{"id":50058529,"date":"2022-09-19T12:38:24","date_gmt":"2022-09-19T11:38:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stage.dialogochino.net\/?p=58529"},"modified":"2024-04-15T15:41:59","modified_gmt":"2024-04-15T15:41:59","slug":"58442-how-cattle-ranching-became-the-biggest-deforestation-driver-in-the-amazon","status":"publish","type":"podcast","link":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/forests\/58442-how-cattle-ranching-became-the-biggest-deforestation-driver-in-the-amazon\/","title":{"rendered":"Why cattle ranching is the biggest deforestation driver in the Amazon"},"content":{"rendered":"

Guarant\u00e3 do Norte, a rural municipality, in the north of Brazil\u2019s Mato Grosso state, is home to 36,000 people and 245,000 head of cattle, according to <\/span>official statistics<\/span><\/a>. With cows outnumbering humans six to one, the pastures on which they live have expanded to take up <\/span>almost half<\/span><\/a> the area of the town, founded just 40 years ago by immigrants answering the call of the country\u2019s military government to occupy the Amazon. <\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Editor\u2019s note<\/p>\n

\n
\nThis article is a summary of episode two of Amaz\u00f4nia Ocupada<\/strong>, a new podcast series from Di\u00e1logo Chino, available in Portuguese only. Listen here<\/a>.
\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n

Seen from above, Guarant\u00e3 is a mosaic of neatly divided patches of green and brown: the native Amazon forest and deforested fields. In time, it may end up looking similar to municipalities further south in Mato Grosso, where occupation and exploitation of lands began a few years earlier \u2013 in places such as Sinop, Brazil\u2019s \u201c<\/span>soybean capital<\/span><\/a>\u201d, where little more than a third of original forest cover remains.<\/span><\/p>\n

Both settlements emerged on the margins of the BR-163, a highway that cuts the country from north to south. The road was built by the military dictatorship (1964-1985) to encourage colonisation of the Amazon, and has since become a vital axis in the distribution of agricultural commodities<\/span> to foreign markets. The road has served as something of a guiding line for the agricultural frontier as it has advanced northwards through the rainforest.

<\/span><\/p>\n
\"cattle
Cattle grazing in Guarant\u00e3 do Norte, Mato Grosso. In the city there are six head of cattle for every resident (Felipe Betim \/ Di\u00e1logo Chino)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

<\/div>This advance through the native forest has been driven, primarily, by cattle ranching. In 2021, these livestock operations alone accounted for 75% of deforestation on public lands, according to a <\/span>study<\/span><\/a> by the Amazon Environmental Research Institute (IPAM). <\/span><\/p>\n

These lands are those without any sort of status that provides government protection, such as an indigenous territory, or that have not been designated for a rural settlement, for example. Thus, they become the main targets for illegal deforestation in the Amazon, especially in areas where the agricultural frontier is advancing.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe area is deforested, the remnants of forest are burned and soil is treated so that it can be used to grow grass for cattle. And then the cattle are brought in,\u201d explains Jefferson Almeida, a lawyer and assistant researcher at the Amazon Institute of People and the Environment (Imazon). \u201cThe cattle arrive and the trend is to move further and further into areas that still have forest. And with that, this pattern continues. We see deforestation to make way for cattle \u2018on loop\u2019.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Cattle ranching, and its development to become the main driver of deforestation, is explained in the second episode of our new Portuguese-language podcast series <\/span>Amaz\u00f4nia Ocupada<\/b>, available from today. Created by Di\u00e1logo Chino in partnership with Trov\u00e3o M\u00eddia, across five episodes, we recount how the world\u2019s largest and most famous forest was colonised for the exploitation of commodities.<\/span><\/p>\n

Our second stop in the series is Guarant\u00e3 do Norte, where the main activity is cattle breeding for beef and dairy production. Here, Brazil\u2019s National Institute for Colonisation and Agrarian Reform (INCRA) divided the territory <\/span>in the early 80s into small lots with the idea of attracting farmers and their families to boost smaller-scale farms.

<\/span><\/p>\n
\"Edemar
Edemar Sehn, Guarant\u00e3 rancher: \u201cIt has taken them 20 years to give us the documentation for the land\u201d (Felipe Betim \/ Di\u00e1logo Chino)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

<\/div>However, the agrarian reform project was never fully implemented and left a legacy of lax land regulation. Many families who moved under the project <\/span>do not have definitive titles<\/span><\/a> to their rural properties, and some took decades to obtain it. \u201cWe have been here for 40 years, but it took them 20 years before they brought the documentation,\u201d says cattle breeder Edemar Sehn, a resident of Guarant\u00e3.<\/span><\/p>\n

While, on the one hand, the lack of titles causes legal insecurity and local conflicts, on the other, it is also a factor in explaining the profitable expansion of cattle ranching in the Amazon: though it is illegal, the land is cheaper and more accessible. For many, the risk is worthwhile. <\/span><\/p>\n

The cattle production chain is broad and diverse, and slaughterhouses cannot control all their suppliers. In regions not far from Guarant\u00e3, land grabbers invade conservation areas, deforest the land and shuttle heads of cattle to legalised land before sale or to evade inspection \u2013 a practice known as <\/span>cattle laundering<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe small farmer sells his cattle to a middleman, who buys from everyone to sell to a slaughterhouse,\u201d explains Valter Neves de Moura, a councillor from Guarant\u00e3 do Norte and a member of the family farmers\u2019 trade union movement.<\/span><\/p>\n

Thus, even if the cattle have been raised in areas with irregular land tenure or even illegal deforestation, they arrive at the slaughterhouse with a veneer of legality, says Moura.

<\/span><\/p>\n
\"Valter
Valter Neves de Moura, councillor and activist from Guarant\u00e3: \u201cAgribusiness arrives and expels us\u201d (Felipe Betim \/ Di\u00e1logo Chino)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

<\/div>Unlike soy \u2013 Brazil\u2019s main agricultural export and the focus of <\/span>the first part<\/span><\/a> of this series \u2013 cattle raising requires less equipment and investments and, therefore, is a viable activity for small producers. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s much more practical for me to have cattle than to work with crops,\u201d says Lucas Pinheiro, a small cattle rancher from Guarant\u00e3. \u201cTo start in the farming market, you need about 4 or 5 million reais [US$760,000\u2013950,000] available. You need a tractor, a combine harvester… It\u2019s a very high investment… But with that money, you can buy another good piece of land and put more cattle on top of it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Pinheiro also says that return on investment from livestock farming is more assured, whether through the sale of milk or cattle to the slaughterhouse.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Primeiro<\/a>
Read the first part of the series: How the Amazon became a global hub for agricultural exports<\/a><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This favourable situation, however, may have an expiry date. Just like other municipalities on the Amazon\u2019s agricultural frontier, land is disputed, prices increase, and this speculation pushes small producers northwards. \u201cAgribusiness arrives and expels us. It keeps buying, buying, buying, there is no way anyone can be left alone,\u201d says Moura. <\/span><\/p>\n

This expansion affects not only small farmers and ranchers but also those whose territories are protected by law: the indigenous people who live in the Panar\u00e1 indigenous territory on the edge of the municipality. \u201cWe are now facing difficulties with farmers encroaching on indigenous land,\u201d says indigenous leader Krekreans\u00e3 Panar\u00e1. <\/span><\/p>\n

Episode two of Amaz\u00f4nia Ocupada is now available, in Portuguese only, on <\/span><\/i>Spotify<\/span><\/i><\/a>, <\/span><\/i>Apple<\/span><\/i><\/a>, <\/span><\/i>Amazon<\/span><\/i><\/a> and <\/span><\/i>Deezer<\/span><\/i><\/a>. Episode three, and the accompanying English article, will be released on Thursday 22 September.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From Brazil\u2019s Mato Grosso state, the second part of our new Amazon series explains how expansion of cattle farms has driven the occupation of public lands in the rainforest<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":50063492,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","categories":[50039902],"tags":[506,531,561],"country":[50000021],"class_list":["post-50058529","podcast","type-podcast","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-forests","tag-amazon","tag-deforestation","tag-livestock","country-brazil"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nWhy cattle ranching is the biggest deforestation driver in the Amazon<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The second part of our new Amazon series explains how expansion of cattle farms has driven the occupation of public lands in the rainforest\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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