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Trade an impor­tant dri­ver of Brazil­ian deforestation

201306Apr11:06

Trade an impor­tant dri­ver of Brazil­ian deforestation

Infor­ma­tion
pub­lished 06 April 2013 | mod­i­fied 05 April 2014
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karstensen graph 2013Trade and global con­sump­tion of Brazil­ian beef and soy­beans is increas­ingly dri­ving Brazil­ian defor­esta­tion.

A new study pub­lished on April 4 in the jour­nal Envi­ron­men­tal Research Let­ters finds that con­se­quently, cur­rent inter­na­tional efforts to pro­tect rain­forests (e.g., REDD) may be under­mined by the increased trade and con­sump­tion.

By esti­mat­ing CO2 emis­sions from defor­esta­tion in the Brazil­ian Ama­zon from 1990 to 2010, and con­nect­ing the emis­sions to the most impor­tant direct dri­vers of Brazil­ian defor­esta­tion, i.e. cul­ti­va­tion of soy­beans and graz­ing of cat­tle, the study allo­cates the emis­sions to coun­tries based on domes­tic con­sump­tion and inter­na­tional trade of Brazil­ian soy­beans and beef.

Par­tic­u­larly in the last decade, greater imports by emerg­ing mar­kets and indus­tri­alised coun­tries have led to an increas­ing share of exported emis­sions from Brazil. Con­se­quently, in recent years more of Brazil’s defor­esta­tion is allo­cated to for­eign regions
Jonas Karstensen, lead author, Cen­ter for Inter­na­tional Cli­mate and Envi­ron­men­tal Research — Oslo (CICERO) »

“With a con­sump­tion per­spec­tive, the share of respon­si­bil­ity for defor­esta­tion is divided among the global con­sumers. What, in one per­spec­tive is Brazil’s prob­lem, is now a global prob­lem” said lead author .

Accord­ing to the study, 2.7 bil­lion tonnes of CO2, or 30% of the car­bon emis­sions asso­ci­ated with defor­esta­tion in the last decade, was exported from Brazil. Of this, 29% were due to soy­bean pro­duc­tion and 71% were due to cat­tle ranch­ing.

Brazil­ian con­sump­tion is respon­si­ble for the largest share of emis­sions from its own defor­esta­tion: on aver­age over the two decades, 85% of the emis­sions embod­ied in Brazil­ian beef prod­ucts and 50% of those in Brazil­ian soy­bean prod­ucts have been dri­ven by Brazil­ian con­sump­tion.

Watch Jonas Karstensen explain the study and its results:


(video credit CICERO)


Rus­sia has recently increased its share from very low lev­els to becom­ing the world’s largest importer of emis­sions embod­ied in Brazil­ian beef in 2010, with 15% of total exported beef. China’s share of emis­sions linked to soy­beans has increased from 7% of total pro­duc­tion emis­sions in 2000 to 22% in 2010, equiv­a­lent to about 41% of the emis­sions embod­ied in exported soy­beans in 2010.

“Accord­ing to our esti­mates, Asia, mainly due to China and Rus­sia, now con­sumes more Brazil­ian soy­beans and beef than the Euro­pean mar­ket” said co-​author Glen Peters of CICERO.

Con­sump­tion of Brazil­ian soy­beans and beef by coun­tries who are already seek­ing to pro­tect Brazil­ian forests (e.g., via REDD), is dri­ving demand and there­fore indi­rectly increas­ing the defor­esta­tion they are seek­ing to pre­vent.

Coun­tries are putting more and more pres­sure on the Brazil­ian Ama­zon by con­sum­ing agri­cul­tural prod­ucts, and by doing this they are under­min­ing their efforts to pro­tect the same forest
(Jonas Karstensen)

Both total Brazil­ian agri­cul­ture pro­duc­tion and export shares have gen­er­ally been increas­ing while defor­esta­tion rates have seen a dra­matic decrease over recent years. “With increas­ing global pres­sure on Brazil­ian agri­cul­ture to increase pro­duc­tion and changes to the Brazil­ian For­est Code, it seems unlikely that Brazil­ian defor­esta­tion rates will con­tinue to decrease at the cur­rent rate with­out strength­en­ing mea­sures to pro­tect the forests” said co-​author Rob­bie Andrew.


The above news item is reprinted from mate­ri­als avail­able at CICERO. Orig­i­nal text may be edited for con­tent and length.
(Source: CICERO Web news, 04.04.2013)

Tags: defor­esta­tion | Brazil | trade | export | beef | soy­bean
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