Originally an initiative of the private sector and civil
society, the Moratorium received the support of the Minister of the
Environment, Carlos Minc, who formally joined the initiative last
year. Thanks to the Soy Moratorium, soy is no longer the chief
driver of Amazon deforestation. That distinction belongs to cattle ranching, which is responsible for 80% of
deforestation in the Amazon. Greenpeace is calling for a cattle
moratorium to match the achievements of the Soy Moratorium in
protecting the Amazon rainforest.
The Soy Working Group says Soy Moratorium has made a
difference, but still very much necessary.
Created in 2006 to implement the Moratorium, the Soy Working
Group (GTS), which is made up of representatives from industry and
various NGOs, including Greenpeace, believes that the initiative
has made an important contribution to the reduction of the Amazon's
annual deforestation rate. According to the GTS, in the three years
since the Moratorium was established, concrete advances have been
made, such as the creation of a monitoring system based on
satellite images and flyovers and field visits that allow companies
to identify properties that are not complying with the Moratorium,
thereby allowing them to be removed from the ABIOVE and ANEC
supplier lists.
Nevertheless, the GTS also says that the Amazon Biome governance
conditions are not yet sufficient to allow a suspension of the
Moratorium.
Data on last year's forest canopy loss in the Amazon compiled by
Brazil's National Institute for Space Research (INPE), which
provides satellite mapping data, indicate that the deforestation
profile is changing, with an increase in the number of deforested
areas of less than 100 hectares (about 247 acres). The data also
show a significant drop in deforestation of larger areas -
precisely those directly monitored by the GTS.
Therefore, the monitoring system has to be changed to include
small deforestations in the analysis of next year's crop, whose
planting starts in October. The GTS intends to adopt a sampling
system, using remote sensory technology to identify crops through
satellite images of adequate spatial resolution. This technological
advance should make it possible to preselect properties for field
visits, so that a significant number of deforestations in the
Amazon can be monitored in 2009/2010.
Prior to the Soy
Moratorium, large swaths of Amazon were clearcut for soy
plantations, while tiny islands of intact rainforest such as this
one were left behind to meet lax government standards. ©
Greenpeace
Registration of properties a priority
According to ABIOVE's President, Carlo Lovatelli, the industry's
GTS coordinator, one of the main priorities will be to encourage
registration and environmental licensing of rural properties.
Registration creates records of the property's exact location and
identification of the owner, and also allows better monitoring of
the property's Legal Reserve and Permanent Preservation (APP)
areas. ABIOVE's member companies will promote orientation and
awareness campaigns among rural producers in harmony with state
government efforts, such as the "Legal MT" program recently
launched by the Mato Grosso state government. At the same time, the
GTS will encourage the federal government to support a better
structure for the state organizations responsible for registration
and licensing.
"For agribusiness to operate transparently in the Amazon Biome,
the soy producer must register his property and the government must
do its part. This is a fundamental step to give our customers a
guarantee of the environmental quality of our product," Lovatelli
said.
The Soy Moratorium in Copenhagen
The GTS plans to report the Moratorium case in a parallel
session to the U.N.'s Convention on Climatic Changes, which will be
held in Copenhagen in December. The objective is to show that
corporate responsibility measures, such as the Soy Moratorium, can
contribute positively to the reduction of greenhouse gas
emissions.
"Initiatives such as these need the international community's
support, through adoption of financial mechanisms that allow
support for forest and climate conservation without damaging food
production," said Paulo Adario, Greenpeace's Amazon Campaign
Director and the civil society's coordinator in the GTS. "In
addition to increasing the government's institutional capacity for
monitoring and conservation, new money is needed on the table so
that local communities and rural producers can produce without
cutting down the forest."
ABIOVE's Lovatelli echoes this assertion: "Payment for
environmental services will be a big incentive for the rural
producer not to deforest. The industry hopes that, in Copenhagen,
governments from different countries assume this commitment."
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