Prior to the Moratorium, large swaths of Amazon were clearcut for soya plantations, while tiny islands of intact rainforest such as this one were left behind to meet lax government standards. Photo: GreenpeaceThe Amazon Soya Moratorium has officially been extended until July 2010. The Soya Moratorium is a commitment not to trade soya from areas in the Amazon Biome that were deforested after July 24, 2006.Originally an initiative of the private sector and civil society, the Moratorium received the support of the environment minister, Carlos Minc, who formally joined the initiative last year. Thanks to the Soya Moratorium, soya is no longer the chief driver of Amazon deforestation. That distinction belongs to cattle ranching, which is responsible for 80 per cent of deforestation in the Amazon.
This was announced by the business sector connected to soya processing and export in Brazil, represented by two trade groups, the Brazilian Association of Vegetable Oil Industries (ABIOVE) and the National Association of Grain Exporters (ANEC), along with Greenpeace, the Brazilian Minister of the Environment, and various other NGOs in a joint press conference.
Not enough
Created in 2006 to implement the Moratorium, the Soya Working Group (GTS), which is made up of representatives from industry and various NGOs like Greenpeace believes that the initiative has made an important contribution to the reduction of the Amazon’s annual deforestation rate.
According to the GTS, in the three years since the Moratorium was established, concrete advances have been made, such as the creation of a monitoring system based on satellite images and flyovers and field visits that allow companies to identify properties that are not complying with the Moratorium, thereby allowing them to be removed from the ABIOVE and ANEC supplier lists.
Nevertheless, the GTS also says that the Amazon Biome governance conditions are not yet sufficient to allow a suspension of the Moratorium.
Data on last year’s forest canopy loss in the Amazon compiled by Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research (INPE), which provides satellite mapping data, indicate that the deforestation profile is changing, with an increase in the number of deforested areas of less than 100 hectares (about 247 acres). The data also show a significant drop in deforestation of larger areas, precisely those directly monitored by the GTS.
Therefore, the monitoring system has to be changed to include small deforestations in the analysis of next year’s crop, whose planting starts in October. The GTS intends to adopt a sampling system, using remote sensory technology to identify crops through satellite images of adequate spatial resolution. This technological advance should make it possible to preselect properties for field visits, so that a significant number of deforestations in the Amazon can be monitored in 2009/2010.
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