China buys soy from deforested areas in the Atlantic Forest – 04/16/2023 – Environment

In 2020, China imported almost half of the soy harvested in areas deforested in the Atlantic Forest during the previous five years. The biome extends across several Brazilian states, from the South to the Northeast, and today has only 12% of its original vegetation.

The data, which Agência Pública obtained exclusively, were analyzed by Fundação SOS Mata Atlântica in partnership with the non-governmental organization Trase, which tracks production chains of agricultural commodities, such as soy, meat, corn, wheat, among others.

According to the survey, in 2020 —the most recent year of mapping—, there were 22,300 hectares of soybeans, an area larger than Recife, in areas of the Atlantic Forest devastated between 2015 and 2019.

This probably points to violations of the Atlantic Forest Law, in force since December 2006, which prohibits the removal of the original vegetation (called primary) and that which grows after deforestation (called secondary) that is in an advanced stage of regeneration. The law allows deforestation in a few situations, such as the construction of infrastructure by the State, which configures “public utility”.

The data reveal that 46% of the soy produced in these 22,300 hectares was exported to China, Brazil’s largest trading partner. Another 44% went to the Brazilian market, and around 3% to the European Union.

SOS Mata Atlântica and Trase warn that these numbers may be underestimated, as the assessment was based on the official limits of the biome, defined by the IBGE. However, the Atlantic Forest Law has a broader scope, which includes soy expansion areas in Bahia, Piauí and Mato Grosso do Sul.

Soy is Brazil’s main export item to the Asian country, which President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) has visited in recent days.

By meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping and fulfilling other bilateral agendas, the PT intends to strengthen relations with China, weakened during the government of Jair Bolsonaro (PL). Representatives of Brazilian agribusiness believe that the trip can further expand the commercial partnership between the sector and the country.

However, agronomist Luís Fernando Guedes Pinto, executive director of SOS Mata Atlântica, points out that China, currently the country with the highest annual emissions of greenhouse gases in the world, has signaled its intention to create mechanisms to prevent the importation of commodities linked to the cutting down of forests, following the example of the European Union, which approved an anti-deforestation law at the end of 2022.

“It is important to remember that China presided over the COP15 on biodiversity in December last year. There, it acted for the protection of biodiversity and ecosystems [ao final da conferência, foi adotado o novo marco global da biodiversidade]. It has an international commitment not only on the issue of carbon [no Acordo de Paris], but also biodiversity. It is a natural trend that in the short term the country demands zero deforestation of Brazilian commodities and compliance with legislation, which in Brazil is something essential”, Pinto points out.

The Atlantic Forest is the only Brazilian biome to have its own protection law.

A requirement in this sense by China, continues the agronomist, would put even more pressure on Brazil to reach the goal of zeroing deforestation, which the current government has committed to fulfill by 2030 in all biomes, not just in the Amazon and in the cerrado, the most cited when talking about the advance of the agricultural frontier.

In addition, the Atlantic forest is central to the cultivation of Brazilian soybeans. In total, the biome delivered almost 35 million tons of grain in 2020, equivalent to almost a third of Brazil’s annual production.

China imported 55% of this soy: another 25% was for Brazilian domestic consumption, and the remaining 20% ​​was exported to the Netherlands, France and South Korea, with the Netherlands probably destined the product for other European countries.

Vivian Ribeiro, leader of Trase’s Geospatial Intelligence team, says that soy and other agribusiness production chains that operate in the Atlantic Forest, such as livestock, coffee and sugar cane, should guide the recovery of devastated or degraded areas, but what has happened is just the opposite.

“The agenda for debates around the Atlantic Forest should not be that of zero deforestation, it is a shame that we are still talking about this. The agenda should be centered on how importing countries could actually support the restoration of the biome”, he points out. .

Deforestation in the Atlantic Forest had been decreasing since 2016, but grew again in 2019, according to data released annually by SOS Mata Atlântica in partnership with Inpe (National Institute for Space Research).

The most recent figures show that, between 2020 and 2021 alone, deforestation grew 66% compared to the previous period, from 2019 to 2020, the highest percentage increase since monitoring began in 1985. This increase meant the emission of 10. 3 million tons of CO_two equivalent in the atmosphere.

The rate for the last year has not yet been published, but a survey by SAD Mata Atlântica, an alert system developed by SOS Mata Atlântica and Mapbiomas, points out that more than 48,600 hectares of the biome, an area almost equivalent to the size of Porto Alegre, were demolished only between January and October 2022.

_{This report was produced by Agência Pública.}