cutting unfair competition from tropical nations like Brazil.

"Eliminating deforestation by 2030 will limit revenues for agricultural expansion and logging in tropical countries, providing a more level playing for U.S. producers in global commodities markets," the report, Farms Here, Forests There, said.

The study was released in May. Now agricultural interests in Brazil are waving it around as fuel for their campaign to allow more deforestation, local observers said this week.

Paulo Barreto, a senior researcher at Imazon, a Brazilian–based environmental research institute, told SolveClimate that lawmakers aligned with agribusiness recently "discovered" the study and are using it as "an example of how the international interests will hurt the agricultural sector."

Target: 45-Year-Old Forest Code

Their main target, Barreto said, is the Brazilian forest code, first passed in 1965. With the ADP report as a new weapon, they are pushing for passage of a reform bill that would weaken the 45-year-old law and put some 85 million acres of protected rainforest at risk in the process, experts say.

A coalition of 13 environmental organizations called the forest code "one of the most important laws protecting Brazil's natural resources," in an appeal to their supporters to fight the bill. Under the current law, Brazilian landowners are allowed to clear 20 percent of their forests but must keep 80 percent in tact. The new bill could shrink that proportion to 50-50.

For Barreto, however, the biggest concern with the measure is that it would grant amnesty to individuals who have already cut down trees illegally.

This week, a special committee of Congress is expected to vote on the amended bill, introduced by Aldo Rebelo of the Communist Party in Brazil. Barreto said legislators remain "divided" on it, though he said "there's a risk" it could pass. He said a final vote by Congress may not happen until after the October 3 elections, however, because the issue remains "very controversial." 

Deforestation accounts for around 20 percent of greenhouse gas emissions that spur global warming, according to UN estimates. Most of that is from the destruction of tropical rainforests, which soak up substantial amounts of carbon dioxide as they grow.

In fast-developing Brazil, cutting forests is responsible for 75 percent of climate change emissions.

Report Results Get Deliberately Twisted

The ADP report, commissioned with the National Farmers Union, a lobbying group, claims that inclusion of international tropical forest offsets in a coming U.S. climate bill would control climate change and deliver the double benefits of keeping American agriculture competitive and the legislation affordable to industry.