From Cutting Trees to Slashing Emissions: Reducing Deforestation in Brazil

References

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1.) Brazil’s population (190,010,647 in July 2007) is much less than that of India (1,129,866,154) or China (1,321,851,888), such that the prospect of Brazil’s increasing emissions to accommodate its size is much less foreboding than is the case for these other two countries. Nevertheless, Brazil ranks as the world’s fifth most populated state, and as a fairly populous, arguably leading developing country, it deserves attention in its own right. (Population estimates are available in the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency’s World Factbook 2007, while rankings come from the U.S. Census Bureau 2006.)

2.) The IPCC includes more explicit statistics in its 2007 Working Group III report, but though a preliminary version is available on the IPCC website, the report currently remains unavailable for citation/quotation.

3.) Given the uncertainty of current statistics, this future prediction remains subject to question. Nonetheless, it indicates the centrality of deforestation to climate change discourse in the coming years.

4.) Carbon dioxide and methane are both greenhouse gases. Carbon monoxide, though not a greenhouse gas, “indirectly affects the concentrations of other greenhouse gases” in the atmosphere (Houghton 2005:19).

5.) Similar concerns exist with regard to afforestation and reforestation. See the Forests and the European Union Resource Network n.d.

6.)Margulis’s presentation of this data leaves exact plot-size cutoff points unclear, since a plot of 50 hectares, for example, could fit into either the “15-50” or “50-100” category. Furthermore, data include only seven of the Amazon region’s states (Acre, Amazonas, Maranhão, Mato Grosso, Pará, Rondônia, and Tocatins). Nevertheless, these figures provide an estimate of the proportions of plots of small, medium, and large magnitude.

7.) Of course, the predominance of large-scale entities does not indicate that these entities are cattle ranches. Nevertheless, both Fearnside and Margulis conclude that cattle ranches make up the majority of the large-scale plots.

8.) The discrepancy between the statistics in one source alone points to the general uncertainty among researchers about the exact magnitude of Amazon deforestation and the precise figures on the causes thereof. Nonetheless, Margulis’s estimates demonstrate that cattle ranching likely makes up the bulk of new economic activity in cleared regions.

9.) Because Klink and Machado are discussing the Cerrado as a whole, and because they describe the region as including forests as well as savanna, grasslands, and other woodlands, their statistics do not specifically indicate current uses of deforested land. Nevertheless, in the absence of more explicit statistics, their figures provide a general idea of the activities that humans pursue within the region’s former natural habitats. Furthermore, whether the ground to be cleared is home to forests, grasses, et cetera, burning is the most common means of land clearing, so most Cerrado clearing emits greenhouse gases (2005:709-710).

10.) Of course, ease may decrease up-front costs, enhancing profitability.

11.) Primarily from the 1970s to early 1990s, the Brazilian government provided subsidies, credit, and tax incentives to those claiming – then clearing – forested land (Margulis 2004:48-49).

12.) The real is the Brazilian currency.

13.) Margulis describes the Tupã/São Paulo cattle-producing region as “typical of Brazil’s Center-South” and thus suitable for use “as a kind of reference for assessing the performance of [the] ranching sector in Brazil” (2004:37).

14.) Again, because Klink and Machado are discussing the Cerrado as a whole, their statistics do not refer specifically to current uses of deforested land. Nonetheless, in the absence of more explicit statistics, their figures provide a general idea of the activities that humans pursue within the region’s former natural habitats, and as indicated above, concern about the burning used to clear diverse forms of Cerrado ground is of concern from a climate change perspective.

15.) Because most forms of deforestation yield direct emissions as burning or decaying vegetation releases greenhouse gases, logging is actually of less concern in terms of climate change if the logs are shipped away and used for wood, et cetera. Nevertheless, logging is a concern for the climate because it removes what may be a carbon sink; it is also a concern in general because rainforest destruction reduces, for example, the possibility of finding medical cures among unique fauna.

16.) The authors clarify the concept of leakage by explaining that if a government wants to preserve 10,000 hectares of forest but believes deforesters would clear 100 hectares under business-as-usual conditions, the government might provide compensation for protection of the 100 hectares in question – only to have deforesters clear a different 100 hectare plot (p. 35).