[Marxism] Battle for the Amazon

[Louis Proyect]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/oct/01/brazil
Battle for the Amazon
A massive increase in deforestation has put two branches of the 
Brazilian government on collision course
by Conor Foley

Brazil's new environment minister, Carlos Minc, announced this week that 
he will be pressing for criminal charges against 100 of the worst 
individuals or companies responsible for most of the deforestation since 
2005. New figures just released show that the rate of deforestation has 
increased by 133% since last month in the nine states of the Amazon 
region, which is an increase of 228% compared to a year ago.

Minc also said that the government will create an environmental police 
force with 3,000 heavily armed and specially trained officers to enforce 
the law. "I am a pacifist and environmentalist," he told journalists, 
"but without greater repression we are not going to end the destruction 
of the Amazon."

Top of Minc's list of culprits is the Brazilian National Institute for 
Agrarian Reform (Inrca), responsible for finding land for Brazil's large 
landless population, whose settlements in the Amazon are ranked amongst 
the top eight worst offenders. However, Incra's president, Rolf 
Hackbart, rejected the idea of bringing criminal proceedings as "absurd" 
saying that it will only serve to undermine the government's agrarian 
reforms.

Brazil faces two related environmental problems, based on its highly 
unequal system of land ownership, which means that a tiny elite hold 
massive estates, while millions remain landless. Increased mechanisation 
and the spread of cash crops has driven large numbers of these into the 
Amazon, where they clear land for farming using cash and burn 
techniques. This, and illegal logging for Brazil's high quality wood, 
has steadily increased the pressure on the rainforest and is also a 
major cause of global warming.

Under President Lula, Brazil has had some success reversing 
deforestation in recent years, but this year saw a sharp increase in the 
levels of destruction. The rising price of food is undoubtedly one of 
the major reasons for this, but Minc also stressed that it was down to a 
lack of inspection and enforcement of the law.

Hackbart, however, blamed the "economic model of agriculture" as the 
main reason for the destruction. He said that Mato Grosso, one of the 
states bordering the Amazon, is "a sea of soya and cattle ranches." The 
big farmers are destroying the environment through the production of 
cash crops and cattle, he said, and pushing smaller farmers into the 
Amazon. He argued that the crisis needs to be tackled holistically and 
blaming Incra and the small farmers is to attack the principal victims 
of the crisis.

Minc assumed office two months ago after the resignation of Marina 
Silva, a native of the Amazon and an internationally respected 
campaigner. She had clashed repeatedly with other members of President 
Lula's government, in particular, Dilma Rousseff, Lula's chief of staff, 
who is leading its flagship programme for accelerated growth and Roberto 
Mangabeira Unger, the "minister for long-term planning". Although she 
was a long-time friend and colleague of Lula's, he also sided against 
her, stressing that the preservation of the Amazon should be "balanced 
against economic development and the needs of the people who live there".

Silva had also come up against some entrenched vested interests at the 
local level and Minc again warned at the weekend that a lack of 
cooperation by some state governors was a major part of the problem.

Brazil's environmentalists have repeatedly criticised Blairo Maggi, the 
governor of Mato Grosso and the world's largest soya bean producer, for 
being one of the chief causes of the Amazon's destruction. Greenpeace 
awarded him their Golden Chainsaw Award in 2006.

Five years ago Maggi told the new York Times:

"To me, a 40% increase in deforestation doesn't mean anything at all, 
and I don't feel the slightest guilt over what we are doing here. We're 
talking about an area larger than Europe that has barely been touched, 
so there is nothing at all to get worried about."