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Large-scale clearing for agriculture in the Brazilian Amazon.
(Photo courtesy of Jacques Descloitres, MODIS Rapid Response Team, NASA/GSFC)
COMMERCIAL AGRICULTURE
Agricultural use of some rainforest land proves to be a failure because of the nutrient-deficient, acidic soils of these forests. Nevertheless, many commercial agricultural projects are still carried out on rainforest lands,
although many of these revert to cattle pasture after soils are depleted. Some floodplain regions, like
those of the lower Amazon (várzea), are more suitable for commercial agriculture because annual floods replenish
nutrient stores.
Generally forest clearers use slash-and-burn techniques to clear land, but on a much larger scale
than traditional practices. Instead of burning a mere 2-10 acres (1-4 ha), agriculturalists burn hundreds to thousands
of hectares. This slash-and-burn technique is generally wasteful since it is only occasionally that trees with timber value are removed before the forest is clear cut and left to dry. Following cutting, the area is burned to release nutrients locked up in vegetation and produce a layer of nutrient-rich material above the poor soils of the former tropical forest. The cleared area is quickly planted and supports vigorous growth for a few years, after which the
nutrient stock is depleted and copious amounts of fertilizer are required to keep the operation viable. Fertilizer may be washed into local streams, affecting fish and aquatic life. When the use of fertilizer is deemed no longer efficient, the land is abandoned and allowed to
revert to scrub. Drought-resistant grasses may move in or cattle ranchers may plant imported African grasses for
cattle grazing. The land is now only marginally productive and a limited number of cattle can subsist in the area.
When the land is suitable for agriculture, generally large single cash crops like rice, citrus fruits, oil palms, coffee,
coca, opium, tea, soybeans, cacao, rubber, and bananas are cultivated. Some of these crops are better adapted to
such conditions and last longer on cleared forest lands. However, there are several problems with this type of monoculture
(single crop plantations) in the tropics, besides the loss of forest. First, such planting of a single crop makes
the crop highly vulnerable to disease and pests, as periodic infestations have shown in Brazil, India, and other
places. In natural rainforest, widespread infestations are rare because individuals of a given species are widely
dispersed. Second, the planting of monocultures can be economically risky with the price fluctuations so common in international commodities markets.
Additionally, a single cold spell or drought
can devastate a tremendous part of the agricultural economy.
In the state of Acre in western Brazil, farms and pastures are surrounded by large, undisturbed areas of Amazon rainforest. Since January 2005, many areas in the state have been experiencing severe drought, and the forests have become tinder dry. Since August, agricultural fires—many of them ignited in violation of a state-declared ban—have been escaping control, racing through adjacent fields and spreading into the forests. The situation deteriorated through September, and record amounts of previously undamaged rainforest may burn before the episode is over. Several NASA-funded scientists have helped the Brazilians respond to the disaster by providing daily summaries of fire detections made by satellite, aircraft, and ground observations.
These images from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA's Terra satellite show a pattern of forest and farmland east of the city of Rio Branco before (top) and after (bottom) the peak of the 2005 agricultural burning season. The images are made from visible, shortwave, and near-infrared light detected by MODIS. Bright green is unburned forest, bright red is recently burned areas, and tan is cleared, but unburned land. Next to some burned fields, the forest appears dark green, or "bruised," probably indicating places where fires escaped from fields and burned into the forest understory.
NASA images by Jesse Allen (NASA Earth Observatory) and Jeff Schmaltz (MODIS Rapid Response), text courtesy of NASA's Earth Observatory.
The cultivation of some of these crops in mountainous, watershed areas has adverse effects for the environment,
notably the alteration of water cycles and erosion. In Peru, the cultivation of coca plants (containing the basic
ingredient for cocaine) was so widespread in the Andean foothills during the 1980s and 1990s that Peruvian river flood cycles were altered
in some areas, making the high-water season unpredictable. The most serious environmental
concern (other than deforestation) stemming from the cultivation of coca is the dumping of chemicals (including
kerosene, sulfuric acid, acetone, and carbide) used to process coca leaves. However, stopping coca cultivation is
nearly impossible due to simple economics: no crop outperforms coca. The CIA claims that some 600,000 hectares of forest are cleared annually for coca and opium
poppy cultivation.
In some parts of the world, large-scale commercial agriculture takes up the majority of the productive floodplain and volcanic soils, while leaving smaller farmers little choice but to cut farmland from the rainforest. The ownership of these large commercial
farms is concentrated in the hands of a wealthy minority, who may benefit from tax incentives to leave some of their
land fallow and not fully employed at any given time. These large farm businesses generally do not employ large numbers of locals, though when they do, workers are
used seasonally for low wages. In recent years, grain production in Brazil and other Latin American countries has widely accelerated. However, most of the money ends up in the hands of a few large landowners who, in more marginal areas, have relied on subsidies to survive the harsh soil and climate conditions. Only through these handouts have these landowners been able to turn a profit.
Soy
Soybean cultivation in South America. Map showing soybean distribution area in South America as of the year 2000. Rainforest and savanna ("cerrado") ecosystems in the Amazon are giving way to soya fields. Images courtesy of the Global Land Use Database at the University of Wisconsin.
Soybeans have become one of the Brazil's most important crops in the Amazon, as well as in the nearby cerrado grassland ecosystem. Today soybeans are flourishing—since 1998, Brazil has added 30 million acres of soybeans, and American firms are aggressively expanding their presence in the Brazilian agricultural sector. Brazil will likely soon supplant the United States as the world's leading exporter of soybeans, at the expense of the forests and savannas of the Amazon basin.
Annual deforestation rates and annual soy expansion for states in the Brazilian Amazon 1990-2005. Note that the 1995-1996 and 1998-1999 years were negative and do not show up on the chart. Graphs based on Brazilian government data.
Total deforestation and area of soybean cultivation across states in the Brazilian Amazon. Overall soybean cultivation makes up only a small portion of deforestation, though its role is accelerating. Further, soybean expansion and the associated infrastructure development and farmer displacement is driving deforestation by other actors.
Note: some soybean farms are established on already degraded rainforest lands and neighboring cerrado ecosystems. Therefore it would be inappropriate to assume the area of soybean planting represents its actual role in deforestation.
More on soybeans in the Amazon
Amazon rainforest will bear cost of biofuel policies in Brazil
(02/08/2010) Business-as-usual agricultural expansion to meet biofuel production targets for 2020 will take a heavy toll on Brazil's Amazon rainforest in coming years, undermining the potential emissions savings of transitioning from fossil fuels to biofuels, warns a new paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). The research suggests that intensification of cattle ranching, combined with efforts to promote high-yielding oil crops like oil palm could lessen forecast greenhouse gas emissions from indirect land use in the region.
Commodity trade and urbanization, rather than rural poverty, drive deforestation
(02/07/2010) Deforestation is increasingly correlated to urban population growth and trade rather than rural poverty, suggesting that measures proposed to reduce deforestation will be ineffective if they fail to address demand for commodities produced on forest lands, argues a new paper published in Nature GeoScience.
Brazil could halt Amazon deforestation within a decade
(12/03/2009) Funds generated under a U.S. cap-and-trade or a broader U.N.-supported scheme to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation and degradation ("REDD") could play a critical role in bringing deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon to a halt, reports a team writing in the journal Science. But the window of opportunity is short — Brazil has a two to three year window to take actions that would end Amazon deforestation within a decade.
Deforestation emissions should be shared between producer and consumer, argues study
(11/19/2009) Under the Kyoto Protocol the nation that produces carbon emission takes responsibility for them, but what about when the country is producing carbon-intensive goods for consumer demand beyond its borders? For example while China is now the world's highest carbon emitter, 50 percent of its growth over the last year was due to producing goods for wealthy countries like the EU and the United States which have, in a sense, outsourced their manufacturing emissions to China. A new study in Environmental Research Letters presents a possible model for making certain that both producer and consumer share responsibility for emissions in an area so far neglected by studies of this kind: deforestation and land-use change.
Prince Charles making progress in effort to save rainforests, says leading British environmentalist
(09/22/2009) Prince Charles of Great Britain has emerged as one of the world’s highest-profile promoters of a scheme that could finally put an end to destruction of tropical rainforests. The Prince’s Rainforest Project, launched in 2007, is promoting awareness of the role deforestation plays in climate change—it accounts for nearly a fifth of greenhouse gas emissions. The project also publicizes the multitude of benefits tropical forests provide, including maintenance of rainfall, biodiversity, and sustainable livelihoods for millions of people. But the initiative goes beyond merely raising awareness. Prince Charles is using his considerable influence to bring political and business leaders together to devise and support a plan to provide emergency funding to save rainforests. Tony Juniper, one of Britain’s best-known environmentalists and Special Adviser to the project, spoke about Prince Charles' efforts in an interview with mongabay.com.
The palm oil industry is an increasingly important driver of forest conversion in southeast Asia, especially Indonesia and Malaysia. Cultivation of oil palm, the world's most productive oil seed, has expanded in Indonesia from 600,000 hectares in 1985 to more than 6 million hectares by early 2007, and is expected to reach 10 million hectares by 2010. In Sabah and Sarawak (Malaysian Borneo), the area of plantations has increased from 186,744 hectares in Sabah and Sarawak in 1984 to 1,673,721 hectares at the close of 2003. Scientists say the use of palm oil biodiesel from plantations established on peat soils releases 8 to 21 times the emissions as conventional diesel fuel.
More on palm oil
Chart showing annual palm oil production by Malaysia and Indonesia from 1964-2006. Click to enlarge.
Forest cover versus palm oil production in Indonesia.
Commodity trade and urbanization, rather than rural poverty, drive deforestation
(02/07/2010) Deforestation is increasingly correlated to urban population growth and trade rather than rural poverty, suggesting that measures proposed to reduce deforestation will be ineffective if they fail to address demand for commodities produced on forest lands, argues a new paper published in Nature GeoScience.
Certified palm oil sales accelerate
(02/05/2010) For the first time, sales of certified sustainable palm oil have nearly met production, reports the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), a group that has developed the leading environmental certification standard for palm oil.
EU: rainforests can be converted to palm oil plantations for biofuel production
(02/04/2010) The European Union may be planning to classify oil palm plantations as forests, raising fears among environmental groups of expanded conversion of tropical rainforests for biofuel production, reports the EUobserver, which cites a leaked document from the European Commission. The draft document shows that policymakers are considering language that would specifically allow use of biofuels produced via conversion of rainforests to oil palm plantations.
Half of Indonesia's species remain unknown
(02/02/2010) Incorporating 17,000 tropical islands, Indonesia is one of the world's richest areas of biodiversity. However, according to the Jakarta Post, over half of this biodiversity remains unrecorded with only 20 of the more than 400 regencies in the country recording species.
UK failing to meet biofuel sustainability standard
(02/01/2010) Only 4 percent of biofuel imported for use in the UK meets the environmental sustainability standard set by the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation (RFTO), reports a new assessment from the Renewable Fuels Agency.
The Caribbean's wonderfully weird (and threatened) mammals, an interview with Jose Nunez-Mino
(01/18/2010) Not many people know the solenodon and the hutia, yet for the fortunate few that have encountered them, these strange little-studied mammals—just barely holding on in the Caribbean island of Hispaniola—deserve to be stars of the animal kingdom. "I could not quite believe it the first time I held a solenodon; I was in utter awe of this mesmerizing mammal. […] They have a long flexible snout which is all down to the fact that it is joined to the skull by a unique ball-and-socket joint. This makes it look as if the snout is almost independent to the rest of the animal. You can’t help but feel fascinated by the snout and inevitably it does make you smile," Dr. Jose Nunez-Mino, the Project Manager for a new initiative to study and conserve the island's last mammals, told mongabay.com in an interview.
Unilever suspends palm oil contract after supplier found to be destroying rainforests
(12/12/2009) The world's largest user of palm oil, Unilever, has suspended its $32.6 million contract with the Indonesian group Sinar Mas after an independent audit proved that Sinar Mas is involved in the destruction of rainforest, reports Reuters. The audit was conducted early this year after a report by Greenpeace alleged that Sinar Mas was engaged in deforestation and the draining of peatlands, both of which release significant amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Deforestation across Indonesia and Malaysia, in part for oil palm plantations, has also added pressure on many many endangered species, including orangutans, tigers, elephants, and rhinos.
REDD may miss up to 80 percent of land use change emissions
(12/11/2009) The political definition of 'forest' used in REDD (Reduce Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation) threatens to undermine the program's objective to conserve ecosystems for their ability to sequester carbon, according to a new analysis by the Alternatives to Slash and Burn (ASB) Partnership for Tropical Forest Margins. In an analysis of three Indonesian provinces using REDD proposals for carbon accounting, ASB found that REDD may miss up to 80 percent of the actual emissions due to land use change. The carbon accounting problems could be fixed, according to ASB, by expanding REDD's purpose from reducing emissions linked to deforestation (considering the problematic definition of forests) to reducing emission from all land use changes that either release or capture greenhouse gases, including but not limited to forests.
Transmitters implanted in orangutans for tracking after release into the wild
(11/23/2009) For the first time transmitters have been implanted in orangutans to track their daily movements. The Sabah Wildlife Department (SWD) has implanted transmitters into three orangutans that have been released back into the wild from Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Center in the Malaysian state of Sabah on the island of Borneo.
Deforestation emissions should be shared between producer and consumer, argues study
(11/19/2009) Under the Kyoto Protocol the nation that produces carbon emission takes responsibility for them, but what about when the country is producing carbon-intensive goods for consumer demand beyond its borders? For example while China is now the world's highest carbon emitter, 50 percent of its growth over the last year was due to producing goods for wealthy countries like the EU and the United States which have, in a sense, outsourced their manufacturing emissions to China. A new study in Environmental Research Letters presents a possible model for making certain that both producer and consumer share responsibility for emissions in an area so far neglected by studies of this kind: deforestation and land-use change.
