Please enable JS and disable any ad blocker they call it “grão dourado,” or the “golden grain” corn In the past decade new opportunities for corn have emerged in the country to make sure that corn can be valorised even more: by turning corn into ethanol for fuel consumption and selling its by-products as animal nutrition Pig Progress travelled to Mato Grosso state to learn more one of the most dynamic business sectors in Brazil’s agro-industry is that of corn biorefinery In just 7 years sinceGet full access to all stories on Pig ProgressThis Premium article is exclusively available for subscribers Obtain insights from exclusive interviews Dive into articles covering trending industry topics Already subscribed? Click here to login The American agribusiness magnate Bruce Rastetter who is already the biggest producer of corn-based ethanol in Brazil has plans to triple processing at his plants by relying on the generosity of governments and banks with green credits and incentives destined to combat climate change Rastetter’s businesses received more than 2.2 billion reais ($459 billion) in offsets and credits from compliance with environmental targets through FS Agrisolutions All this money went to Rastetter’s ethanol plants in Mato Grosso as well as resources from the National Economic and Social Development Bank (BNDES) the company plans to further leverage its businesses by selling itself as a negative carbon producer Its promise is to implement a system for capturing carbon from plants and storing the gas below ground the IPCC warned that the capture of carbon is facing various restrictions in terms of viability as well as demonstrating adverse impacts on human rights and ecosystems What Rastetter is trying to implement in Brazil is practically a copy of the Midwest Carbon project that he is spearheading in the United States with a promise to capture 12 million tons of carbon in ethanol plants The gas will be captured in five states and transported through pipelines over more than 3,000 kilometers (1,860 miles) to North Dakota where it will be injected into geological structures FS obtained a license to drill in order to “evaluate the potential for injectivity,” according to the company all of which are endangered biomes and locations where Rastetter has plants the cultivation of sugar cane has been banned to prevent the production of ethanol from encouraging deforestation and encroachment on protected areas The production of the grain quadrupled in a little more than one decade to the more than 46 million tons expected for the 2022-23 season Part of this production fuels 11 plants in the state accounting for 80% of corn-based ethanol in Brazil “Corn appears as a substitute for biofuels because sugar cane is prohibited in the Amazon and the Pantanal and palm in rainforest areas aren’t clean as promised they cause deforestation and don’t fix carbon They can’t be sold as environmental solutions,” states Lucas Ferrante a PhD in ecology from the National Institute for Amazon Research (INPA) the national market for corn-based ethanol has grown 800% FS became a leader in the segment and is the fourth largest producer of biofuel in the country competing with giants in the sugar-alcohol sector such as Raízen and BP Bunge With a third plant recently inaugurated in Primavera do Leste, also in Mato Grosso state, and with new units forecast in coming years FS doesn’t intend to slow its demand for more and more corn plantations and planted forests — which are used for fueling the boilers which in addition to ethanol produce energy and material for animal feed The company projects that it will triple its current production of 1.4 billion liters (370 million gallons) of ethanol per year and hit 5 billion liters (1.32 billion gallons) in 2026 the Energy Research Company (EPE) is forecasting that it will reach 9.1 billion (2.4 billion gallons) in 2032 One of the arguments FS uses to justify its green certificates is that a good part of the processed corn in its plants is interim harvest which shares the same plots as the soybeans from the first harvest having less influence in farming than a change in the use of soil temporary plantations — which include the cultivation of soybeans and corn — occupy an area of 12 million hectares (29.6 million acres) in Mato Grosso which is greater than the entire state of Amapá were opened up in deforested areas over the last 20 years Even though FS alleges that it is rigorously controlling the environmental practices of its corn and eucalyptus suppliers O Joio e O Trigo discovered that the executives of the company in Brazil are themselves connected to illegal deforestation in Mato Grosso and Amapá deforestation in areas surrounding the plants FS has in Mato Grosso within a range of 150 kilometers (93 miles) has destroyed 486,000 ha (1.2 million acres) of rainforests over the last five years according to data from the National Institute for Space Research (INPE) which are the areas where the company says it has a demand for production inputs are Indigenous Lands and Conservation Units The same arguments that justified the prohibition of cultivation of cane for the production of biofuels in the Brazilian Amazon “Principally because these plantations threaten biodiversity and their effects extend beyond the areas that are cultivated even to the rainforests,” states the researcher In articles published in the scientific journals Science and Nature Ferrante points out that the expansion of biofuels into areas of native forests aggravates climate change and results in new cycles of deforestation increasing the emission of carbon in these chains both in rainforests as well as in plantations It is a kind of farming that raises a lot of problems Energy transition must be thought of in a way that it doesn’t overtax the production of biofuels in areas like the Pantanal and the Amazon,” adds the researcher fossil fuel is used more than any other source to produce corn One of the main problems with the generation of biofuels is that the main plans include expansion into areas in the Amazon involving more deforestation of the western part of the rainforest which is crucial to the rain cycle for the entire continent,” explains professor Philip Fearnside as a research member of the UN Climate Panel Fearnside was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for the warnings his group issued on risks from global warming “Brazil’s priority is to reduce emissions and to stop deforestation immediately Brazil has great potential for developing renewable forms of energy This potential needs to be used to substitute for projects that don’t contribute to the reduction of emissions,” Fearnside reasons In March of this year, FS was authorized under the new format of the RenovaBio program which supplies credit at discounted interest rates for clients who document improvements in environmental indicators which are RenovaBio certificates of carbon emissions avoided with each of these being the equivalent of 1 ton of CO2 avoided The group also receives resources from the largest manager of agro-investment funds in the country. XP Investments acquired 216.43 million reais ($45 million) of the company’s Agribusiness Receivables Certificates (CRA) offered by the bank as a fixed-income security This injection of funds into FS Bioenergia is the largest asset in the XPAG11 portfolio the corporation highlights that the plant has “one of the lowest production costs in the country.” FS Bioenergia is the fruit of the union between Rastetter and influential Brazilian agribusiness entrepreneurs among whom are some of the largest landholders in the Amazon The partnership relationship between the Summit group which controls corn-based ethanol plants in the U.S. is complex and involves more than a dozen legal entities in Brazil and abroad Rastetter doesn’t hide his sympathy for politicians he bestowed part of his fortune on the Republican party and Donald Trump he acted as an agribusiness adviser to the ex-president of the U.S and attempted to exert his influence on local politics in Iowa Rastetter inaugurated the first 100% corn-based ethanol plant in the country at a ceremony that included the presence of then-President Michel Temer; Blairo Maggi the minister of agriculture at the time; and the governors of Mato Grosso In March 2022, accompanied by the current mayor of Lucas do Rio Verde, who is also a partner in his businesses, the American was honored with the inauguration of a new children’s wing of the São Lucas Philanthropic Hospital, which is now known as Centro Materno-Infantil Bruce Rastetter Rastetter donated 5 million reais (about $1 million) for the construction of the new wing saying that it was part of American culture to contribute to the community where one prospers the ex-mayor and the president of the foundation that administers the hospital and honored Rastetter Days earlier, Rastetter had already received the state’s greatest honor from the vice-governor who was the mayor of Lucas do Rio Verde three times “He freed the corn producers in Mato Grosso,” the governor declared who is lobbying for more space for biofuels in the country’s economy; and the current leader of the Agricultural Parliamentary Front Marino Franz has donated to the Mato Grosso State Board of União Brasil and the Progressistas parties donated 35,000 reais ($ 7,000) to the reelection campaign of Bolsonaro and another 25,000 reais ($5,000) to the Republicanos party Franz began his businesses as a distributor of fertilizers and pesticides and expanded his activities into the corn-based ethanol and soybean markets Franz also directs transportation companies and holdings linked to agribusiness Two of Geller’s brothers were arrested in the same Federal Police operation According to the charges lodged by the Federal Prosecutor’s Office illegal deforestation was identified in Tartarugalzinho and the capital of Amapá in line with the company’s interests in the implementation of plantations of soybeans and corn The fines amounted to almost 20 million reais ($4 million) In 2015, Rastetter was in Amapá and hailed the state’s geographic location for business due to the ease of transporting products to the United States The rush to build pipelines for projects involving the capture of carbon has been accompanied by a premium that is associated with the millions that these companies can raise The Summit Agricultural Group’s project for capturing and storing carbon in the United States is budgeted at $4.5 billion and has received large investments and public subsidies the initiative has united Indigenous groups landowners and farmers throughout the region who are fiercely opposed to the project In December 2022, there were 30 active carbon capture projects in the world, according to the Global CCS Institute Another 10 projects are under construction and more than 150 are being developed in more than 20 countries Of these, only eight projects used renewable sources in the production of ethanol and energy. One of these is the pilot project for burning wood in the United Kingdom, led by the Drax company, which depends on substantial investments from the government In the United States, the federal government offers large subsidies for carbon capture projects like Rustetter’s: $85 per ton of CO2 permanently stored and $60 per ton used for advanced recovery of petroleum provided the reductions can be demonstrated Summit may bring in $600 million annually in federal fiscal credits if their projections for the storage of carbon are confirmed The $7.2 billion in fiscal credits that the project may earn in 12 years more than covers the $4.5 billion price of the pipeline the government forecasts an additional bonus of 20% in credits generated by RenovaBio for whomever can prove negative emissions But the businessmen hope to attract greater amounts with the regulation of the sector Part of the lack of faith in the Midwest Carbon project is motivated by the past history of Rastetter and his businesses with sustainability is accused of expelling family farmers from the market in Iowa — a market that he came to lead introducing confinement of swine on a large scale his soybean and corn plantations and his cattle businesses operate based on fossil fuels for industrial agriculture What is more, when he occupied a position on the Board of Regents in Iowa (2011-17), Rastetter involved university professors in the largest land deals in Tanzania – three “refugee camps,” according to information released by the Oakland Institute that would dislocate more than 100,000 refugees from Burundi Local leaders in Iowa contend that Rastetter’s promises of “slippery concepts about zero carbon adding money as an incentive for reducing emissions,” will actually just bring him more profits and they accuse the businessman of practicing greenwashing Rastetter is trying to reach an agreement with landowners to construct a pipeline network crossing their lands he is requesting government authorization to cross lands where the owners don’t want to sign permission waivers the storage and stockpiling of CO² splits opinions The first divergence is related to the efficiency of these projects must involve large operations and a range of polluting elements “It’s true that with the gravity of the problem of global warming we are going to have to use all options that are available and stockpiling carbon has some arguments in its favor there are very high costs involved with this operation and it can consume resources that could be used to finance other alternatives,” says Fearnside the oil industry is already using the technique of capturing carbon injected into wells for the extraction of more hydrocarbons this sector is also interested in the use of CCS as an environmental measure and it is one of the principal financers of carbon capture and storage projects worldwide “These initiatives may also end up justifying the use of fossil fuels all of the emissions may be captured and stored what we need to do is to reduce emissions from these sources,” adds Fearnside In an article published in Nature Communications a researcher and climate science professor from the University of Exeter analyzed the storage of carbon with raw material originating from areas planted over forests — which is what the people involved with ethanol plants intend to do — and concluded that it will not be capable of attaining the same climatic efficiency the return of carbon losses in the substitution of rainforests with planted biomasses may take more than 100 years Another study, commissioned by the Natural Resources Defense Council used an “emissions simulator” to demonstrate that the use of biomass for the generation of energy FS is trying to license its project for carbon capture and storage and already has a license for drilling a test well at its plant in Lucas do Rio Verde The license has been granted by the environment secretary of Mato Grosso In 2022, a proposed law for regulating the sector was presented by Senator Jean Paul Prates in a joining of interests that involve the ethanol and petroleum markets The project was formed in the ProBioCCS subcommittee which relied on a consultant hired by the ethanol sector No environmentalists or climate specialists were involved in the project there is only a licensing request for carbon capture in one plant it is quite possible that Rastetter’s plan for a negative carbon project in Brazil will follow in the footsteps of Midwest Carbon and include the rest of the plants in the region which may mean the construction of pipelines that crisscross vast areas of the central-west Currently, the 18 corn-based ethanol plants in Brazil are all concentrated in the same region In an interview with Valor Econômico newspaper gave some signs regarding the company’s intentions saying that the implementation of carbon capture throughout the entire Brazilian ethanol sector would be able to remove 34 million tons of carbon by 2030 Rastetter has pocketed a lot of money embracing the so-called “green change,” while his plants continue generating greenhouse gases and demanding increasing production of biomasses for their boilers from corn and wood FS responded that it does not comment on environmental fines incurred by its partners because they pertain to other companies The company also added that “it has a policy of socio-environmental responsibility that is published in its website that addresses all of the company’s guidelines for the purchase of grains,” pointing out that the company does not acquire grains from areas of deforestation or that are located in Units of Conservation or Indigenous Lands the company did not reveal who its suppliers are or where these planted areas are located As its topsoil washes away, the Corn Belt is losing yields — and carbon Banner image of a corn-based ethanol plant in Lucas do Rio Verde This story was first published in Portuguese on O Joio e o Trigo The “fortress conservation” model is under pressure in East Africa as protected areas become battlegrounds over history and global efforts to halt biodiversity loss Mongabay’s Special Issue goes beyond the region’s world-renowned safaris to examine how rural communities and governments are reckoning with conservation’s colonial origins and trying to forge a path forward […] deforestation and emissions data for Brazilian soy The contributing SEI researchers are Trase Director Toby Gardner While the rate of deforestation and land conversion driven by the expansion of soy production in Brazil has slowed the Amazon and Cerrado continue to be cleared despite zero-deforestation commitments made by soy traders Land clearance in the Pampas grasslands is accelerating to meet growing demand for soy Mass soybean harvesting in Campo Verde, Mato Grosso, Brazil. Photo: alffoto / Getty Images Plus.  Trase data shows the amount of soy deforestation and land conversion decreased from 743,000 hectares (ha) in 2018 to 686,000 ha in 2019 and 562,000 ha in 2020 while the total area of soy planted increased from 34.8 Mha in 2018 to 35.9 Mha in 2019 and 37.2 Mha in 2020 This percentage increases if we look further back The decline in soy-driven deforestation could be put at risk by future demand for soy the price of soy has increased due to demand for soy-based animal feed from China increasing global food prices and Russia’s war in Ukraine Soy prices in 2022 have stabilized but remain high potentially incentivizing further deforestation and conversion to expand soy plantations While soy plantations have expanded most in the Cerrado and were associated with 355,000 ha of recent deforestation in 2019 and 264,000 ha in 2020 – an area almost twice the size of the city of São Paulo – Trase data reveals that the Pampas is also a particularly active frontier for the conversion of natural vegetation for soy 228,000 ha of soy was harvested in areas recently deforested and converted in the Pampas soy production in the Amazon in 2019 was linked to 77,600 ha of recent deforestation and in 2020 soy production in 2020 was linked to 76,400 ha of recent deforestation The municipalities of São Gabriel and Dom Pedrito in southern Brazil’s Rio Grande do Sul had 17,600 and 12,800 ha respectively of soy deforestation in areas of native Pampas placing them in the top-five municipalities with the highest soy deforestation in 2020 alongside Feliz Natal in Mato Grosso The Pampas biome is an area rich in native grasslands which makes it suitable for cattle grazing each tonne of soy produced in the Pampas was linked to the clearance of over 10 times as much natural vegetation as a tonne from the Cerrado The EU is finalizing a draft regulation requiring mandatory due diligence on imports of certain agricultural commodities to prohibit products grown on land deforested after a cut-off date (likely to be the end of 2019 or later) The regulation would establish a risk assessment system to identify and categorize the ‘high’ ‘low’ or ‘standard’ risk regions within producer countries just 309 of a total of 2,388 soy-producing municipalities accounted for 95% of Brazil’s soy deforestation (between 2015 and 2019) These municipalities represented 51% of Brazil’s soy production in 2020 (62 million tonnes) and 49% of exports (41 million tonnes) This means that 2,079 soy-producing municipalities in Brazil, representing 49% of production (59.6 million tonnes) and 51% of exports (42.7 million tonnes), have negligible levels of deforestation and conversion risk. If implemented effectively the EU’s risk-based approach to due diligence could focus regulatory efforts where they are most needed while lowering the cost of compliance for exports from low-risk areas Cargill and Archer Daniels Midland – continue to be the most exposed to deforestation and conversion from exports of Brazilian soy although they all show a decreasing trend in 2018-2020 This might be attributed to companies’ efforts to clean their supply chains or to the stabilization of some agricultural regions where less soy-suitable lands with remaining native vegetation are available Following rapid expansion into trading Brazilian soy since 2017 Singapore-based Olam Group is now among the top five traders linked to soy deforestation and conversion Soy deforestation and conversion exposure (annual hectares and per thousand tonnes of soy) by trader in Brazil China continues to be by far the largest importer of soy deforestation and conversion from Brazil continuing an upward trend which began in 2013 China’s imports were linked to 229,000 ha of soy deforestation followed by Brazil’s own domestic consumption at 102,000 ha China’s per-tonne deforestation exposure in 2020 is the second highest after Portugal and closely followed by Brazil’s own domestic consumption The EU’s soy deforestation exposure decreased from 56,100 ha in 2018 to 29,800 in 2020 much lower than 2015 when it peaked at 201,000 ha This figure reflects an overall declining trend but also a shift in sourcing patterns in favour of regions with less recent deforestation and conversion Portugal stands out as the EU country of first import with the highest intensity of exposure to deforestation per tonne of imported soy and that together account for about 95% of soy produced in the Amazon These companies have made similar individual zero-deforestation commitments that cover other areas such as the Cerrado ZDCs covered about 50% of Brazil’s soy exports in 2020 The fact that half of Brazil’s soy exports are not covered by ZDCs and that deforestation is still rampant in the Amazon and Cerrado more than a decade after they were signed highlights the limitations of the voluntary approach and that policymakers may need to consider regulatory measures and ways to strengthen enforcement This experience also casts doubt on the prospects of traders achieving their Agriculture Sector Roadmap to 1.5°C which was announced at the COP27 climate conference in November 2022 to limit carbon emissions from land-use change grasslands and other natural ecosystems and replacing them with soy fields releases greenhouse gases (measured as the equivalent of carbon dioxide) that drive climate change Brazilian soy deforestation and conversion linked to the 2020 harvest resulted in the release of 28 million tonnes of carbon from native vegetation, equivalent to 103 million tonnes of CO₂ – 11% of the country’s total land use change annual emissions Soy replaced three times as much native vegetation in the Cerrado as the Amazon – but emissions from land clearance were at the same levels for both biomes In 2020 there was 133,000 ha of soy in the Amazon planted on land deforested after the 2008 Soy Moratorium cut-off date This deforestation was linked to 69 million tonnes of CO₂ emissions This explainer is written by Tiago Reis and Yan Prada Moro. To reference this article, please use the following citation: Reis, T., & Prada Moro, Y. (2022). Connecting exports of Brazilian soy to deforestation. Trase. https://doi.org/10.48650/S8VZ-1033 Trase is a partnership between Stockholm Environment Institute and Global Canopy Get the latest updates and invitations to your inbox with SEI’s global newsletter Metrics details sand flies and cases of visceral (VL) and cutaneous (CL) leishmaniases have been reported in almost all municipalities The aim of this study was to analyze the geographic distribution of VL and CL in relation the sand fly species found in the municipalities of Mato Grosso do Sul We analyzed VL and CL cases from 2001 to 2018 using data from the Notifiable Diseases Information System (SINAN) Data collected since 2003 on the presence of sand fly vectors (proven or suspected) were provided by the State Health Secretariat A total of 3566 and 3030 cases of VL and CL The municipalities with the most reported cases of VL were Campo Grande (2495) Corumbá (140) and Aquidauana (136); and those for CL were Campo Grande (635) and Bodoquena (197) The following sand fly species with vector potential were found in 59 municipalities (74.7%): Lutzomyia longipalpis Bichromomyia flaviscutellata and Pintomyia fischeri Sand flies were present in six municipalities where no cases of VL were reported and in two municipalities where no cases of CL were reported Our results indicate that the geographical distribution of VL and CL in Mato Grosso do Sul expanded during the study period and highlight the presence of sand fly vectors in municipalities where these diseases are currently considered to be non-endemic These data emphasize the need for studies on the epidemiology of both VL and CL in this Brazilian state which may provide information on the expansion of these diseases in Brazil the objective of this study was to describe the geographical distribution of VL and CL cases in the State of Mato Grosso do Sul from 2001 and 2018 The presence of sand fly vectors in endemic and non-endemic municipalities was also evaluated A descriptive study was carried out using secondary data collected on all recorded VL and CL cases in all municipalities of Mato Grosso do Sul between 2001 and 2018 The municipality in which the VL and CL cases were notified (notification municipality) and the infection site were analyzed using information registered in the Notifiable Diseases Information System (SINAN) and made available in Datasus The notification municipality is the city where the patient was diagnosed with leishmaniasis and subsequently treated The infection site is the municipality where the patient resides and where the infection probably occurred Number of visceral and cutaneous leishmaniasis cases reported in the State of Mato Grosso do Sul Data from the Notifiable Diseases Information System (SINAN) Of the 79 municipalities of Mato Grosso do Sul, 59 (74.7%) reported the presence of at least one of the following proven/suspected sand fly vectors: Bichromomyia flaviscutellata, Lutzomyia longipalpis, Lutzomyia cruzi, Migonemyia migonei, Nyssomyia neivai, Nyssomyia whitmani, Pintomyia fischeri and Pintomyia pessoai (Fig. 2). Municipalities with reported cases of VL and CL and where sand flies were reported to be present Data on cases are from the SINAN and sand fly data (collected since 2003) are from the State Health Secretariat Data summarized in this study demonstrate a further expansion of VL which now occurs in 62.0% (49/79) of the municipalities of Mato Grosso do Sul with cases reported in 94.9% (75/79) of the municipalities; two other municipalities have also been identified as infection sites for reported CL cases the municipality responsible for the notification differed from the original infection site Only four municipalities were identified as not reporting CL cases: Anaurilândia This absence of reported CL cases may be due to the absence of the disease in these municipalities or to underreporting All four of these municipalities are bordered by municipalities with reported cases which certainly suggests that there is a risk for CL introduction Anaurilândia and Jaraguari were identified as the probable original infection sites which highlights the need for improving both data capture form compilation and data entry in SINAN Further entomological studies are needed in municipalities with reported cases but where with no sand fly vectors have been reported so far with a higher number of traps and the installation of traps in different locations may revel the presence of sand fly vectors in these municipalities healthcare professionals working in municipalities with a confirmed presence of sand fly vectors but with no leishmaniasis cases should be advised to actively search out possible new cases This is pivotal to identifiy possible failures in the notification system and also to provide early diagnosis and treatment for affected patients Our study indicates that the geographical distribution of VL and CL in Mato Grosso do Sul State during the study period has expanded and highlights the presence of sand fly vectors in municipalities where these diseases are currently considered to be non-endemic Recent advances and new strategies in Leishmaniasis diagnosis Cutaneous and mucocutaneous leishmaniasis: clinical perspectives Role of asymptomatic and symptomatic humans as reservoirs of visceral leishmaniasis in a Mediterranean context Pan American Health Organization (PAHO). Leishmanioses. 2017. http://www.paho.org/hq/index.php?option=com_topics&view=article&id=29&Itemid=40754 Perspectives of vector borne diseases control in Brazil Notifiable Diseases Information System (SINAN). Leishmaniose visceral. 2021. http://www.portalsinan.saude.gov.br/leishmaniose-visceral Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística (IBGE). Cidades e Estados. 2020. https://www.ibge.gov.br/cidades-e-estados/ms/dourados.html Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuária (EMBRAPA). Espécies Arbóreas Brasileiras: Clima. 2016. http://www.cnpf.embrapa.br/pesquisa/efb/clima.htm morphology and terminology of adults and identification of American Taxa Berlin: Springer International Publishing; 2018 A proposal of generic and subgeneric abbreviations for phlebotomine sandflies (Diptera: Psychodidae: Phlebotominae) of the world Spatial analysis of American visceral leishmaniasis in Mato Grosso do Sul State Predicting the geographic distribution of Lutzomyia longipapis (Diptera: Psychodidae) and visceral leishmaniasis in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul Coinfection and delayed diagnosis of visceral leishmaniasis: died predecessors factors Análise dos registros de leishmaniose visceral pelo método de captura-recaptura Phlebotominae (Diptera: Psychodidae) and biomes in the State of Mato Grosso do Sul Detection of Leishmania DNA in phlebotomines captured in Campo Grande Espécies de flebotomíneos (Diptera: Psychodidae) coletadas em ambiente urbano em municípios com transmissão de leishmaniose visceral do Estado de Mato Grosso do Sul Geographic distribution of phlebotomine sandfly species (Diptera: Psychodidae) in Central-West Brazil Epidemiology of visceral leishmaniasis in Algeria: an update Influences of climate change on the potential distribution of Lutzomyia longipalpis sensu lato (Psychodidae: Phlebotominae) Lutzomyia migonei is a permissive vector competent for Leishmania infantum Sandfly fauna and behavior (Diptera: Psychodidae) in municipalities of the Mesoregion North Pioneer of Paraná Download references The authors would like to thank the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) for the scholarship the Fundação de Apoio ao Desenvolvimento de Ensino Ciência e Tecnologia do Mato Grosso do Sul (FUNDECT) for the financial support (Process 59/300.063/2015) the Universidade Federal da Grande Dourados (UFGD) for reviewing the English (PAP-PROPP no 02/2021) and the health agents Lourival Soares Barbosa Sérgio Novaes and José de Oliveira da Silva for their assistance in sand fly collection Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ciências da Saúde Edith Palacio & Alexandre da Silva Cardoso Faculdade de Ciências Biológicas e Ambientais Laboratório de Imunopatologia e Biologia Molecular wrote the original draft of the manuscript and designed the visualization and MSCLJ: reviewed and edited the final manuscript All authors read and approved the fnal manuscript The authors declare that there are no competing interests in the development of the research Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data Download citation DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s13071-022-05353-0 Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content: Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article. Learn about our mission, our charter and principles, and who we are. See what triggers an intervention and how supply and logistics allow our teams to respond quickly. Discover our governance and what it means to be an association. Find a quick visual guide to our offices around the world. Read through our annual financial and activity reports, and find out about where our funds come from and how they are spent. Read the policies, reports, and plans on how we address issues like racism and reduce our carbon footprint, ensuring our actions align with the highest ethical standards. Visit this section to get in touch with our offices around the world. Médecins Sans Frontières brings medical humanitarian assistance to victims of conflict, natural disasters, epidemics or healthcare exclusion. Learn about how, why, and where MSF teams respond to different diseases around the world, and the challenges we face in providing treatment. Learn about the different contexts and situations in which MSF teams respond to provide care, including war and natural disaster settings, and how and why we adapt our activities to each. Learn about our response and our work in depth on specific themes and events. In more than 70 countries, Médecins Sans Frontières provides medical humanitarian assistance to save lives and ease the suffering of people in crisis situations. We set up the MSF Access Campaign in 1999 to push for access to, and the development of, life-saving and life-prolonging medicines, diagnostic tests and vaccines for people in our programmes and beyond. Based in Paris, CRASH conducts and directs studies and analysis of MSF actions. They participate in internal training sessions and assessment missions in the field. Based in Geneva, UREPH (or Research Unit) aims to improve the way MSF projects are implemented in the field and to participate in critical thinking on humanitarian and medical action. Based in Barcelona, ARHP documents and reflects on the operational challenges and dilemmas faced by the MSF field teams. Based in Brussels, MSF Analysis intends to stimulate reflection and debate on humanitarian topics organised around the themes of migration, refugees, aid access, health policy and the environment in which aid operates. This logistical and supply centre in Brussels provides storage of and delivers medical equipment, logistics and drugs for international purchases for MSF missions. This supply and logistics centre in Bordeaux, France, provides warehousing and delivery of medical equipment, logistics and drugs for international purchases for MSF missions. This logistical centre in Amsterdam purchases, tests, and stores equipment including vehicles, communications material, power supplies, water-processing facilities and nutritional supplements. BRAMU specialises in neglected tropical diseases, such as dengue and Chagas, and other infectious diseases. This medical unit is based in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Our medical guidelines are based on scientific data collected from MSF’s experiences, the World Health Organization (WHO), other renowned international medical institutions, and medical and scientific journals. Providing epidemiological expertise to underpin our operations, conducting research and training to support our goal of providing medical aid in areas where people are affected by conflict, epidemics, disasters, or excluded from health care. Evaluation Units have been established in Vienna, Stockholm, and Paris, assessing the potential and limitations of medical humanitarian action, thereby enhancing the effectiveness of our medical humanitarian work. MSF works with LGBTQI+ populations in many settings over the last 25-30 years. LGBTQI+ people face healthcare disparities with limited access to care and higher disease rates than the general population. The Luxembourg Operational Research (LuxOR) unit coordinates field research projects and operational research training, and provides support for documentation activities and routine data collection. The Intersectional Benchmarking Unit collects and analyses data about local labour markets in all locations where MSF employs people. To upskill and provide training to locally-hired MSF staff in several countries, MSF has created the MSF Academy for Healthcare. This Guide explains the terms, concepts, and rules of humanitarian law in accessible and reader-friendly alphabetical entries. The MSF Paediatric Days is an event for paediatric field staff, policy makers and academia to exchange ideas, align efforts, inspire and share frontline research to advance urgent paediatric issues of direct concern for the humanitarian field. The MSF Foundation aims to create a fertile arena for logistics and medical knowledge-sharing to meet the needs of MSF and the humanitarian sector as a whole. A collaborative, patients’ needs-driven, non-profit drug research and development organisation that is developing new treatments for neglected diseases, founded in 2003 by seven organisations from around the world. Our digital portal dedicated to sharing the latest medical evidence from our humanitarian activities around the globe. Noma is a preventable and treatable neglected disease, but 90 per cent of people will die within the first two weeks of infection if they do not receive treatment. The TIC is aiming to change how MSF works to better meet the evolving needs of our patients. MSF's telemedicine hub aims to overcome geographic barriers for equitable, accessible, and quality patient care. Launched in 2012, the MSF Sweden Innovation Unit deploys a human-centered approach for promoting a culture of innovation within MSF. MSF has been providing medical care for vulnerable groups of people in Brazil since the start of the pandemic, beginning with the homeless population in São Paulo in early April, and later providing care in Rio de Janeiro and Amazonas, initially in Manaus and later in the municipalities of São Gabriel da Cachoeira and Tefé. Currently, MSF teams are working in Mato Grosso do Sul, São Paulo and Boa Vista, and conducting trainings in infection prevention and control in the state of Goias. Your donations pay for millions of consultations, surgeries, treatments and vaccinations every year. Volume 6 - 2019 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2019.00081 This article is part of the Research TopicCoralline Algae: Globally Distributed Ecosystem EngineersView all 11 articles One of the most important contributions of crustose coralline algae (CCA) to some coral reefs is their structural role in sunlit habitats but in the Atlantic southernmost coral reef these algae are also important components of living communities covering larger areas than corals Little is known about their competence in occupying reef space and consequently their ecological role This work compared two CCA species along reef sites and habitats and their responses to different irradiance levels epoxy disks were placed at four sites and three habitats (reef base Crustose coralline individual pieces were glued onto epoxy disks and their relative growth was estimated Productivity responses to irradiance levels found on reef habitats was measured on incubated samples CCA were less abundant than filamentous algae and non-calcareous crusts Crustose algae showed no seasonal or spatial pattern in cover contrasting with erect algae that differed in biomass among sites depending on season Differences among habitats were only found for CCA The dominant coralline Porolithon onkodes was more productive and grew faster than Lithophyllum stictaeforme at high irradiance level and both species were inhibited at low light onkodes in shallow and sunlit reefs was explained by its preference for high-light environments This study aims to describe the early colonization and growth of CCA on the reef flat edge and base of sheltered and exposed sites in summer and winter testing the responses of the two most common coralline species to different light levels Preliminary observations of seaweeds on the reef community of Abrolhos Archipelago generated three hypotheses that were tested in field and laboratory experiments: H1: CCA are more abundant than other form-functional seaweeds groups in early stages of colonization in any of the studied reef habitats H2: Encrusting CCA have faster marginal growth than branched CCA in any of the studied reef habitats H3: Encrusting CCA are more productive than branched CCA in environments under high irradiance Study sites in the Abrolhos Marine National Park: Porto Norte (PN) Sorted samples were oven dried at 60°C for 72 h until their mass was constant (not changing with time) Colonizing seaweeds can be limited by herbivores such as parrotfishes (Labridae: Scarini), that are able to excavate calcified thalli with their fused teeth (Steneck, 1986) CCA were collected with a hammer and chisel and shaped by cutting pliers to obtain 20 mm diameter and 3 ml volume disks A single disk naturally free of epiphytes was fixed onto an epoxy disk of 30 mm diameter (for each crustose coralline species Disks of both CCA species were interspersed fixed to the reef with epoxy and left for the same period as colonization disks The initial and final sizes of CCA were estimated by averaging two perpendicular diameters measured with calipers The formula used to calculate the marginal relative growth rate (RGR) was: To estimate the competence of the two most abundant CCA species under different irradiance levels oxygen produced by CCA through net photosynthesis was measured at different levels of light intensities naturally found at each habitat The irradiance at each site was measured with a Li-Cor light meter (LI-1000) linked to a terrestrial and submersible sensor to estimate the percentage of incident irradiance reduced by the water column the irradiance was measured at midday hours in the summer on sunny days The light levels of habitats were reproduced in the laboratory by 4 and in the field by shading with 1 or 3 layers of black plastic grids being close to saturated photosynthesis (623 and 408 μmol m−2 s−1) photo-inhibition (1093 and 716 μmol m−2 s−1) or to levels below those that might limit photosynthesis (218 and 143 μmol m−2 s−1) irradiance levels corresponded to those found at the reef base and within cryptic habitats (218 Variance homogeneity was tested using Cochrans test before performing analysis of variance (ANOVA) and, when necessary, data were transformed (Underwood, 1997) Uni or bi-factorial orthogonal ANOVAs were used to test differences between treatments in experiments Multiple comparison of means was performed using Tukey’s test The most common erect seaweeds found on colonization disks were filamentous algae (Cladophora dalmatica The abundance of coralline crusts was different among sites independent of seasons (Figures 2A,B). These groups of algae were abundant at all sites, except Caldeiros. Foliose algae showed similar distribution pattern. A significant interaction between seasons and sites was found for filamentous algae and non-calcareous crusts (Figures 2A,B ANOVA F = 2.99; p ≤ 0.05 and F = 2.99; p ≤ 0.05 The filamentous algae were abundant in almost all sites during both seasons except in Caldeiros (ANOVA p ≤ 0.0001 and p ≤ 0.01) non-calcareous crusts were more abundant in Caldeiros in both seasons (ANOVA p ≤ 0.0001 and p ≤ 0.0001) Seaweeds cover at study sites on reef edge Different letters above bars indicate significant differences among means detected by Tukey’s test (p < 0.05) Analysis of variance for algae colonization in relation to total cover and total biomass in study sites in summer and winter (n = 8) A significant interaction was observed for biomass of colonizing algae between sites and seasons (Figures 3A,B and Table 1) Total biomass was different among sites in summer and in winter (ANOVA F = 5.68; p ≤ 0.05 and F = 7.11; p ≤ 0.001 There was less biomass on Caldeiros than on most sites in summer and higher biomass in Porto Sul than on most sites in winter there were no significant interactions or differences in colonization among sites or seasons in summer the total cover ranged from 90 to 97% Seaweeds biomass at study sites on reef edge There was a significant difference in the total macroalgal biomass among habitats (Figure 4A, F = 4.85, p ≤ 0.05), which was higher at the reef base and lower at both reef flat and edge. Similarly, total algae cover did not differ significantly among reef habitats (ANOVA F = 0.65; p > 0.05). In relation to algae functional groups, coralline crusts were present at the reef base and edge, but absent on the reef flat (Figure 4B Filamentous algae were abundant at the reef base and edge and absent on the reef flat (ANOVA F = 10.74; p ≤ 0.001) Foliose algae were present only at the reef base (ANOVA F = 3.38; p ≤ 0.05) Non-calcareous crusts were abundant in all habitats and were dominant at the reef flat (ANOVA F = 38.56; p ≤ 0.0001) Seaweeds biomass (A) and seaweeds cover (B) in different habitats at Mato Verde Analysis of variance for marginal growth rate of Porolithon onkodes and Lithophyllum stictaeforme and vertical growth of L stictaeforme in study sites in summer and winter growth was positive in summer and negative in winter (ANOVA F = 30.35; p ≤ 0.001) In Mato Verde and Porto Sul growth was negative in summer and positive in winter but differences between seasons were not significant (ANOVA F = 2.10; p > 0.05 and F = 1.70; p > 0.05 In summer growth could not be measured at Porto Norte because samples were lost due to strong wave surge Relative marginal growth of Porolithon onkodes at study sites on reef edge and Lithophyllum stictaeforme in summer (C) and winter (D) Vertical growth rate of L. stictaeforme showed a similar pattern as marginal growth with a significant interaction among seasons and sites. Again Caldeiros showed different growth rates from all other sites but only in winter. (Figures 6A,B and Table 2) there was a positive growth in summer and negative in winter In Mato Verde and Porto Sul there was no significative difference between summer and winter (respectively ANOVA F = 1.49; p > 0.05 and F = 0.81; p > 0.05) Comparing marginal relative growth among habitats there was a significant difference for P. onkodes (Figure 7A, ANOVA F = 11.76; p ≤ 0.001), being higher on the reef edge and reef base and zero on reef flat. However, L. stictaeforme, had an inconspicuous marginal growth on both edge and base and zero on the reef flat, so differences was not significant among habitats. (Figure 7B There was also no significant difference in vertical growth for L stictaeforme among habitats (ANOVA F = 0.67; p > 0.05) since growth was negative on both edge and base and zero on the reef flat Epiphyte algae overgrew some coralline crusts but this cover was not enough to interfere with their growth in any habitat stictaeforme (B) in different habitats at Mato Verde and low levels in the laboratory (A) and in the field (B) showing the net photosynthesis Coralline crusts colonized reef edges and bases but did not grow on the reef flat, similar to non-calcareous crusts. Despite both crustose groups being able to survive most disturbances (Dethier, 1994; Steneck and Dethier, 1994), coralline crusts are easily bleached when exposed to air although they can be protected from high light intensities by epiphyte cover (Figueiredo et al., 2000) The success of CCA depends not only on the capacity of recruits to resist disturbance but also on their ability to occupy space through marginal vegetative growth studies elsewhere have based their estimates of growth on small individuals during early colonization and thus they proportionally detected greater marginal extension rates onkodes crusts was positive at all sites in both seasons especially non-calcareous crusts may have influenced crustose coralline growth because they were abundant when growth was reduced or absent stictaeforme crusts were negative or absent in most sites in both seasons but significantly higher in Caldeiros in summer This result can also be related to epiphytic cover mainly by non-calcareous crusts and articulated calcareous algae onkodes was positive on the reef edge and base which could be explained by desiccation plus high epiphytic cover of non-calcareous crusts The minute or imperceptible marginal growth of L stictaeforme might also have resulted from desiccation and epiphytes which out-competed coralline crusts on the reef flats suggesting that these fishes contribute to the dispersion of seaweeds on reefs In the laboratory P. onkodes usually responded better than L. stictaeforme under low irradiance, but under 68 μmol m−2 s−1 both species showed negative net O2 production, which indicates that this level is beneath their compensation point (Bessell-Browne et al., 2017) onkodes was more productive under irradiance levels up to 623 μmol m−2 s−1 showed negative growth when exposed to 218 μmol m−2 s−1 Lithophyllum stictaeforme responded positively to equivalent levels of irradiance (143 μmol m−2 s−1) but was photo-inhibited under irradiance up to 408 μmol m−2 s−1 onkodes not only grew better but was also more productive in environments subjected to high irradiance Crustose corallines were as abundant on the reef edge as on the reef base thus it was assumed that the deposition of sediments trapped by erect seaweeds was too low to affect CCA The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest We would like to thank the staff of the National Marine Park of Abrolhos who supported field work Abrolhos Turismo for helping with boat transportation and the Brazilian Navy for their hospitality Instituto Brasileiro do Meio Ambiente – IBAMA issued a research the license IBAMA 026/2000 for collecting samples We are also grateful to Gary Andrew Kendrick from University of Western Australia for improving the English version and for their important comments Comments and suggestions from the Editor NS and two reviewers improved the early version of the manuscript The effects of light and temperature on growth rates in boreal-subartic crustose coralline algae CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar succession and growth rates of tropical crustose coralline algae (Rhodophyta CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Spatial and temporal dynamics of the abundance of crustose calcareous algae on the southernmost coral reefs of the western Atlantic (Abrolhos Bank Impacts of light limitation on corals and crustose coralline algae Nutritional ecology of marine herbivorous fishes: ten years on CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Mechanisms of succession in natural communities and their role in community stability and organization CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Heteromorphic algal life histories: the seasonal pattern and response to herbivore of the brown crust The ecology of intertidal algal crusts: variation within a functional group CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Growth rates of Lithophyllum incrustans (Corallinales CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Enviromental factors associated with the spatial distribution of crustose coralline algae on the Great Barrier Reef CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar The unique Abrolhos reef formation (Brazil): need for specific management strategies CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Community structure and diet of roving herbivorous reef fishes in the Abrolhos Archipelago CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar “Colonization and growth of crustose coralline algae in Abrolhos Brazil,” in Proceedings of the 8th International Coral Reef Symposium Macintyre (Panama: Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute) Google Scholar Biotic interactions in the colonization of crustose coralline algae by epiphytes CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Responses of crustose coralline algae to epiphyte and canopy cover CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Settlement and survival of epiphytes on two intertidal crustose coralline algae CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar “Floristic and ecological studies of crustose coralline algae on Brazil’s Abrolhos reefs,” in Proceedings of the Ninth International Coral Reef Symposium Google Scholar Composition and community structure of the coralline algal reefs from Atol das Rocas CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Characteristic adaptations to grazing among algal turfs on a Caribbean coral reef CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Google Scholar Seasonal growth and photoinhibition in Plocamium cartilagineum (Rhodophyta) off the Isle of Man CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar “Marine ecology,” in The Biology of the Red Algae Sheath (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) Google Scholar Antifouling effects of epithallial shedding in three crustose coralline algae (Rhodophyta Competitive relationships and coexistence in a guild of crustose algae in eullitoral zone Recruitment of coralline crust and filamentous turf algae in the Galapagos archipelago: effect of simulated scour CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar “Rocas (southwestern equatorial Atlantic Brazil): an atol built primarily by coralline algae”in Proceedings Of The International Coral Reef Symposium Google Scholar CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Community structure of coralline algae and its relationship with environment in Sanya reefs Field and laboratory studies on depth dependence seasonality and light requirement of growth in three species of crustose coralline algae (Rhodophyta CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Google Scholar The population and community structure of Hawaiian fringing-reef crustose corallinaceae (Rhodophyta CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar The evolution of thallus form and survival strategies in benthic marine macroalgae: field and laboratory tests of a functional form model CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Relationships between macroalgal functional form groups and substrata stability in a subtropical rocky intertidal system CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar “Disease-induced mass mortality of crustose coralline algae on coral reefs provides rationale for the conservation of herbivorous fish stocks,” in Proceedings of the Eighth International Coral Reefs Symposium Google Scholar An Identification Guide to the Reef Plants of the Caribbean Google Scholar Selective herbivore increases biomass of its prey: a chiton-coralline reef-building association CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Google Scholar “Reevaluating the role of crustose coralline algae in the construction of the coral reefs,” in Proceedings of the 8th International Coral Reef Symposium Google Scholar Succession of crustose coralline red algae (Rhodophyta) on coralgal reefs exposed to physical disturbance in the southwest Atlantic The surface ultrastructure and epithallium shedding of crustose coralline algae in an “isoyake” area of southwestern Hokkaido Google Scholar Succession and growth rates of incrusting crustose coralline algae (Rhodophyta Cryptonemiales) in the upper fore-reef enviromental off Ishigaki Island CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar corals and fish to the reduction of macroalgae in fished and unfished patch reefs of Glovers Reef Atoll Coral and algal changes after the 1998 coral bleching: interaction with reef management and herbivores on Kenyan reefs CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar O arquipélago dos Abrolhos: geomorfologia e aspectos gerais Google Scholar Conflicting constraints on the form of intertidal algae CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Competition in seaweeds: linking plant traits to competitive outcomes CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar and chemistry of crustose coralline algae (Rhodophyta Corallinales) on grazing by the parrot fish Chorurus sordidus,” in Proceedings of the 8th International Coral Reef Symposium Google Scholar Spotorno-Oliveira Coralline algae enhance the settlement of the vermetid gastropod Dendropoma irregulare (d’Orbigny Escalating herbivory and resulting adaptive trends in calcareous algal crusts CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar The ecology of coralline algal crusts: convergent patterns and adaptive strategies CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar “Herbivore on coral reefs: a synthesis,” in Proceedings of the 8th International Coral Reef Symposium Google Scholar herbivores and sediments: complex interactions along reef productivity gradients,” in Proceedings of the 8th International Coral Reef Symposium Google Scholar The role of environment in control of morphology in Lithophyllum congestum CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar A functional group approach to the structure of algal-dominated communities CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Mechanisms of competitive dominance between crustose coralline algae: an herbivore-mediated competitive reversal CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Feeding capabilities and limitations of herbivorous molluscs: a functional group approach CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Distribution of crustose coralline algae (Corallinales Seaweed survival after consumption by the greenbeak parrotfish Nongeniculate coralline red algae (Rhodophyta: Corallinales) in coral reefs from Northeastern Brazil and a description of Neogoniolithon atlanticum sp “Photosynthesis and respiration of aquatic macroflora using the light and dark bottle oxygen method and dissolved oxygen analyzer,” in Experimental Phycology: a Laboratory Manual Kremer (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) Google Scholar Logical Design and Interpretation using Analysis of Variance Google Scholar Survival and dispersal of turf algae and macroalgae consumed by herbivorous coral reef fishes Benthic communities of shallow-water reefs of Abrolhos CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Villas-Bôas Colonization and growth of crustose coralline algae (Corallinales Rhodophyta) on the Rocas Atoll Spatial heterogeneity of benthic community assemblages with an emphasis on reef algae at French frigate shoals Large-scale associations between macroalgal cover and grazer biomass on mid-depth reefs in the Caribbean CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Photosynthesis/ photon flux density relationships among components of coral reef algal turfs CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Citation: Tâmega FTS and Figueiredo MAO (2019) Colonization Growth and Productivity of Crustose Coralline Algae in Sunlit Reefs in the Atlantic Southernmost Coral Reef Copyright © 2019 Tâmega and Figueiredo. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited in accordance with accepted academic practice distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms *Correspondence: Frederico T. S. Tâmega, ZnJlZHRhbWVnYUBnbWFpbC5jb20= Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher 94% of researchers rate our articles as excellent or goodLearn more about the work of our research integrity team to safeguard the quality of each article we publish Cotriguaçu Sempre Verde (CSV)1 is an initiative to promote social and economic development in the municipality of Cotriguaçu in northwestern Mato Grosso through conservation and sustainable management of natural resources The initiative is led by the Instituto Centro de Vida (ICV) which has focused initially on helping landowners come into compliance with environmental regulations and encouraging them to adopt more sustainable production practices These activities are expected to simultaneously reduce deforestation and forest degradation in the municipality and promote local development By engaging multiple stakeholders from many different sectors ICV is taking a revolutionary approach to the environmental governance of a subnational jurisdiction CSV is organized into five components: (i) structuring municipal environmental management; (ii) support for sustainable forest management; (iii) promotion of best agricultural practices; (iv) support for natural resource governance in land reform settlements; and (v) integration of the Rikbaktsa indigenous group (ICV 2011) ICV is seeking to develop local ownership of the initiative by engaging with and building confidence among indigenous groups small farmers and the municipal government of Cotriguaçu the initiative offers important lessons for other initiatives pursuing a multisectorial and multistakeholder approach (ICV 2011) Cotriguaçu municipality covers 9123 km2 in northwestern Mato Grosso (Figure 4.1) in the Brazilian Legal Amazon Several rivers pass through the municipality which has the largest volume of all rivers in Mato Grosso Around 25% of the municipality has level terrain with an average elevation of 240 m (IBGE 2014a) and the predominant vegetation is dense rain forest and the average annual rainfall is 2750 mm The dry season occurs from May to September and the wet season occurs from October to April with the greatest rainfall intensity in January through March (IBGE 2014a) Cotriguaçu was traditionally occupied by indigenous peoples particularly the Rikbaktsa group who speak the Tupi language the Cooperativa Central Regional Iguaçu Ltda. bought one million ha of land in northwest Mato Grosso They planned to sell land to small producers from southern Brazil where agricultural land was scarce due partly to the creation of the reservoir for the Iguaçu Dam The first immigrants began arriving in Cotriguaçu in 1984 Juruena municipality – which included Cotriguaçu – was created (Guerra in press) Cotriguaçu became an independent municipality INCRA launched a second phase of colonization in the municipality attracting families from other parts of Mato Grosso and nearby states including Mato Grosso do Sul and Rondônia This colonization has meant continued rapid population growth in the region (Guerra in press) Figure 4.1 Map of the REDD+ initiative in Cotriguaçu Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística In addition to small farmers and the Rikbaktsa indigenous group there are large private landholders in Cotriguaçu Privately owned lands occupy 54% of the municipality the Parque Nacional do Juruena (14% of the total area); an indigenous territory Terra Indigena Escondido (18% of the total area); and three land reform settlements (Projetos de Assentamento or PAs) – Juruena Nova Cotriguaçu and CEDERES II (14% of the total area) The most important economic sectors are forestry agroindustry and small-scale agriculture (production of food for consumption in the municipality) Logging was the main source of employment in Cotriguaçu in the 1990s but is currently in decline due to improved control of illegal logging and conversion of forest to agricultural fields and pasture the most important drivers of deforestation are cattle ranching and small-scale agriculture Cotriguaçu’s population grew from 4379 inhabitants in 1996 to 14,983 in 2010 (IBGE 2014a) The Human Development Index (HDI) of Cotriguaçu was 0.721 in 2005 slightly lower than the national HDI of 0.76 (UNDP 2005) Small farmers in the land reform settlements (representing about 80% of the municipal population) are generally considered the most disadvantaged people in the municipality we report results from a survey of 122 households in four communities in the three land reform settlements included in the CSV intervention area ICV initially partnered with the Mato Grosso SEMA and TNC which focuses on municipal environmental management TNC initially played a key role in bringing landowners into compliance with environmental regulations specifically by helping them register in CAR Registration in CAR has been required by the Brazilian Forest Code since 2012 and is widely considered to be a necessary first step for REDD+ other partners that have joined the initiative include the International department of Office National des Forêts (ONF-I) the Instituto Floresta Tropical (IFT) and EMBRAPA (the Brazilian federal agency for agricultural research) ONF-I was invited due to its previous experience with reforestation and carbon sequestration in the municipality and IFT was invited due to its vast expertise in promoting sustainable forest management throughout the Amazon In addition to sustainable forest management ONF-I is supporting activities related to agroforestry environmental education and technical training for small producers EMBRAPA is collaborating with ICV to promote best practices among cattle ranchers in the municipality ICV supported the formation of Cotriguaçu’s Municipal Council of Environment (CMMA) which has held regular meetings since 2012 to debate various issues related to public management and the environment (not limited to forests) CMMA has sought to reduce forest fires in the municipality by developing materials on fire prevention and disseminating them in places where fire outbreaks are common Mato Grosso has historically been one of the states in the Brazilian Amazon with the highest deforestation rates (Governo do Estado do Mato Grosso it included 20 of the 43 municipalities ‘blacklisted’ by the Ministry of Environment for their high deforestation rates about 38% of the area originally under forest cover in the state had been deforested northwestern Mato Grosso is the last forest frontier in the state located in the ‘arc of deforestation’ of the Amazon the region has been a top priority in recent efforts to curb deforestation (Governo do Estado do Mato Grosso the state government of Mato Grosso decided to take action to address the state’s reputation as one of the leaders of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon (Governo do Estado do Mato Grosso the state developed the Mato Grosso Action Plan for the Control of Deforestation and Fires (PPCDQ MT) with the goal of reducing deforestation in the state by 80% by 2020 (as compared to the average deforestation rate in 1996 – 2005) TNC and SEMA began discussing a potential state REDD+ proposal as a way to capture funding for the implementation of the PPCDQ MT the REDD+ technical working group from Mato Grosso designed the REDD+ State Law (9878/2013) This law could eventually strengthen the CSV initiative The working group is seeking to make the process as participatory as possible reflecting the positions of all societal sectors ICV planned to implement a REDD+ initiative in the entire northwest portion of Mato Grosso with a total area of 108,000 km2 and a population of 120,000 people (Governo do Estado do Mato Grosso The high costs and other challenges associated with implementing such a broad initiative led ICV and partners to start with a pilot in a smaller area After spending several months (in 2009–2010) analyzing potential pilot sites based on deforestation rates the land tenure situation and other key factors they finally selected the municipality of Cotriguaçu when ICV submitted a proposal to the Packard Foundation and diagnostic activities began on the ground (Figure 4.2) There had been other forest conservation efforts in Cotriguaçu prior to the CSV project the Pilot Program to Protect Tropical Forests developed activities in northwestern Mato Grosso the United Nations Development Programme started a rural development project These projects sought to improve both forest and non-forest livelihoods and they engaged local political stakeholders such as SEMA the Rural Development Association of Juruena the Juruena Municipal Secretariat of Agriculture and the Instituto Pró-Natura Figure 4.2 Timeline of the REDD+ initiative in Cotriguaçu CSV intends to reduce deforestation and forest degradation and hence GHG emissions Benefit-sharing mechanisms do not include direct cash payments but rather are focused on the promotion of sustainable production activities among various stakeholder groups ICV and partners were initially interested in implementing a REDD+ pilot project as reflected in their 2009 proposal to the Packard Foundation entitled “Developing the Northwest Mato Grosso REDD Pilot Project.” An REL for the intervention area was developed in 2010 through linear projection of pre-initiative deforestation rates from 2000 to 2008 using data from PRODES (2008) The reference level is 14,000 ha of deforestation per year which corresponds to approximately 7.1 million tCO2e emitted annually the initiative was granted funding by Fundo Vale for implementation of CSV CSV is no longer considered a REDD+ initiative by its proponents mostly due to the uncertainties and differing perspectives on REDD+ If (and when) the funding and rules for REDD+ become clearer then the municipality of Cotriguaçu could be well positioned to launch a REDD+ initiative based on CSV In terms of (i) structuring municipal environmental management ICV’s principal approach has been to provide support for CMMA and to back CAR implementation on private properties and in land reform settlements Support for CMMA includes establishment of a geotechnology laboratory for environmental monitoring and a regular meeting process (both started in July 2011) the Government of Mato Grosso has required implementation of CAR to promote compliance with the Brazilian Forest Code While large landowners bear the costs of registering their properties in the CAR system the municipal government of Cotriguaçu subsidizes the costs for small properties (up to 400 ha) To provide (ii) support for sustainable forest management ICV partnered with IFT and ONF-I to implement the Programa de Desenvolvimento do Bom Manejo Florestal no Estado do Mato Grosso (PRODEMFLOR) program PRODEMFLOR seeks to increase the number and improve the quality of sustainable forest management plans by offering technical training in skills needed to develop these plans It is a voluntary membership program in which forest entrepreneurs submit their management plans to an independent monitoring group and commit to improving their practices producers receive advice and technical training PRODEMFLOR has been less successful than expected in Cotriguaçu due to the difficulty of establishing a formal agreement between the various organizations involved and an overall lack of efficiency in approving sustainable forest management plans There is still ongoing dialogue with some timber producers and PRODEMFLOR’s annual monitoring still occurs The (iii) best agricultural practices component focuses on improving cattle ranching practices this component promotes: (1) implementation of technology developed by the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (EMBRAPA; Guide for Good Agro-pastoral Practices); (2) access to subsidized credit to finance large-scale investment in pasture recovery and recuperation of Permanent Protection Areas (APPs); and (3) involvement of production chain stakeholders in debates about improving cattle production systems Considering the current situation of animal husbandry in the region and the lack of good examples for landowners the first step of the program is to develop innovative and replicable models of sustainable production systems for beef and milk The (iv) support for natural resource governance in rural settlements is the component that is most directly related to the communities sampled by CIFOR-GCS It is operationalized through the Rural Development Initiative which seeks to support traditional rural communities (family farmers and indigenous groups) in their organization and planning and development of low-impact production technologies following the principles of agroecology (v) integration of the Rikbáktsa indigenous group focuses on the creation of a management plan for the Escondido Indigenous Land which comprises the largest forested area in the municipality of Cotriguaçu ICV’s move away from REDD+ in CSV was particularly important in relation to this stakeholder group the National Indian Foundation (FUNAI) declared that some REDD+ initiatives had fraudulent practices citing as an example community leaders signing documents without the effective support of their communities ICV engaged in dialogue with the Rikbaktsa tribe and slowly built confidence through a focus on the participatory design of the Escondido Indigenous Land management plan The Rikbaktsa tribe showed interest if community members could participate as co-managers of the initiative and as a result various ethnographic studies and activities were carried out and the indigenous management plan was elaborated The current goal is to incorporate this management plan into the municipal environmental management plan of Cotriguaçu there are also other development and conservation initiatives taking place in Cotriguaçu Coopercotri is a cooperative that opened in Cotriguaçu in 2012 to support the commercialization of rural agricultural products but ended up seeking to address needs related to the processing of coffee; the wholesale trade of agricultural pesticides fertilizers and soil correctives as well as the wholesale trade of fruits the Balde Cheio (Full Bucket) project is a partnership between EMBRAPA SEBRAE (Serviço de Apoio às Micro e Pequenas Empresas an agency that supports small business) and local partners to provide technical support to improve milk production and commercialization and to try to ensure that local producers have guaranteed outlets for their products Luz para Todos (Light for All) is a national program of rural electrification which has reached all of the communities included in the CIFOR-GCS sample (COT1 and COT2 more than a year before the other two) improvements to the unpaved highway connecting the municipalities of Cotriguaçu and Juruena have benefited the inhabitants of Cotriguaçu which is a federal government program of conditional cash transfers has been actively enrolling and making payments to families in Cotriguaçu since 2009 the strategy of the military government in Brazil was to occupy lands in the Amazon in order to protect it from foreign invaders as well as to provide land to landless people Only in the 1990s were these settlements established in Cotriguaçu and none of the settlers in these settlements have obtained land titles (Guerra in press) Our sample includes smallholders in four communities among the three different land reform settlements in Cotriguaçu and households are normally distributed along narrow and people who frequent the same church are associated with the same community people who attend the same church live along the same road Each community has its own internal political organization which allows households to lodge complaints with government officials or request goods and services for the community In all the political associations (except for religious organizations) representatives are elected by members of the association Female participation is not common in these political organizations but women are becoming conscious that they need to organize themselves to be able to fight for their interests where there is a women’s organization focused on improving access to markets Table 4.1 lists the institutions in each sample community Table 4.1 Institutions present in the four communities Small Rural Producers Association of Nova Aliança (political) Table 4.2 presents some basic characteristics of the communities studied whereas the newest community was founded in 2006 they all face transportation problems during the rainy season COT4 is the only community with a full set of basic infrastructure including a primary and secondary school and a health center This is because the community is located in the largest land reform settlement area in the municipality which has a large block of voters and is represented by a small-producers association that has actively and effectively pressured the government to provide these services Table 4.2 Characteristics of the four communities studied based on the 2011 survey Road usable by four-wheel drive vehicles in all seasons Distance to closest market by most common means of transport (km/min) Crop with highest production value per household on average Price of a hectare of good quality agricultural land (low-high) (USD)a rice was unanimously reported as the main dietary staple but it was primarily used to feed small livestock Many small farmers turned to urban markets to buy rice often imported from southern Brazil at substantial cost The specific reasons given for limited local production of rice varied by community but many people blamed the difficulty of transporting rice to market due to the poor condition of the roads as well as damage by wild pigs (Pecari tacaju) and by diseases Table 4.3 presents basic socioeconomic characteristics of sampled households adults (≥16 years old) had studied for approximately five years on average in all communities adults were unable to work on average 7–17 days in the 12-month period prior to the interview (2010–2011) due to health problems more than 50% of households had private toilets There was high variation in total household income among communities total annual income was nearly 50% higher than in the community with the lowest income (COT3) In the community with the highest average household income (COT2) the average land holding was the smallest and there were significant conflicts over land tenure Table 4.3 Socioeconomic characteristics of households interviewed in 2011 Years of education (adults ≥ 16 years old) Total value of transportation assets (USD) a Total annual income (12 months prior to survey) from agriculture in USD; currency converted using yearly average provided by the World Bank b Total livestock value at the time of interview other natural habitat and residential areas controlled by the household COT3 and COT4 barely had access to electricity whereas COT1 and COT2 were almost fully served by electricity This difference was due to the government Luz para Todos Program which was present in COT1 and COT2 and about to arrive in the other two communities Phone communication is another limitation in Cotriguaçu Cell phone reception was rare in the four communities which they would use when they traveled to areas with cell phone reception household transportation choices seemed to depend on distance to the nearest city COT2 and COT3 are not far from the city and are therefore served by regular collective transport Households in these communities had therefore invested an average of only USD 3000 in transportation assets with highly irregular collective transport and households had invested much more in motorcycles and other private transportation assets Figure 4.3 shows that cattle ranching generated more than a third (34%) of the total income reported by households in the four communities studied Households in all of the communities except for COT3 are highly reliant on agriculture including both cattle and crops (Figure 4.4) income from the forest and the environment was negligible The importance of “other income” highlights the role of government transfers (e.g Bolsa Família and pensions) in the local economy wage labor is also a significant source of income This is due to medium and large landholders around the land reform settlements hiring smallholders to maintain their farms One large producer stated that small producers play an important role in sustaining the livelihoods of large landholders and expressed concern that this labor force is being lost due to outmigration from the settlements although other evidence suggests that outmigration has decreased due to improved conditions (such as electricity) in the settlements Figure 4.3 Sources of income for all households in sample (n = 122) Figure 4.4 Sources of income for average household by community (or village) (+/- SE) (n = 122) Table 4.4 presents the relationship between people and the forest in the four communities Although the average time needed to walk to the forest was less than an hour in all communities only a few household members reported having occupations related to forests households in that community reported that only 2% of their income came from forest products households in the sample communities in Cotriguaçu show minimal reliance on forest products The most important forest product is charcoal there is now increasing interest in products derived from babaçu (Orbignya phalerata) a palm that locals had considered a pest because it invades pastures ICV considers babaçu to have great economic potential for small producers since it can be transformed into many different commercial products such as oil (from the fruits) charcoal (from the coconut cover) and handicrafts (from the palm leaf) Table 4.4 Indicators of household forest dependence based on the 2011 survey With agriculture as a primary or secondary occupation (adults ≥ 16 years old)c With a forest-based primary or secondary occupation (adults ≥ 16 years old)d Reporting increased consumption of forest productse Reporting decreased consumption of forest productse Obtaining cash income from forest productsf Reporting an increase in cash income from forestf Reporting a decrease in cash income from forestf Reporting fuelwood or charcoal as primary cooking source Reporting decreased opportunity for clearing forestg of hectares cleared over the past two years among households that reported clearing of any forest of hectares left fallow among households that reported leaving any land fallow c Percentage of households with at least one adult reporting cropping as a primary or secondary livelihood d Percentage of households with at least one adult reporting forestry as a primary or secondary livelihood e Percentage of households among those that reported any consumption of forest products over the past two years f Percentage of households among those that reported any cash income from forest products over the past two years households in these communities are seeking to construct livelihoods around cattle ranching for milk or beef production households are also reducing their reliance on cultivation of crops as they shift into cattle ranching producers reported that they sometimes were obliged to buy maize from neighboring municipalities in order to feed their animals some small producers have consolidated large areas of pasture by buying out settlers who have abandoned their settlement areas many small producers dream of becoming large cattle ranchers Cattle ranching has changed Cotriguaçu’s forested landscape into extensive pastures Mato Grosso is a difficult state for NGOs to work in due to the ongoing duel between environmentalists and defenders of BAU development These opposite visions are considered the first obstacle for the CSV initiative CSV must be seen as something beneficial for all groups involved or its success will be compromised Since CSV is not currently linked to the sale of carbon credits but rather to articulation among several sectors to reduce deforestation and forest degradation the different local stakeholders involved in CSV have notably different goals due to their divergent views on land use This creates a challenge for institutionalizing the program locally and meeting the demands of these different sectors while maintaining a holistic vision for sustainable development in the municipality There is also a temporal component related to the governance challenge there is the culture of discontinuity of policy initiatives from opposing parties A political party will rarely continue an initiative from the opposition party – even if the initiative is beneficial for local people – simply because it represents a different political position there is a risk that the municipal government in Cotriguaçu might not support CSV in the future if there are big changes in leadership resulting from electoral politics This is another reason that ICV has promoted strong local autonomy for CSV in order to promote its continuity the focus on multiple stakeholders in CSV has not been free of criticism within local civil society groups some members of local NGOs have expressed concern about the potential side effects of including owners of medium and large cattle ranches in CSV The argument is that incentives for cattle ranching activities in a heavily forested municipality could stimulate the opening of more areas for cattle raising through producers envisaging higher profits ICV had to work on its own internal ‘multistakeholder’ process since the staff who worked with indigenous people had a different vision than those who worked with cattle ranchers This initial internal organizational work was key to being able to work subsequently with a diversity of external actors (personal communication from R Farias even though there have been improvements in the highway connecting Cotriguaçu and Juruena local road infrastructure still represents a large barrier to any conservation and development initiative the roads in Cotriguaçu are of poor quality and many areas remain isolated during the rainy season This limited access represents a substantial obstacle for marketing of products This presents a barrier to CSV’s efforts to promote sustainable production due to the difficulty of accessing markets The evolution of CSV reflects a common trend among subnational REDD+ initiatives in the Brazilian Amazon The initial idea of the REDD+ Pilot Program in Northwestern Mato Grosso was to compensate people for avoided deforestation which was in line with the international discussions at that time local producers in Cotriguaçu caught wind of this and there were stories of people planting trees on their properties with the goal of receiving direct economic benefits like other subnational REDD+ initiatives in Brazil CSV took a direction that did not include direct cash payments and stopped being identified as REDD+ mostly due to the lack of progress on REDD+ at the international level While proponent organizations needed to mend some initial expectations regarding the receipt of immediate cash benefits CSV evolved to incorporate a broader vision of promoting green development in the municipality through responding to local demands and building confidence with multiple stakeholders CSV is not the only multistakeholder initiative of this scope in the Brazilian Amazon but it provides some important lessons for this kind of approach it offers an innovative example of creating a multistakeholder team within the proponent organization itself and internally working through conflicts associated with different values and visions in order to work effectively with the diverse actors in Cotriguaçu it demonstrates the challenges and importance of promoting local autonomy for an initiative and truly listening to the demands of different stakeholder groups when formulating intervention strategies even if they conflict with the proponent’s ideas even though ICV views biodiversity conservation through the strengthening of protected areas as important it is not currently a priority issue for local stakeholders while ICV can bring the issue into local discussions CSV highlights the importance of linking to broader initiatives Cotriguaçu still requires more infrastructure and greater political maturity to accommodate it There is a need to find a way to internalize these practices but also into the political agenda of the municipality so that they will not be forgotten after the next election Demonstration of the early positive effects of CSV could be one way to strengthen the initiative and keep it on the political agenda of the municipality over the longer term This study would not have been possible without the support of people from Cotriguaçu who were kind and helpful to our research team and without the support of team members: Cássia Santos We would also like to express our special gratitude to Renato Farias Márcia Andretta and the people of the communities in our sample We also thank Renato Farias and Erin Sills for their comments on earlier drafts 1 CSV is the name for the first phase of the Northwest Mato Grosso REDD+ Pilot Project which was initiated in 2009 to promote forest conservation in order to offset carbon emissions and as a tool to mitigate climate change 2 Details about Fundo Vale can be found at their website: www.fundovale.org.br 3 After selecting the initial 30 we selected 10 extra names to place on a waiting list We drew names from that waiting list to substitute for the few respondents who were not available or willing to complete the interview the world’s largest remaining tropical forest or 85% of the Brazilian Amazon and 43% of Brazil’s land area aggressive land development strategies made Brazil the world’s largest deforesting country: annual forest loss peaked in 1995 and again in 2004 with much of that cleared land ending up as cattle pasture Timber extraction still only plays a minor and indirect role in Brazil’s forest carbon losses Large- and smallholders alike contribute to deforestation facilitated by policy drivers such as subsidized agricultural credits large-scale road building and resettlement programs (May et al The resettlement programs involve the colonization of smallholders into land reform settlements managed by Brazil’s agrarian reform institute where there are typically high levels of deforestation due in part to the use of forest clearing as a way to secure tenure rights (Brandão et al Brazil has gradually cut Amazon deforestation by a spectacular 79% to ‘just’ 0.6 million ha in 2012 (INPE 2014a) This reduction mostly predated the emergence of REDD+ as an international initiative: it was the result of a series of policies plus a slowdown in the growth of commodity prices that curbed private investments in land clearing (Assunção et al many deforestation-sensitive civil society representatives entered the Lula administration and the Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Deforestation in the Amazon Region (PPCDAM) has since functioned as an interministerial coordination tool 19 million ha of new protected areas were created and large tracts of indigenous territories also gained official recognition Satellite-based monitoring of changes in forest cover principally by the National Institute for Space Research (INPE) empowered timely command-and-control enforcement actions by Brazil’s environmental police IBAMA – perhaps the single most effective action to curb deforestation Municipalities with high deforestation were blacklisted and consequently blocked from certain resource transfers from central government municipalities had to register 80% of their private properties in the CAR system – a step toward compliance with the Brazilian Forest Code and tenure regularization – and reduce the area deforested annually below predetermined thresholds commodity roundtables increased private sector environmental compliance in supply chains Brazil thus became an ‘early bird’ showcase for how REDD+ countries could potentially turn around high-deforestation scenarios to mitigate forest carbon emissions substantially (UNEP 2012) Acre and Mato Grosso played proactive roles in achieving these conservation gains including through six Amazonian states’ participation in the Governors’ Climate and Forests Task Force over 50 Brazilian subnational REDD+ initiatives emerged the highest among all tropical countries (CIFOR 2014) Many of these initiatives are supported by the Amazon Fund funded by USD 1 billion from Norway for 2008–2015 (plus some German and national Petrobras funds) is managed by the Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES) and supports projects by government agencies NGOs and universities that demonstrate a direct or indirect contribution to reducing deforestation and degradation (Amazon Fund 2014) Various state governments also participated in subnational initiatives or have since created jurisdictional REDD+ programs Perhaps the most interesting potential of these subnational initiatives is to pilot intervention mixes at subnational scales of aggregation It has been argued that the recent successful anti-deforestation policies at the national level have emphasized ‘sticks’ over ‘carrots,’ putting most opportunity costs of avoided deforestation on Amazon land users which calls into question the political sustainability of these drastic reductions (Börner et al many subnational initiatives are pursuing more balanced policy mixes of forest law enforcement (negative) incentives conditional and/or nonconditional landholder (positive) incentives and land-tenure regularization (enabling) measures The customization of these intervention mixes to different subnational REDD+ contexts may thus also provide some valuable lessons about how to design national policy mixes Brazil is currently developing a legal framework for REDD+ implementation under a working group led by the Ministry of Environment and is also being informed by pilot REDD+ experiences such as Juma – the oldest Brazilian REDD+ initiative (Börner et al 2013; also see Chapter 3: Bolsa Floresta Initiative) Subnational initiatives could cross-fertilize these complex national efforts the Brazilian case also features significant challenges on how to equitably share REDD+ benefits across levels of governance (local forested countries with multilevel governance structures Smaller Buffer Zones Would Further Reduce Protection from Exposure “People living near industrial farms in Mato Grosso are already being poisoned by pesticides and experiencing higher rates of cancer and miscarriage, and reducing buffer zones will only exacerbate this public health crisis,” said Julia Bleckner senior health and human rights researcher at Human Rights Watch “The buffer zone bill is part of a worrying trend of deregulation of pesticides in Brazil underscoring the dangerous influence of agribusiness over policymaking.” Mato Grosso lawmakers should reject the bill Even the best buffer zones are not sufficient to protect communities and workers from the harms of exposure to certain pesticides used in Brazil, many of which are banned or severely restricted for use in the EU and elsewhere because of their links to health or environmental harms some activists and policymakers said that it is difficult and at times risky to research and seek to regulate pesticides in Mato Grosso As a prosecutor said, “Mato Grosso is an epicenter of agribusiness… It is definitely a challenge working on this issue you won’t advance.” Researchers studying the health impact of pesticide use in Mato Grosso said that landowners had threatened them during their investigations Despite banning their use within their own borders, European countries continue to export many of these banned pesticides to the global south Companies in the EU are not only manufacturing and exporting pesticides that are considered too harmful for their own citizens they are exporting them to places where regulations to protect people against them are weak On October 16, the Brazilian government committed to a long-awaited National Pesticide Reduction Plan set to launch on December 3 aimed at phasing out highly hazardous pesticides especially those banned in the EU and elsewhere and investing in organic and agroecological alternatives “It is unreasonable for pesticides that are banned in the world to be freely sold here,” Márcio Macêdo minister of the General Secretariat of the Presidency All states, including Brazil and pesticide-exporting governments, have an obligation to protect people’s rights to health, life, livelihoods, and a healthy environment. When it comes to health and the environment, countries have a duty to apply the precautionary principle meaning that countries should regulate pesticides to limit or prohibit their use when there is reason or evidence to believe that they may be harmful The Brazilian government should take this opportunity to build a forceful strategy that targets pesticides banned in the EU and other harmful pesticides and should invest in building substantial support for organic and agroecological farming “Mato Grosso state legislators should reject the buffer zone bill,” Bleckner said “Instead of bringing pesticides closer to communities policymakers in Mato Grosso should listen to public health experts in the state who have called for expanded buffer zones more stringent monitoring and regulation of pesticides bans on pesticides that are highly hazardous and substantial investment in ecologically sound agriculture.” Some Quilombola and Indigenous leaders said that the health effects of pesticides sprayed by nearby industrial farms effectively forced them to move from their land farms will be allowed to spray pesticides even closer to communities forcing more people to face the impossible choice of suffering significant health effects or leaving their land Winti Suya, an indigenous leader of the Khikatxi village of the Suya people in Wawi Indigenous territory, made the decision in 2018 to move the entire village 30 kilometers to escape pesticides drifting into their territory the planting became very intense and more frequent sprayed first by tractor and then by plane They come from the farm and arrive in our village and many diseases started to appear.… The people decided with me to leave and make this move to build a new village we made the decision that the health of the population was more important and to take our people as far away from the pesticides as possible Suya fears that the pesticides drifting from the nearby farms are still affecting the health of his community He also remains concerned that the pesticides could reach the community through the river that passes through farms before reaching the village: We are concerned about pesticides that could reach the water and the fish in the river because we feed on these fish from the river and the game from the forest We want to do a study to find out if our water contains pesticides because the headwaters of the river where we live are all within the soybean farm.… It concerns all of us all human beings who live in this municipality of Querência All the residents need quality nature and water Small-scale Indigenous and Quilombola farmers also said that repeated exposure to pesticides sprayed by nearby industrial farms contributed to loss of livelihood and food for the community as well as plants used for traditional medicinal purposes “This year we tried to plant but couldn’t harvest anything because of the pesticides,” said a member of a Quilombola community with farms about 700km away so we got corn seed with support from FASE [a nongovernmental organization] but the corn grew without kernels,” she said Farms using pesticides in Mato Grosso are required to maintain a 300-meter buffer zone from communities and their water sources for ground spraying and a 500-meter buffer zone for aerial spraying multiple people interviewed described exposure to pesticides indicating that the buffer zone is being violated A member of a Quilombo described the health symptoms she and others experience after pesticides are sprayed nearby Especially in the early hours of the morning… It happened [once] when we had to return from a walk There was a very strong cloud coming towards us so we had to turn back from the walk to avoid running into it we already feel that something is bothering us… An Indigenous healthcare worker in Mato Grosso said that people in the community he serves often get rashes when they bathe in the stream during rainy season when the rain washes pesticides into the stream “you can bathe in the stream with no symptoms,” he said “the rain takes the poison from the farms and brings it in the river.” The chief of a village in the Sangradouro territory of the Xavante Indigenous people also described health problems from the river during the rainy season He said that the Rio das Mortes (“River of Deaths”) travels through farmland before reaching their village He said that “it tastes different in the rainy season The fish die in the rainy season.” Those effects started 17 years ago because of pesticides The leader of another Indigenous community said that one of their villages is about 500 meters from a farm and that “during spraying season the smell of poison reaches the Indigenous community… I even felt the urge to vomit when I was on the road one day when a plane flew over us spraying I've experienced it myself and I speak from personal experience.” He said that even though the planes do not spray directly over the Indigenous community the wind carries the pesticides into their community underscoring the importance of larger buffer zones “The plane flies over the edge of the territory and it only sprays their crops but the wind blows it into the Indigenous area,” he said who experienced an incident of acute poisoning in 2017 while studying at a school about 15 meters from a farm That night there was a strong smell when I arrived until I had thrown up all I had in my stomach and was just retching I felt sick the day after with nausea and headache The morning after I took milk and began to feel better but even my school uniform had the smell of pesticides Small-scale farmers described the loss of their own crops after repeated exposure to pesticides from large farms nearby A member of a Quilombo said that the crops lost due to pesticides would have been used primarily for consumption in the community and described a culture of exchange between residents When asked how she knew the crop failure was due to pesticides she said: “We have knowledge about the plants Multiple communities shared concerns about the impact of pesticides on creole corn seed A member of a Quilombo said that creole corn is frequently used for the community “But today we see several other Quilombo communities that lost their seeds as a result of the spraying of the pesticide on the monoculture soybeans referring to a common practice in industrial agriculture in which farms grow one species of a crop over a large area They were no longer able to keep those creole seeds since they were contaminated as a result of the neighbor’s spraying this has a direct impact on our territories [but] you can’t harvest because of the pesticide that is sprayed A Quilombola researcher in a Quilombo said that pesticides have also affected medicinal plants some of which have disappeared in the past ten years: “What you plant will grow but they don’t give fruit as before Children with Disabilities Amid Israel’s Attacks on Gaza Get updates on human rights issues from around the globe Human Rights Watch is a 501(C)(3) nonprofit registered in the US under EIN: 13-2875808 This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks The action you just performed triggered the security solution There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page genetically modified cotton was planted in an illegal area in Mato Grosso state openly disregarding a biosafety measures created by the Ministry of Agriculture Mongabay found plantations of GM cotton in the municipality of Marcelândia 641 kilometers (400 miles) from the state capital Cuiabá where agribusiness is the main economic activity Until early May 2024, genetically modified cotton plantations were banned from 31 municipalities in Mato Grosso, in an area considered an exclusion zone under Ministry of Agriculture Ordinance 437 a government corporation that holds GM cotton patents was aimed at preventing contamination of native cotton a natural seed used by family farmers as well as Indigenous and Quilombola communities A seed is considered genetically modified when it receives a gene from another living being in order to acquire some new characteristic usually resistance to pests and herbicides which favors large-scale production intended for export — the basis of Brazil’s agribusiness Genetically modified seeds have been planted within the exclusion zone since 2019 commercial-scale cultivation began at the Nossa Senhora de Nazaré farm Both are owned by mega-producer Gilson Pinesso and are located in Marcelândia a municipality with just over 10,000 inhabitants a 5-hectare (12-acre) plantation yielded 320 arrobas or 4,800 kilograms (10,580 pounds) of cotton commercial plantations at the Nossa Senhora de Nazaré farm a cotton arroba is now sold for 124.65 reais ($22) on average We interviewed Gilson Pinesso by telephone We asked him for details about the beginning of the harvest as well as the type of seed used We also asked if he knew that the ban imposed by the federal government was still in force when he started planting with the genetically modified seeds Piinesso admitted to committing the violation and justified it by saying they “received this information [that cultivation of GM cotton was banned from the area] when planting was at a very advanced stage.” Pinesso sent a WhatsApp message saying the interview had been “biased” and that he no longer authorized the publication of the information he had provided We tried to speak to him again by phone, but he refused to answer our calls. Since the conversation was recorded with Pinesso’s consent and only later did he request that it not be published, we decided to keep his full answer and include his version in this report (listen to full interview here) Gilson Ferrúcio Pinesso was born in Engenheiro Beltrão which belonged to his family and went into judicial recovery in 2015 due to debts estimated at 571 million reais at the time the courts concluded the case of the Pinesso Group On its official website and LinkedIn profile cotton and corn in the states of Mato Grosso Mato Grosso do Sul and Piauí and also started a farming project in Sudan In addition to being an international producer Pinesso has been involved in agribusiness organizations with a strong presence in political and lobbying groups in decision-making spaces the Brazilian Association of Cotton Producers and the Mato Grosso Association of Cotton Producers Pinesso was also the founder and president of the Cooperative of Producers in Brazil’s Cerrado and one of the organizers and founders of the Mato Grosso Social Cotton Institute He was also a member and president of the Mixed Agribusiness Cooperative Pinesso appeared in a long news story on cotton production in Marcelândia aired on Record TV’s Balanço Geral show in June 2023 In the video Pinesso praises the start of the operation of a cotton harvesting machine — according to him — for its capacity to “create 70 direct jobs and several indirect ones” in Marcelândia The story also highlights that it produces more than “300 arrobas” and that “expectations for the 2023 harvest season are high.” Today 300 arrobas is equivalent to 4,406 kg (9,700 lbs) we asked MAPA if it was aware of genetically modified cotton plantations in Mato Grosso’s exclusion zone We also asked the ministry what type of sanction applies in such cases and how these biosafety measures are monitored MAPA had not replied by the time this article was finished While monitoring of biosafety standards should be improved to avoid circumventions such as those practiced at the Modelo and Nossa Senhora de Nazaré farms in Marcelândia Genetically modified cotton plantations were fully authorized in Mato Grosso in a process marked by several conflicts of interest The removal of the state from the exclusion zone was approved by the National Technical Commission on Biosafety (CTNBio) in a vote held in early May 2024 CTNBio released a note explaining that “in view of the new data it is clear that gene flow is not an issue for native and naturalized cotton plants since the flow occurs inside and outside the group The vote was based on a report produced by Embrapa Cotton indicating there was no risk of contamination of native cotton by modified genes through cross-pollination which occurs when insects carry pollen from one plant to another The report states that “the only species found that is different from the cultivated one is Gallini cotton” and that this variety does not favor contamination through pollen transfer from one plant to another, as the document concludes This variety is used by traditional peoples and communities for handicraft production and medicinal purposes The research supporting the report involved four field expeditions covering four of the five regions of the state; 47 of Mato Grosso’s 141 municipalities were visited 22 of which were located within the exclusion zone Gallini (Gossypium barbadense) was found in 453 of the 465 locations visited Even though genetically modified cotton was present in almost 100% of the sample analyzed its plantation was authorized throughout the state experts representing the environmental cause interviewed by Mongabay claim that Embrapa’s data which formed the basis for the CTNBio decision a CTNBio member appointed by the Ministry of Environment states that “a coexistence and exclusion rule must consider all forms of crossbreeding flower and then it will continue with the crossbreeding process.” Fernandes is the author of the request for examination that suspended the process contamination occurs not only through pollination by insects but also through seed circulation and exchange Embrapa Cotton also appears as a petitioner in the process aimed at eliminating exclusion zones in Mato Grosso This is the first time that the state-owned company The ministry also asked for the zones to be lifted in Rondônia in 2018 The exclusion zones for genetically modified cotton were created in 2005 to avoid contamination of native and naturalized cotton species The latter varieties are not originally from Brazil They arrived here a long time ago and were naturally improved and incorporated into the country’s biomes Embrapa is the author of the request to lift exclusion zones in Mato Grosso It also holds 10 patents for genetically modified cotton with recommendations for use in several parts of Brazil Two CTNBio members representing Embrapa Cotton who participated in the decision — Marcelo Henrique Aguiar de Freitas and Alexandre Lima Nepomuceno — voted to approve the planting of genetically modified seeds throughout the state members usually declare a conflict of interest and recuse themselves with the increase in genetically modified cotton production in Mato Grosso farmers should demand more seeds from Embrapa Cotton which benefits the production of the state-owned company the CNTBio stressed that the possibility of recusal is provided for in Executive Order 5591/2005 and in the commission’s internal regulations in order to guarantee objectivity in the review process it also emphasized that “recusal does not apply in cases in which processes at the institution to which [the members in question] belong are not related to activities and projects developed at the CTNBio unit to which they are linked.” The state of Mato Grosso is Brazil’s largest cotton producer Much of the cotton that makes the country the second-largest producer in the world These results are achieved by using biotechnology and pesticides 89% of all cotton grown in Brazil is now genetically modified according to the latest bulletin from the Céleres consulting group the authorization for large-scale cotton plantations in the area that used to be an exclusion zone can be seen as opening an expansion frontier for agribusiness into biomes such as the Cerrado and the Amazon “This biosafety measure has been dismantled to meet economic interests since Embrapa Cotton’s own research revealed contamination inside and outside the exclusion area,” he says the process leading to the removal of Mato Grosso from the exclusion zone has the same number as another process that was reviewed in April 2023 and requested the removal of the municipality of Santana do Araguaia Santana do Araguaia is mistakenly called a microregion when it is actually a municipality in the far south of Pará A year later, in April 2024, the same process returned to CTNBio’s agenda, at its 270th meeting but now requesting authorization to plant genetically modified cotton throughout the state of Mato Grosso asking for its views on the corporation’s several actions in the process of removing Mato Grosso from the exclusion zone They had not responded by the time this article was finished We contacted the press office of the Ministry of Science Technology and Innovation about the status of the process to create the exclusion zone in Mato Grosso says the first classification presented at its 270th meeting was proposed by the staff of the CTNBio executive secretariat but “the error was pointed out by the Commission and rectified in the same meeting with the correction published on the agenda of the 271st Meeting.” Another point that confuses the defense of society’s economic interests with those of large corporations is the stances taken by researcher Paulo Vianna Barroso He has taken part in decisions favorable to both the preservation of biodiversity and the expansion of large-scale cotton plantations Barroso was the president of Embrapa Cotton and played a direct role in the creation of exclusion zones for genetically modified cotton He is also the author of the document that justified the removal of Tocantins from the exclusion zone reducing that biosafety area for the first time According to an article published on Embrapa’s website he gave a lecture on the cultivation of genetically modified cotton in Roraima became the second state to be removed from the exclusion zone In another story, this time published in the magazine Cultivar he appears as one of the participants in the 4th International Conference on Coexistence between Genetically Modified (GM) and non-GM based Agricultural Supply Chains The article includes the following statement by Barroso: “In fact coexistence is an economic discussion whose main function is to establish procedures that guarantee segregation in chains so that adventitious presence of GMOs in conventional products does not exceed the thresholds set by the legislation of each country.” up to seven such genes were found in a single grain a researcher and professor of the Department of Plant Science of the graduate studies program in plant genetic resources at the Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC) It is about harmony between farmers who grow genetically modified and native crops and the preservation of genetic heritage,” he says The research reveals that Brazil has 23 corn breeds as well as hundreds of other varieties A breed is a set of varieties that are related to each other is the only one with endemic varieties of corn; that is “Contamination breaks this adaptation achieved by years of protection and seed storage,” he explains Barroso has always advocated a minimum distance between genetically modified and native crops he has adopted the companies’ view as his own but he has the companies’ discourse,” Nodari says Researcher Paulo Vianna Barroso was the president of the CTNbio for two terms: 2006-10 and 2019-23. He was a head of the commission during the vote on the request to remove the municipality of Santana do Araguaia from the exclusion zone Indigenous peoples from Mato Grosso fear that all of the state’s native cotton will be contaminated by genetically modified species affecting the production and customs of traditional communities According to a report produced by Operation Amazônia Nativa (OPAN) eight Indigenous groups managed native cotton in the state: the Mỹkỹ Quilombola communities using native seeds were found in the municipalities of Cáceres the mapping is not complete due to restrictions since the survey was conducted in the middle of the pandemic the area involving native seeds may be even larger is a member of the Yudja Indigenous group and lives in Tuba Tuba village 186 km (116 mi) from the center of Marcelândia Several generations of his family have cultivated native cotton which is called makua in his native language which stands for white cotton in Portuguese Yabá plants cotton seeds intercropped with cassava in October and harvests them between July and August of the following year who use feather cotton to make hammocks and belts to support arrow tips Some of these pieces are sold and generate income for the community A portion of the seeds is stored in gourds or plastic bottles to be planted the following year “The seeds are also used by shamans in ‘spear rituals’ to cure the sick They also serve to alleviate pain and heal wounds,” Yabá explains He says he does not know if his native cotton has ever been contaminated with modified genes but he guarantees that the pesticides used on large-scale plantations — cotton which is contaminated with pesticides thrown on the plantations redtail catfish — all fish that we eat and appear dead,” he explains Gabriel Fernandes explains that by authorizing cultivation of GMOs the CTNBio violates the rights of small farmers “They want to say that the only cotton crop that counts is monoculture That is a prejudiced way of referring to these farming families who use cotton in other ways It means that cotton can disappear because it has no economic importance it will only be found in the gene bank,” the researcher says Koparauki is a woman from the Mỹkỹ Indigenous group and grows native white and brown cotton varieties in the Menkü Indigenous Land, in Brasnorte Brasnorte was considered the 24th-richest agribusiness city in Brazil by the agriculture ministry Surrounded by a vast expanse of commodity monocultures Koparauki maintains her native cotton plantation and stores the seeds in bags that are left near the wood-burning stove “We store the seeds near the fire to preserve them,” she explains slings used by Indigenous women to carry their babies says she is already worried about some problems that affect her production of native cotton She usually plants it between November and December Pesticides have also been keeping Indigenous Mỹkỹ families up at night “They [large producers] always planted soybeans and corn the tractor passes a little too close and the pesticides reach us,” she says Koparauki says that when she learned about the existence of genetically modified cotton there’s this modified cotton that could affect us Banner image: Cultivation of transgenic cotton in Mato Grosso This story was first published here in Portuguese on Oct The challenges to developing waterways have focused investor’s attention on railroads the Amazon Hub of the IIRSA portfolio included eight rail projects under construction (1) or on the drawing boards (5) The estimated total budget ranges between $US 20 and $US 30 billion but even the larger number is an underestimate because it excludes several of Brazil’s most ambitious initiatives The Brazilian railroad sector is an unusual mixture of private and public corporations and a concessionaire system where public assets are leased to private companies that commit to large capital investments the federal government launched an initiative to expand the rail network particularly new lines that would penetrate the agricultural landscapes of the Southern Amazon and the Amazon-adjacent landscapes of Northeast Brazil which are collectively referred to as MATOPIBA Following is a description of the major rail investments underway in the Brazilian Amazon This is probably the most lucrative railroad in Brazil it has dramatically lowered the cost of commodity transport from the farms of central and southern Mato Grosso to the port of Santos (São Pualo) Operated by Brazil’s largest private railroad company (Rumo Logístico) the line currently reaches Terminal Ferroviário de Rondonópolis a massive logistical facility with the capacity to transship 12 million tonnes per year The ninety-year concession for EF-340 stipulates the rail line will be extended to Cuiabá and Rumo plans to extend Ferrovía Norte to the town of Lucas do Rio Verde (Mato Grosso) where it will intersect with an East – West railroad under development This is a new initiative that was not included in the strategic transportation plans formulated in 2011 nor is it included within the IIRSA portfolio It is a direct response to farmers’ demands for an economically attractive export option from central Mato Grosso The Ferrogrão will run parallel to BR-163 for 935 kilometres between Sinop (Mato Grosso) and Miritituba (Pará) Its projected capacity of sixty million tonnes per year approximates the combined soy and maize produced in Mato Grosso in 2019 The $US 1.5 billion investment is being coordinated by a Brazilian engineering firm Estação da Luz Participações (EDLP) with support from the ABCD commodity traders The federal government is seeking to fast-track its construction by supporting the environmental review process via the Programa de Parcerias de Investimentos (PPI) which is managed from the President’s office to facilitate private sector investment in public infrastructure assets A formal tender process for building and operating a 65-year concession is expected to be convened in 2021 The proposal is unusual in that it would award a monopoly to the concessionaire to operate trains over the railroad a privilege that would be revoked if the rail line were ever linked to the national rail network the construction of the Ferrogrão is opposed by environmental advocates and indigenous groups who maintain that the railroad will promote settlement on the narrow corridor along BR-163 (HML # 17) The region suffers from an epidemic of illegal activities particularly land grabbing and unregulated deforestation phenomena they contend would be supercharged by the influx of thousands of migrant workers for the railroad’s construction Critics also contend that a reduction in transport costs will increase deforestation across the farm landscapes of northern Mato Grosso which among other impacts would degrade the water resources of the indigenous territories along the Xingu River The most conflictive zone is a 75-kilometer stretch through the heart of Parque Nacional Jamanxim where the BR-163 right-of-way has a width of only 200 meters Congress approved a measure that would widen the right-of-way of BR-163 through Jamanxim National Park a precondition for obtaining an environmental license from IBAMA Construction is planned to start in 2021 and be completed by 2025 but like most infrastructure projects in Brazil it is not proceeding according to the projected timeline this rail line will span the country and integrate railroads in the North the line has been split into three sections: The southern component is operated by Rumo Logístico for 1,500 km between Porto Nacional (Tocantins) and Estrella de Oriente (São Paulo); at its southern terminus the line connects with the Rumo network that terminates at their massive port facilities at Santos The central component between Porto Nacional and Açailândia (Maranhão) is operated by Valor da Logística Integrada (VLI) which also owns the concession for the Estrado Ferro Carajás (EF-315) between the mining complex at the Serra de Carajás and the Port of Itaqui at São Luis de Maranhão The combination of EF-315 (660 kilometers) and EF-151 (750 kilometers) provides the first fully integrated bulk transport option for farmers from Eastern Mato Grosso Its capacity was enhanced by the simultaneous construction of fifteen grain-loading platforms located between Anápolis (Goiás) and São Luis de Maranhão Because it parallels BR-153 through a consolidated frontier (HML #6 its construction has been relatively free of social conflict Its completion has relieved traffic bottlenecks on the regional highway network while providing a practical alternative to the long-delayed and conflictive Tocantins waterway a third section of the Ferrovía Norte Sul will be built between Açailândia and Barcarena Its construction was postponed because of the expediency of exporting farm commodities via São Luis do Maranhão but the state government of Pará has embraced its completion as a regional priority the governor of Pará presented an ambitious plan to expand the nascent rail network to more fully integrate the agricultural landscapes and mineral assets of eastern Pará with an industries park and port facilities at Barcarena The proposed railway would complete the link between Açailândia and Belem by passing through the oil palm plantations near Tailândia and include spurs to bauxite mines under development at Paragominas and Rondon do Pará the rail line would cross the Tocantins River proceed south to El Dorado do Carajás and then up the Araguaía valley to the border with Mato Grosso Advocates of conventional development support the construction of the railroad because it would generate about 25,000 jobs over the short-term and facilitate the development of a proposed steel mill in Marabá Agribusiness supports the initiative because it would sway the choice of production models along the highway corridor Intensive cropping of soy and maize is already the preferred land-use in Northeast Mato Grosso and the extension of a low-cost grain transport system would accelerate the expansion of industrial agriculture into the municipalities of southeast Pará Environmental advocates and indigenous groups oppose the initiative because they contend that the Ferrovía Paraense will catalyse another wave of deforestation in the last block of remnant forest between Marabá and Belem while spurring land grabbing in the indigenous territories on the headwaters of the Rio Xingu would extend from Port of Vitoria (Espírito Santos) west to near the western border with Peru The transportation ministry has stratified its development into three phases: and Peru signed an agreement to evaluate the feasibility of a transcontinental railroad The route of EF-345 via Acre was one of several projects under evaluation; its proponents contend that it is the most cost-efficient because it would transit the Andes at the Huancabamba Depression where the maximum elevation is only 2,150 meters above sea level approximately half the elevational incline that exists in competing proposals A railroad between Cruzeiro do Sul (HML #28) and Pucallpa (HML #41)would cross two national parks and infringe upon indigenous lands; consequently there is zero possibility that a multilateral agency would finance the project which is why the participation of entities from China was viewed with alarm by environmental advocates The rationale for a transcontinental railroad is based on the assumption that the savings in marine transport would offset the increased cost of rail transport An independent evaluation by the International Union of Railways showed that the energetic cost of crossing the Andes and the capital cost of a new rail line would make the Ferrovía Transcontinental between fifty and a hundred per cent more expensive when compared to routes through southern Brazil or via the Amazon River the Brazilian government announced it would support an alternative proposal via Bolivia; known as the Ferroviário Bioceánico Central this route is both shorter and takes advantage of pre-existing rail lines functionaries within the infrastructure agencies in both Brazil and Peru inserted a nebulous infrastructure component within the IIRSA portfolio a term that leaves open the option of building either by road or rail line The pre-existing rail line that made Bolivia’s transcontinental proposal ‘more attractive’ is a legacy rail system built in the 1950s by Brazil in compensation for the [perceived] loss of territories in the first decades of the twentieth century This rail line may – or may not – be part of a transcontinental railway but it has played an essential role in the development of Bolivia’s agroindustry Bolivia is a land-locked country and the fertile farmland in Santa Cruz (HML #31) is located 2,000 kilometers from the nearest Atlantic port while Pacific ports are located on the other side of the Andean Cordillera Although refined products are exported to Peru by truck it is not economically viable to move bulk grains the Ferroviaria Oriental connects with ports on the Paraguay – Paraná Waterway which allows them to compete in global markets which was built for political rather than economic reasons the agricultural sector in Bolivia would have grown to only a fraction of its current size the Instituto Ecuatoriano de Preinversión commissioned a pre-feasibility study to evaluate the viability of an electric-powered rail network According to descriptions in the general press most of the track would be built on the Pacific coast with the goal of connecting the country’s banana and oil palm plantations to port facilities The idea originated during a time when ambitious plans to reduce carbon emissions were popular among government planners and the concept caught the attention of then-President Rafael Correa The scheme included a spur that would cross the Andes to service the copper mines under development at the Cordillera del Condor and would have been built with the financial and technical support of China The rail line’s demand for electricity would be very large and influenced plans to increase the construction of hydropower dams in the Amazon The feasibility study was completed in 2017 and in the same year incorporated into the IIRSA portfolio of investments; however there is no other evidence the Moreno administration pursued this investment as a priority “A Perfect Storm in the Amazon” is a book by Timothy Killeen and contains the author’s viewpoints and analysis. The second edition was published by The White Horse in 2021 under the terms of a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0 license) Read the other excerpted portions of chapter 2 here: Deforestation in Brazil's tropical Cerrado savanna fell 11 percent to a record low in 2018 compared with a year earlier the Ministry of Environment said in a statement Tuesday Deforestation in the South American country's savanna biome totaled 6,657 square kilometers (2,570 square miles) That's just below 6,777 square kilometers in 2016 the previous low since records began to be kept A biome is a grouping of plants and animals that have adapted to a specific environment which has seen a 13.7 percent spike in deforestation this year to a 10-year high Activists have been concerned that deforestation could spike under policies proposed by President-elect Jair Bolsonaro 1 and has pledged to end the current "industry of fines" for environmental violations like deforestation The figure for Cerrado is based on the change in deforestation between August 2017 and July 2018 the period used to measure annual destruction as recorded by Brazilian space research agency Inpe The statement did not give a reason for the decline in deforestation The Cerrado's vegetation soaks up major amounts of carbon dioxide making its preservation key to curbing greenhouse gas emissions and for countering global warming While the Cerrado is less densely forested than the Amazon rainforest its plants have deep roots that lock carbon into the ground and are sometimes referred to as an underground forest Brazil's future environment minister under Bolsonaro told Reuters on Monday that Bolsonaro would not gut resources for environmental protection contrary to the fears of environmentalists Money for environmental protection is spent inefficiently and mismanaged arguing he could produce better results with the same budget Reuters is a news agency founded in 1851 and owned by the Thomson Reuters Corporation based in Toronto One of the world's largest wire services it provides financial news as well as international coverage in over 16 languages to more than 1000 newspapers and 750 broadcasters around the globe Brazil’s railway network spans some 30,000 kilometers but researchers know little about its impact on wildlife is that wildlife kills are the most striking issue So we end up not seeing the impacts associated with them,” says biologist Bibiana Terra Dasoler a researcher at the Center for Road and Rail Ecology at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (NERF-UFRGS) This flurry of activity comes despite the current dearth of studies on the impacts of vegetation suppression the barrier effect — when track structures and deforestation hinder or prevent wildlife movement — as well as noise and soil pollution figures on wildlife killed by trains in the country are still unknown a biologist with a master’s degree in analysis and modeling of environmental systems from the Federal University of Minas Gerais points to the common belief that fewer animals are killed on railways than on roads the fact that train traffic is lower than car traffic often reinforces that impression “We used to think that railways’ impact was lower than that of highways, but recent monitoring has found a high number of wildlife casualties,” says Dornas, who focused his master’s research on the number of cane toads (Rhinella marina) killed on a railway line in the Brazilian Amazon He came up with a figure of 10,000 per year Dornas worked with data from an unprecedented method for monitoring wildlife on long sections of railway track Biologist teams walked 871 km of the 892-km (541 out of 554-mi) section of the Carajás railway line in Pará and Maranhão states They didn’t cover the section of line cutting through Carajás National Forest because of lack of authorization the researchers could locate small animals that would go unseen from motor vehicles They scanned the area covering the tracks and a 3-5-meter [10-16-foot] strip on either side of the tracks Their estimate for dead cane toads was based on the total number of animals found (9,091 carcasses) and the time the carcasses remained on the tracks (38 days on average) which gave them a figure of 10,233 toads killed per year But not all the dead toads had been hit by trains The study also found that some had died from desiccation (loss of water) and barotrauma (sudden change in pressure caused by vehicles passing at high speed) it’s believed the tracks posed a physical barrier that prevented them from crossing to bodies of water on the other side and left them exposed to temperatures of up to 51° Celsius (124° Fahrenheit) “The impact of the barrier effect seems to be the biggest difference between railways and roads,” Dornas says “there is usually no obstacle for wildlife to cross from one side to the other are a vertical structure that prevents normal crossing especially for small animals that can’t jump over them easily.” reported having a specific program to monitor and assess wildlife along the railway with measures to reduce hits and other adverse impacts there are 61 wildlife crossings in specific locations along the railway which work as mitigation controls and were established based on monitoring carried out over time,” Vale said in a statement The first two vegetated overpasses for wildlife in Brazil were built on the 101-km (63-mi) branch line that connects one of Vale’s iron ore mines, in Canaã dos Carajás municipality, to the Carajás railway in Parauapebas. In previous reporting Mongabay highlighted the importance of these structures to maintain connectivity between fragments of preserved vegetation and reduce the barrier effect and thus the number of animals hit by trains In 2020, rail ecology researcher Dasoler concluded her study on mammals hit by trains on the 750-km (466-mi) north branch line of the Carajás railway which passes by 79 important protected areas and is used mainly for grain transportation The study estimated that 4,286 animals weighing 1-260 kilograms (2.2-573 pounds) were killed by trains between January 2015 and November 2016 Dasoler worked with data from Rumo Logística the company that holds the concession to operate the railway line she counted the number of dead animals found during foot and vehicle-based monitoring The vast majority of the animals she found were yellow armadillos (Euphractus sexcinctus) there were 217 tapirs (Tapirus terrestris) 45 giant anteaters (Myrmecophaga tridactyla) the numbers that she and Dornas found in their respective studies indicate that the true number of wildlife hit by trains is quite significant “Brazil’s road network is much larger than its rail network so we would think that roads’ impacts are stronger But we have to measure them proportionally,” she says construction work has begun on Brazil’s first railway line designed to reduce impacts on wildlife to the municipalities of Rondonópolis and Lucas do Rio Verde will run 743 km (462 mi) and pass through 16 municipalities The project’s innovation lies in its predictive study on wildlife hits Prist is a researcher and partner-director at ViaFauna Estudos Ambientais the company commissioned by Rumo Logística to conduct a study to help prevent wildlife hits on the new railway line a statistical tool that is widely adopted in academia and which could be useful for the situation,” she says Predictive analysis studies work with large sets of data to identify patterns that point to future trends “We used data on wildlife hits collected between 2013 and 2017 from a railway located in the same biome and with similar wildlife and landscape,” Prist says The same one that Dasoler focused on for her research on mammals hit by trains The predictive model indicated critical zones for wildlife casualties in general and specifically for tapirs and peccaries (Tayassu pecari) threatened species that are often hit in the area In addition to identifying the spots with the highest potential for train hits ViaFauna’s work recommended the installation of underpasses and overpasses as well as fencing along each of the high-risk sections the new railway will have 155 wildlife crossings suspended crossings for arboreal animals and a vegetated overpass — the first of its kind in Mato Grosso state The company also said it will install 126 km (78 mi) of fencing to funnel wildlife to these crossings During the construction and operation of the railway a monitoring system is planned for locating cases of wildlife hits and providing care for injured animals “We can’t expect models to eliminate hits in the projects that will be built as this is virtually impossible for several reasons But if we try and get to prevent the maximum number of hits Using predictive models to mitigate wildlife hits isn’t a requirement in railway environmental licensing while some decision-making is still not based on evidence these procedures have improved in recent years “This conflict is not very easy to solve because of the licensing process itself which is complex and subject to political intervention,” he says wildlife inventories conducted under the environmental impact studies that are a requisite in license applications help to identify the species that occur in a project site but don’t measure the project’s impact on the wildlife Reginaldo Cruz, a biologist and technical manager of Cruzeiro do Sul Environmental Consulting says environmental licensing procedures for these projects remain extremely flawed assessments do not provide information about the sensitivity and weaknesses of the environments involved and therefore are unnecessary or not applicable,” he says But despite the doubts about the effectiveness of environmental licensing processes when the focus is wildlife Cruz says there’s high interest from environmental agencies in advancing studies and improving the process “It seems to me that we are all citizens who share an interest in improving the country’s logistics infrastructure in the most sustainable way possible correcting environmental liabilities,” he says Banner image of a cane toad hit on the Carajás railway line This story was reported by Mongabay’s Brazil team and first published here on our Brazil site on Aug Dornas, R. A. (2019). Estimativas e padrões temporais e espaciais de fatalidades de sapos-cururu (Rhinella gr. marina) numa ferrovia da Amazônia brasileira (Estimates and temporal and spatial patterns of toad fatalities (Rhinella gr. marina) on a Brazilian Amazonian railroad (Master’s thesis). Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/1843/33853 Dasoler, B. T. (2020). Fatalidades de mamíferos em ferrovias: Como estimar quantos morrem e planejar mitigação? (Mammal fatalities on railways: How to estimate how many die and plan mitigation?) (Master’s thesis). Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/10183/221517 The “fortress conservation” model is under pressure in East Africa, as protected areas become battlegrounds over history, human rights, and global efforts to halt biodiversity loss. Mongabay’s Special Issue goes beyond the region’s world-renowned safaris to examine how rural communities and governments are reckoning with conservation’s colonial origins, and trying to forge a path forward […] Logout Gateway to the world of smart farming The Agrishow the most important fair on agricultural technology in Brazil took place last week with many novelties on robots For example, Solinftec announced the first farm 100% manned by robots to protect crops The Baumgart Group property covers 10,000 hectares in Rio Verde Solinftec Operations Director for South America the client had already been testing the latest versions of Solix AG Robotics and chose this revolutionary model for insect and weed management “The future that people imagined is already present It is moving towards smaller machines and less application of pesticides Agricultural robotics is a profound operational change,” he says 10 more sacks of soybeans per hectare in areas of Mato Grosso compared to neighbouring areas with the same input (seeds fertilizers and pesticides) and climate conditions That is because Solix is the first technology developed to “live in the field” using artificial intelligence to monitor and care for each part of the farm plots which operates through missions and task association with integrated pest management (IPM) reduced more than 90% of herbicide application in the post-emergence phase or desiccation and pre-planting operations in crops sugar cane and HF farms in several states like Bahia another 40 units are in operation in the United States another 40 units should be operating in Brazilian fields we should reach 150 to 170 units sold by the end of the year” The price of Solix Ag Robotics was around R$ 350,000 (64,000 euros) at Agrishow Grunner presented the prototype of a new multifunctional and autonomous truck for managing grain crops the model also has an ethanol engine and will be available on the market from 2025 The set brings together Mercedes-Benz trucks and the ADS Smart Machine automation system to reduce trips for loading and unloading as well as greater efficiency to meet planting and harvesting windows Driven by the great demand for the model aimed at the sugarcane market Grunner developed the new set that carries out activities such as soil correction The ‘transformer’ was voted one of Mercedes-Benz’s 10 best innovations and can operate autonomously at high speed contributing to greater productivity and cost reduction it has a scale with load cells that allows real-time reading of the volume of grains in the bulk and fertilizers and correctives applied “One of the points that is in our DNA is to offer the market equipment from the field to the field That is the reason the new ADS Multi was designed to solve challenges in grain crops” Subscribe to our newsletter to stay updated about all the need-to-know content in the agricultural sector 43,000+ global companies doing business in the region. 102,000+ key contacts related to companies and projects Analysis, reports, news and interviews about your industry in English, Spanish and Portuguese. This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks. The action you just performed triggered the security solution. There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase, a SQL command or malformed data. You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked. Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page. poultry exporters raked in US$ 956.1 million in the first 2 months of 2021 Photo: Hans PrinsenCompared to the same period last year Brazilian poultry exports have decreased by 4.7% in volume during the first 2 months of 2021 overseas sales were down from 672,700 tonnes in 2020 to 640,400 tonnes in 2021 According to the Brazilian Association of Animal Protein (ABPA) 11.7% less than in the previous year (US$ 1.082 billion) These figures include fresh and processed chicken meat the Brazilian international chicken trade started to recover slightly by 0.1% compared to the same period last year Sales revenue in the second month of the year totalled US$ 521.7 million But not all markets are down: “The performance of exports to traditional markets in the Middle East and Europe looks good and indicates a positive pace in international sales in March,” says ABPA president Ricardo Santin The main highlight of the month were sales to Saudi Arabia which increased its imports by 19.5% in February Also noteworthy were exports to South Africa Canada approved 2 further BRF processing facilities – located in Nova Mutum and Lucas do Rio Verde both in Mato Grosso state – to export to the internal market in Canada 15 BRF plants have been given the green light to export to Canada 0.82% more than recorded in the same period in 2020 Santa Catarina exported 80,800 tonnes (-8.12%) Rio Grande do Sul shipped 53,100 tonnes (-0.64%) Brazil Food wants to boost earnings by up to 150% in 2030 Brazil Food (BRF) expects to increase its earnings by 150% by gaining a market share in big markets as US According to data from the Secretariat for Agrarian Studies and Policies (Odepa) of Chile the country started 2021 with a drop in all animal protein production and exports Poultry production decreased by 10.9% and Chile’s poultry exports also fell quite strongly by 22.5% Chile’s poultry meat imports increased by 38.3% Brazil's first corn ethanol project is an international collaboration that will help meet the nation's growing ethanol needs and introduce new feed options to livestock industry 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- There is a significant new player in the Brazilian biofuels industry A grand opening was held this past week signaling the start of operations at FS Bioenergia a world-class $115 million corn-only ethanol production facility located in Lucas do Rio Verde Mato Grosso.  FS Bioenergia is the first large-scale corn ethanol production plant in Brazil and is the result of an international collaboration between Brazilian agribusiness Fiagril and U.S.-based Summit Agricultural Group headquartered in Alden FS Bioenergia will annually process 22 million bushels of corn and produce more than 60 million gallons of corn ethanol 6,200 tons of corn oil and 170,000 tons of valuable feed rations for Brazil's growing livestock industry FS Bioenergia's second phase of operations will increase corn processing and ethanol production two-fold "FS Bioenergia is the most modern and efficient ethanol production operation in the world and will revolutionize the biofuels landscape in Brazil," said Bruce Rastetter founder and CEO of Summit Agricultural Group "Summit Ag Group and Fiagril are proud to have delivered this historic project to Mato Grosso and we look forward to the development of the region as a leader in ethanol FS Bioenergia's corn ethanol operation is considered a landmark project in Brazil that will deliver immediate value to the country the plant will offset the country's increasing demand for domestic ethanol which can't be met by the existing sugarcane ethanol production the facility will introduce to Mato Grosso valuable fiber and protein co-products known as dried distillers' grains (DDGs) which will serve as high-value feed for the expanding Brazilian livestock industry.  "This is a transformative moment for both agriculture and the renewable fuels industry in Brazil "FS Bioenergia will not only meet Brazil's growing demand for ethanol but it sets the stage for Mato Grosso to become a global leader in the production of corn ethanol." Brazil began sugar cane ethanol production in the mid-1970s and today produces approximately 25 percent of the world's ethanol Bank of America estimated that annual ethanol sales in Brazil could reach 13.5 billion U.S two-thirds greater than the 8.1 billion gallons estimated in sugar cane ethanol production in 2016 The Mato Grosso region's substantial corn production – both proven and potential – make corn-derived ethanol the most viable option to complement existing sugar cane ethanol production and fulfill an annual multi-billion gallon shortfall.  Summit Agricultural Group and Fiagril broke ground on the corn-only ethanol production facility in early 2016 FS Bioenergia will employ roughly 150 full-time workers In addition to ethanol and co-products for livestock feed the ethanol facility will generate 60,000 megawatts of electricity to the local power grid FS Bioenergia utilized process technologies from ICM construction and operational services for more than 100 ethanol plants in North America Founded in 1990 by entrepreneur and agribusiness pioneer Bruce Rastetter, Summit Agricultural Group is a diverse farming, agricultural investment and farm management company headquartered in Alden, Iowa. Summit's diverse operations include successful row crop, beef cattle and pork farms in the U.S. and a growing presence in the South American biofuels market. For additional information, go to www.SummitAg.com Al Setka 515.226.0818 (office)515.720.7763 (mobile)[email protected] http://www.summitag.com Al Setka 515.226.0818 (office)515.720.7763 (mobile)asetka@thinkwixted.com Do not sell or share my personal information: $100 million investment in world's most modern and efficient corn ethanol facility will more than double production to 140 million gallons by early 2019 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Summit Agricultural Group announced today a $100 million expansion of FS Bioenergia the leading corn ethanol production facility in Brazil  The expansion of the FS Bioenergia plant in Lucas do Rio Verde is forecasted for completion in the first quarter of 2019 and will more than double annual corn ethanol production from 60 million gallons to 140 million gallons FS Bioenergia will annually process over 50 million bushels of corn and produce more than 14,000 tons of corn oil and 400,000 tons of valuable feed rations for Brazil's growing livestock industry "This is a significant step for FS Bioenergia but it's even more important for the growth of corn ethanol production in Brazil," said Bruce Rastetter "When we began this project several years ago we were confident of the opportunities in Brazilian renewables we're more convinced than ever of the potential for corn ethanol in Mato Grosso."    Driving that optimism are two factors – first increased production of affordable corn through double cropping corn production over the last decade has increased five-fold which is legislation that would double Brazil's renewable fuels use by 2030 "Brazil's long-standing commitment to renewable fuels coupled with an abundance of affordable feedstocks make for an attractive corn ethanol picture in Brazil," said Justin Kirchhoff managing director and head of private equity for Summit Agricultural Group ''As we look at the expansion of FS Bioenergia over this next year we're in a strong position to benefit from these favorable conditions." Recognized today as the most modern and efficient corn ethanol production operation in the world FS Bioenergia is a collaboration between a Mato Grosso agribusiness and U.S.-based Summit Agricultural Group a leader in international agribusiness development renewable energy and production agriculture headquartered in Alden Summit and its Brazilian partner broke ground on the corn-only ethanol production facility in early 2016 with the initial phase of production starting in mid-2017 As with the plant's original design and development the FS Bioenergia expansion will utilize process technologies from ICM By utilizing the most modern process technology FS Bioenergia is able to produce differentiated high-value co-products such as high-protein and high-fiber dried distillers' grains (DDG's) that are targeted towards specific livestock markets This process technology also improves overall plant yield and efficiency FS Bioenergia's corn ethanol operation is considered a landmark project in Brazil that is already delivering immediate value to the country which can't be met by existing sugarcane ethanol production The facility will also introduce to Mato Grosso valuable fiber and protein co-products known as dried distillers' grains (DDGs) Summit Agricultural Group is a diverse farming, agricultural investment and farm management company headquartered in Alden, Iowa. Summit's diverse operations include successful row crop production, beef cattle and pork farms in the U.S. and a growing presence in the South American biofuels market. For additional information, go to www.SummitAg.com contact:                                                                    Al Setka  515.226.0818 (office) 515.720.7763 (mobile) [email protected] http://www.SummitAg.com Al Setka  515.226.0818 (office) 515.720.7763 (mobile) asetka@thinkwixted.com indispensable guide to what Trump’s second term means for Washington follow the latest on tariffs and executive orders Stay on top of the latest events in US politics with the FT’s trusted and impartial coverage Insight and analysis on US politics from commentators such as Ed Luce and James Politi This subscription does not include access to ft.com or the FT App Essential digital access to quality FT journalism on any device Complete digital access to quality FT journalism with expert analysis from industry leaders Terms & Conditions apply Discover all the plans currently available in your country See why over a million readers pay to read the Financial Times Brazil trains carrying soybeans are seen near the port of Paranagua in the southeastern Brazilian city of Curitiba in this file photo taken in March 2011 Brazil is in the process of preparing to find investors for a $2.4 billion railway project that will link the center and western portions of the country and serve as a major route for grain transportation Some initial interest in the railroad project has come from investors in China including the China Railway Construction Corp (CRCC) and the China Railway Engineering Corp (CREC) an online Latin American business publication Agência Brasil said the new line would be the first railway concession offered under Brazil's national logistics investment program said sourcing foreign investment for the project is a topic of utmost priority "We clearly need to attract investments from the private sector," Passos said in an Aug 22 interview with BNAmericas Brazilian officials have long expressed their wish to see Chinese rail companies get more involved in the nation's infrastructure program highlighting the competitiveness and experience of China home to one of the world's largest rail networks China and Brazil signed a long-awaited memorandum of understanding (MOU) on railway construction "China has a strong interest in Brazilian commodities so they want to invest in railroads in Brazil to reduce transport costs because the Brazilian government wants to attract investments in infrastructure," Charles Tang chairman of the Brazil-China Chamber of Commerce based in Sao Paulo said in a July interview with The Wall Street Journal Production for this Centro-Oeste project is set to be split into two phases Phase one entails building an 833-kilometer stretch from Campinorte in the state of Goias before connecting to a major north-south line From there the Centro-Oeste line will run westward to Lucas do Rio Verde city in Mato Grosso state Phase two includes a 600-km extension from Lucas do Rio Verde to Vilhena CRCC and CREC could not be contacted for comment calls for the construction of more than 11,000 km in railways throughout Brazil And the Centro-Oeste railroad project is part of a larger plan to build the Ferrovia Transcontinental railroad which falls under Brazil's state-run growth acceleration program The Ferrovia railroad will run more than 4,400 km from the northeastern state of Acre to the southeastern state Rio de Janeiro China became "the No 1 buyer of Brazilian exports" in the beginning of 2010 according to a publication by The Brookings Institution a Washington-based nonprofit public policy organization Brazilian exports to China increased to more than $21 billion in 2009 from $1.1 billion in 2000 while imports from China also rose to $15.9 billion from $1.2 billion over the same period Brazil's Trade and Development Minister Mauro Borges told the Journal that Brazil and China are looking to change the way the two countries interact economically Trade between China and Brazil soared to $83.3 billion last year from $3.2 billion in 2002 soy and oil making up the bulk of Brazilian exports