Under the terms of the deal, JBS agreed to stop buying cattle from areas embargoed by environmental inspection agencies and lands classified as conservation units or indigenous territories, unless the management plans of those areas allow for livestock. Cattle production often occurs illegally in forests zoned for conservation or indigenous use and squatters are used as proxies to grab the land. JBS will also not buy cattle from ranches that have been convicted of labor abuses, including slave labor. 

From September 2012, JBS will only buy meat from ranches that have registered their holdings with the government and have the proper environmental licenses. 

Any breach of the agreement could result in fines up to 500 reals ($300) per pound of beef. 

The deal could help curtail deforestation for cattle production — which accounts for the bulk of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon — but its effectiveness still hinges on local governance, where corruption remains a problem. The government is working to improve the situation by arresting environmental officials linked to graft and increasing the transparency of the registration process by making more information available on the Internet, but some states are further along in the process than others. 

The news comes nearly two years after Brazil’s biggest meatpackers agreed to a moratorium on new forest clearing for cattle production. The agreement was spurred by a Greenpeace campaign that linked some of the world’s most prominent brands — Nike, Timberland, and Adidas — to deforestation in the Amazon rainforest. The companies responded by refusing to buy cattle products unless they were shown to be free of deforestation. 

Deforestation continues to ebb in the Brazilian Amazon. Annual deforestation is down by more than three-quarters since 2004 despite a rise in commodity prices. Improved law enforcement, an increase in the number of protected areas, growing sensitivity in the corporate sector to environmental issues, and macro-economic trends are generally credited for the decline. 

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The rising price of gold has multiplied by six the pace of deforestation in the Amazon rainforest in the Peruvian region of Madre de Dios in recent years. 

Illegal gold searches using primitive techniques in the years 2003-9 led to the destruction of 7,000 hectares of virgin and extremely diverse rainforest in the two-largest gold-digging areas in the region, Guacamayo and Colorado-Puquiri, Assistant Professor Jennifer Swenson of Duke University said in the online scientific journal PLoS ONE.

Researchers came to this conclusion when they studied satellite images taken by US space agency Nasa and related them to the evolution of the price of gold and to Peru’s mercury imports.

“Virtually all mercury imported to Peru is used for artisanal gold mining and imports have risen exponentially since 2003, mirroring the rise in gold prices,” Swenson said.

“Given the rate of recent increases, we project mercury imports will more than double by the end of 2011, to about 500 tons a year,” she said.

The highly poisonous metal is used by poor gold-diggers to wash gold off rock and sand. It is not only harmful to the health of those who handle it, but it also pollutes the region’s rivers and air.

Mercury also gets into the food chain and harms local indigenous communities and even those that live further away. Once the gold searchers are done, they leave behind a desert landscape that is poisoned by mercury.

Peruvian Environment Minister Antonio Brack said gold-diggers have already destroyed 32,000 hectares of rainforest in Madre de Dios.

In March, a large joint operation by police and the military targeted tens of thousands of gold searchers, and 32 floating dredges were seized, Brack said. The minister said he was sorry about the death of two prospectors during the raid, although he stressed that the use of force had been justified in the face of an “environmental tragedy.”

However, the problem is far from solved. Police assume that at least 250 floating dredges are in use in the region. According to Brack, it will take at least five years to get those searching for gold to leave.

And yet poverty in Peru continues to push more and more people into searching for gold, as well as into other equally illegal activities like logging or settling in the rainforest.

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In this special year, the United Nations Forum on Forests (UNFF) and the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) are working together to highlight the importance of forest biodiversity to humankind.

The theme for Forests 2o11 is ‘Forests for People’, celebrating of the central role of people in the management, conservation, and sustainable development of our World’s Forests.

Spread The Word- Raise Awareness Worldwide.

We DEPEND on Forests.

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United Nations ~Celebrating Forests for People~ main page:

http://www.un.org/en/events/iyof2011/index.shtml

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Convention on Biological Diversity info pages:

Foreword; Introduction; Value; Threats; Hope; Links:

http://www.cbd.int/idb/2011/booklet/?tab=0

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International Year of Forests 2o11- logo and guidelines:

http://www.un.org/en/events/iyof2011/logo.shtml

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Key Forest related Events in 2o11:

http://www.un.org/en/events/iyof2011/events.shtml

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We Are All One:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCnWZncHH2Y

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The company leading the dam project, Norte Energia, announced that infrastructure work on roads that will provide access to the region started on Monday morning.

The £7bn Belo Monte dam on the Amazon’s Xingu river is scheduled to start producing energy on 31 December 2014 and would be the second largest of its kind in Brazil and reputedly the world’s third largest. The Brazilian government says the dam is urgently needed if the country is to keep pace with soaring domestic energy demand resulting from a booming economy that grew 7.5% last year.

But indigenous and environmental groups claim Belo Monte will displace tens of thousands of river-dwellers and bring violence and social chaos to the Amazon state of Para.

In a recent interview with international journalists, Mauricio Tolmasquim, the president of Brazil’s Energy Research Company, defended the project. “Belo Monte allows Brazil to achieve two objectives. First, it manages to meet the energy needs of the country, which will foster growth in development; while at the same time maintaining low levels of greenhouse gas emissions,” he said.

But during a campaigning trip to London earlier this month, Sheyla Juruna, a prominent indigenous activist from the region, said the dam would destroy river communities.

“We are here to show the international community that we are not being heard and that the Brazilian government is seriously violating our rights. The government speaks about sustainable development and human rights. How can this be true when they are forcing these projects of destruction on us?”

Last year, the Oscar-winning director James Cameron, visited the dam, explaining: “If this goes forward then every other hydroelectric project in the Amazon basin gets a blank cheque. It’s now a global issue. The Amazon rainforest is so big and so powerful a piece of the overall climate picture that its destruction will affect everyone.”

“I do not accept the Belo Monte dam,” said Mokuka Kayapó, an indigenous leader who met with Cameron. “The forest is our butcher. The river, with its fish, is our market. This is how we survive.”

Not all locals agree. In Altamira, the nearest town, some are excited about energy ministry claims that around 20,000 jobs will be created. Outsiders, assumed to be dam-opponents from environmental groups, are often treated with with suspicion.

Tolmasquim said the dam’s blueprint was designed to bring “the smallest possible negative effects to local communities” and claimed Belo Monte could be a “driving force for sustainable development in the region.”

“No indigenous land surrounding the area of the project will be flooded. No indigenous community will be moved out of their land,” he said, adding: “This is a very different project from other major projects, such as the Three Gorges Dam project, which was estimated to have relocated one million people.” Opponents are unconvinced and this week vowed to continue fighting, despite the start of building works.

The project remains at the center of a major legal tussle and has so far been granted only a partial environmental license under which full construction cannot begin.

“The struggle to resist the Belo Monte Dam and protect the Xingu river is far from over,” said Christian Poirier, the Brazil programme co-ordinator for environmental group Amazon Watch. “Resistance on the ground will not waver.”

“We will keep battling,” Renata Pinheiro, a legal representative from the Xingu River Forever Alive Movement, told the Amazonian O Liberal newspaper.

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Judge Desterro said environmental requirements to build the Belo Monte dam had not been met.

He also barred the national development bank, BNDES, from funding the project.

The dam is a cornerstone of President Dilma Rousseff’s plans to upgrade Brazil’s energy infrastructure.

But it has faced protests and challenges from environmentalists and local indigenous groups who say it will harm the world’s largest tropical rainforest and displace tens of thousands of people.

Judge Desterro said the Brazilian environmental agency, Ibama, had approved the project without ensuring that 29 environmental conditions had been met.

In particular, he said concerns that the dam would disrupt the flow of the Xingu river – one of the Amazon’s main tributaries – had not been met.

His ruling is the latest stage in a long legal battle over Belo Monte. Previous injunctions blocking construction have been overturned.

The government says the Belo Monte dam is crucial for development and will create jobs, as well as provide electricity to 23 million homes.

The 11,000-megawatt dam would be the biggest in the world after the Three Gorges in China and Itaipu, which is jointly run by Brazil and Paraguay.

It has long been a source of controversy, with bidding halted three times before the state-owned Companhia Hidro Eletrica do Sao Francisco was awarded the contract last year.

Celebrities such as the singer Sting and film director James Cameron have joined environmentalists in their campaign against the project.

This 6km (3.7 miles) dam will threaten the survival of a number of indigenous groups and could make some 50,000 people homeless, as 500 sq km (190 sq miles) of land would be flooded.

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The government sent about 1,000 security forces to the region of Madre de Dios to destroy the illegal operations, the state-funded BBC reported.

At least seven dredging boats used to extract gold from the river bed were discovered and set on fire or sunk by the forces.

Illegal miners are reportedly able to make up to USD 30,000 per day without paying taxes on their gold extractions.

Eighteen tons of gold is extracted from the region every year, according to government officials.

These activities have caused serious damage to biodiversity in the region, located in the Amazon rainforest along the Interoceanic Highway linking Peru and Brazil.

Three times the amount of mercury is used to extract every gram of gold, a condition which leads to the release of more than 40 tons of toxic metal into the environment and the poisoning of the food chain.

Deforestation of the area for mining, as well as agriculture, has caused at least 18,000 hectares of the rainforest to be transformed into desert, Peru’s Environment Minister Antonio Brack said.

Many migrant workers are lured to the area in search of work. Child prostitution, money laundering, slavery and drug-trafficking are also caused by the increased in illicit cash and activities.

Environmentalists say the government has known for years of the destructive and illegal activities in the region, but has previously failed to act.

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Amazon Watch and Rainforest Action Network just announced a major victory for the Amazon rainforest. An Ecuadorean judge today found Chevron guilty of one of the largest environmental crimes in history and ordered the company to pay a whopping $8 billion to clean up its damage in the Amazon.

Chevron immediately issued a statement condemning the judgement as “ilegitimate and unenforceable” and announced plans to appeal.  This ruling clearly has Chevron riled up, as the statement suggests the ruling is “the product of fraud” and included this ominous line: “Chevron intends to see that the perpetrators of this fraud are held accountable for their misconduct.”

Chevron apparently fails to see the irony of the phrase “held accountable for their misconduct” since today was a major slapdown of the company’s destruction of the Amazon rainforest in Ecuador.

As the L.A. Times notes in its piece about the verdict,

Head over to The Understory blog of the Rainforest Action Network for more details.

AmazonWatch and Rainforest Action Network have released the following statement in response to the verdict:

“As of today, Chevron’s guilt for extensive oil contamination in the Amazon rainforest is official. It is time Chevron takes responsibility for these environmental and public health damages, which they have fought for the past 18 years.

“Today’s ruling in Ecuador against Chevron proves overwhelmingly that the oil giant is responsible for billions gallons of highly toxic waste sludge deliberately dumped into local streams and rivers, which thousands depend on for drinking, bathing, and fishing.

“Chevron has spent the last 18 years waging unprecedented public relations and lobbying campaigns to avoid cleaning up the environmental and public health catastrophe it left in the Amazon rainforest. Today’s guilty verdict sends a loud and clear message: It is time Chevron clean up its disastrous mess in Ecuador.

“Today’s case is historic and unprecedented. It is the first time Indigenous people have sued a multinational corporation in the country where the crime was committed and won.

“Today’s historic ruling against Chevron is a testament to the strength of the Ecuadorian people who have spent 18 years bringing Chevron to justice while suffering the effects of the company’s extensive oil contamination.”

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The footage was filmed by the BBC’s Human Planet series shows a Tribe known as the Panoan, who live in virtual isolation from the outside world.

The team needed too get footage of the Tribe as proof of their existence so as the government could protect them from illegal logging and mining operations.

First photos were taken by Brazil’s Indian Affairs Department, which monitors the indigenous groups using aircraft. Members of the Tribe are seen covered in red paint (known as urucum), which is made from seeds from the annatto shrub. Indigenous people use it to colour hammocks and baskets, as well as their skin. The group is also seen using steel machetes- which must ultimately have been obtained from outside the Forest.

Fiona Watson, field and research director for Survival International, said the people are likely to have acquired these through trading links with other Forest Tribes. ‘These networks have been in existence for centuries and I don’t think they will have had any contact with non-tribal people, because if they had, the chances of being killed or contracting a disease to which they have no immunity are very high’, said Ms Watson. Ms Watson added that some authorities denied the existence of such tribal groups in the Forest, in order to further their aims..

Watch this video:

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1910430919914&oid=56679515655

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A second rancher has been sentenced for his role in the murder of Dorothy Stang, an American nun who was gunned down in 2005 for her efforts on behalf of poor farmers in the Amazon Rainforest.

Regivaldo Galvao was sentenced to 30 years in prison by a jury in the city of Pará. Last month rancher Vitalmiro Bastos de Moura was also sentenced to 30 years in prison for hiring hitmen to kill Stang.

The gumen were earlier sentenced for the crime. Stang, a nun from Ohio who spent more than 30 years fighting for land rights for poor settlers in the Amazon, was murdered in the Brazilian state of Para in February 2005.

Stang, 73, was shot six times with a revolver as she read from the Bible. Stang was working with the Pastoral Land Commission, a Catholic Church group that lobbies for land reform in Brazil and fights for land rights for the poor, when she was killed.

Stang’s murder was a tipping point in the heated battle between the rural poor and large landowners in the state of Para. The federal government responded to her killing by sending two thousand armed troops into the state.

Later Brazil established several protected areas in contested forests and proposed a land-use permit system for selling concessions to loggers who agreed to set side land for settlers and indigenous groups.

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President Raphael Correa now has approved an agreement to leave Ecuador’s largest oil reserves, amounting to some 900 million barrels, underground in Yasuni National Park in exchange for more than $3 billion.

Under the unprecedented agreement, known as the Yasuni-ITT Initiative, the government of Ecuador will refrain from exploiting the Ishpingo-Tambococha-Tiputini oil field within the Amazon rainforest park, which scientists have determined to be the most biodiverse area in all of South America.

The agreement between Ecuador and the United Nations Development Programme creating a trust fund to receive donations to the Yasuni-ITT Initiative was nearly signed in December at the UN climate summit in Copenhagen, but at the last minute, President Correa instructed his negotiators to hold back until several sticking points were resolved.

Now, those issues are settled and the agreement will be signed within the next week to 10 days, according to Ivonne Baki, who now heads the president’s negotiations committee for the Yasuni-ITT Initiative.

“It has been reviewed by the president and was approved by the president,” she said of the detailed Terms of Reference for the UN Development Programme trust fund.

More:

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