\u201cThis means exporting in almost half a year what has been done in 10 years,\u201d said Gary Rodr\u00edguez, president of the IBCE, which supports exporters. \u201cBy 2020, we would be selling US$150 million to the world only for the export of meat. However, the projection is to move from a cattle herd of 10 million to 17 million in 10 years.\u201d<\/p>\n
That would mean going from using 13 million hectares for livestock rearing to 20 million hectares, according to the goals of the Livestock Development Plan 2020-2030 presented by ranchers to President Evo Morales in January.<\/p>\n
On top of this, small farmers will need to be helped to increase their productivity through bank loans and agricultural training. Investments will also need to be made in productive and commercial infrastructure, and water dams, as Oscar Ciro Pereyra, president of the Confederation of Cattle Ranchers of Bolivia (Congabol), explained in January<\/a>.<\/p>\n However, it is unclear how they will go about it. Di\u00e1logo Chino reached out to Pereyra for clarification on three occasions, but received no answer.<\/p>\n Currently, 90% of exported meat (about 3,500 tons) goes to Peru. In farmers sights are markets like Vietnam (already open), Russia (in the process of opening) and the European Union (which has only approved select cuts of meat). None is as promising as China.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n At least three companies from the department of Santa Cruz are ready to export beef to China, having been visited by their Chinese customers and certified by the National Service of Agricultural Health and Food Safety (Senasag)<\/a>.<\/p>\n In turn, farmers in the Amazonian department of Beni expect the government to fulfil its promise to build a cold-storage plant in the department\u2019s capital Trinidad, so they no longer need to depend on the one in Santa Cruz.<\/p>\n \u201cIn Beni we have a lot of potential to grow, but we need investments. We hope that exports will be opened and that the new Soil Use Plan will be approved so that we can have the infrastructure in Beni, without having to dismantle around us,\u201d says Jos\u00e9 Eduardo Iriarte, member of the board of the Federation of Livestock of Beni (FegaBeni).<\/p>\n The scientific and environmental community are concerned about the \u201cdismantling\u201d, by which Irarte means deforesting.<\/p>\n \u201cWith this type of agroextractivism we are going to seriously exacerbate problems of droughts, floods, climatic changes, appearance of pests, soil erosion … We are having droughts because there is savage deforestation happening in Beni and Santa Cruz,\u201d says Miguel \u00c1ngel Crespo, agroecology expert and director of the environmental NGO Probioma<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cFarmers do not want to understand they must conserve forests because they want only open pastures. But livestock have to shelter from high and low temperatures, otherwise stress leads to low yields\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n The main cause of deforestation in Bolivia is livestock, according to a study published by the Friends of Nature Foundation (FAN) in 2014.<\/p>\n \u201cAs of the year 2000, the perception we had that the expansion of the agricultural frontier was mainly for soy changed. From the years 2000 until 2018, it is livestock. We analysed until 2013 and more than 60% of deforestation was caused by livestock,\u201d says its director Natalia Calder\u00f3n, an expert on climate change and conservation.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is going to mean the expansion of the space that is destined to the cattle \u2026 We are not yet talking about incentives for producers, technology, technical assistance, adequate monitoring, control and inspection,\u201d she explains, adding that they have detected expansion in deforestation in regions such as Charagua and Chiquitania in Santa Cruz. In fact, the department accounts for 78% of the country\u2019s deforestation.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n The problem raised by environmental experts is that the conversation about increased meat production is not accompanied by a discussion of issues such as soil management or better solutions to cope with climate change, such as silvopastoral systems<\/a> where cows share space with trees.<\/p>\n \u201cYou have to think about changing the production model to a more sustainable one with qualitatively different products and not similar to those that Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay produce, for example\u201d says Miguel \u00c1ngel Crespo, who is concerned about the profitability of transporting meat from the interior to a port in the Pacific and then on to China.<\/p>\n \u201cTo export, Bolivia has to compete … If it wants to export meat that is organic, that comes from cattle fed with natural pastures \u2013 that would be the only way out for Bolivia to be competitive. Otherwise it\u2019s going to be another debacle like soy, whose prices fall and the producers ask the government to pay them subsidies that come out of our taxes.\u201d<\/p>\n Farmers feel their industry is not mainly responsible for deforestation, especially in Beni, which has extensive plains covered by pastures (pampas and savannas) and humid tropical forests on gentle piedmont slopes.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s completely false. The livestock of Beni is made in the pampas and the clearing is minimal if we compare it to Santa Cruz or Brazil. The clearing in Beni is only to make cattle paddocks, in the high places. We take care of the environment. Since our grandparents we have made a cattle ranch in the pampas, even the agriculture that we want to carry out now is in the same system\u201d, says guild leader Iriarte, although he recognizes that there was deforestation in the north, in the towns of Riberalta, Guayaramer\u00edn and Vaca Diez province.<\/p>\n This sustainable feature of Benian meat, which bears the \u201cBolivia Natural Beef\u201d seal, could lead the way for other regions.<\/p>\n \u201cIn Beni there is livestock but it is done in natural pastures, which does not necessarily imply deforestation. They would have to be careful there in everything that has to do with the management of water and soil,\u201d says Calder\u00f3n of FAN.<\/p>\n In any case, some researchers see reasons for caution. Although the livestock industry plans its production on existing pastures and natural pampas, illegal deforestation may still result.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n \u201cThe pampas fulfil important functions in the ecosystem that will be lost when they become livestock pastures,\u201d says biologist Vincent Vos of the Centre for Research and Promotion of Farmers (Cipca).<\/p>\n For him, it is worrisome that the new land use plan of Beni identifies extensive agriculture in areas that still have large forest coverage and, even, with forest management plans registered in the Forest and Land Authority (ABT) in municipalities such as Riberalta.<\/p>\n Miguel \u00c1ngel Crespo of Probioma believes mitigation measures need to be taken on deforestation, as well as the use of genetically modified crops and agrotoxins for food production: \u201cThese two aspects will strongly influence exports and the agricultural sector. More and more countries have more regulations that are closing the doors to products that come from regions with high use of transgenic and agrochemicals and areas of deforestation.\u201d<\/p>\n They are not the only environmental impacts that could be increased by livestock activity.<\/p>\n Livestock farming, which requires a lot of water, is spreading into regions scarce in water.<\/p>\n \u201cLivestock is expanding in two critical areas for the water issue: in the Chaco and Chiquitania regions, which are ecosystems that already have a fragility in terms of the amount of water. The climate change scenarios show us that there will be a reduction of water in these ecosystems,\u201d explains Natalia Calder\u00f3n, whose organisation has also done studies on how livestock faeces contaminate water sources. \u201cMore climate change, plus an expansion of livestock management areas without considering proper management of water resources, could be critical,\u201d she adds.<\/p>\n Bolivia\u2019s plans to increase its meat production and then export it to the other side of the world could clash with another reality.<\/p>\n Many organisations are promoting diets with less red meat. In its latest Global Environment Outlook report<\/a>, the United Nations explains how reducing beef consumption lowers greenhouse gas emissions. This is because cows produce a lot of methane and forested areas are some of the world\u2019s best carbon sinks.<\/p>\n \u201cOne of the great challenges for the planet is to meet the high demand for food because of population growth and, at the same time, reduce the impacts of agriculture and livestock to meet the demand for food. We do not know if there are public policies to guarantee that this process is sustainable, or if there are demands from the markets (China and Russia) on these points, or that the agroindustrial companies are talking about these points in the agreements,\u201d says Calder\u00f3n.<\/p>\n![\"bolivia](\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/000d.jpg\")
Cows Vs. Forests<\/h2>\n
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