The Friends of the Earth International press release, "AMAZON
BEING TORCHED" presents an accurate picture of the situation here
in the State of Rondonia. Yet, what is impossible for satellite
surveys to evaluate are the reasons for these fires and realistic
ways to prevent burning seasons in the coming years from being
even worse.
During the last two weeks I have been travelling through the
interior of the State of Rondonia, all along the BR-364 from Porto
Velho to Presidente Medici, along the State Road 429 to Costa
Marquez, up into Bolivia and back through Alvarada do Oeste,
Urupa', and all through the area to the west of Ouro Preto do
Oeste and south of Ariquemes. During this trip I visited with
many of the people burning their lands. These areas are populated
by small farmers who hold from 50 to 100 hectares, on which they
have partially cleared and planted coffee, cocoa, and subsistence
crops. The history of the colonization projects in these regions
(and the role of the World Bank in the financing of this classic
example of unsustainable development) are documented in the fine
video series by Adrian Cowell, "The Decade of Destruction."
The rains have been late this year. We really don't know
whether this may have something to do with the changing
micro-climatic patterns due to deforestation or just bad weather
luck. In any case, this year has been perfect for setting the
forest on fire. The sky has been full of smoke. Last week the
Porto Velho airport was closed for two days due to poor
visibility; too much particulate matter in the air. Everyone is
commenting that this year's burning season has been the smokiest
in years.
At one point, two weeks ago, while near the Samuel
Hydroelectric dam 40 km. from Porto Velho, I counted ten major
fires within 220 degrees on the horizon; huge columns of dark
black smoke rising up above the rainforest. While on the trip,
forest clearings of 20 to 80 hectares were either burning or had
been burned in the last month along every nearly every kilometer
of road.
Most of the burned land appeared to be "capoeira" or
secondary growth, meaning that the colonists were clearing areas
that had already been burned in years past and had since grown
back. My observations were only along primary and secondary dirt
roads while off the BR-364 so perhaps more primary forest
conversion (a nice way of saying that they are burning virgin
rainforest) was taking place along the penetration roads opened up
by the logging operations in the region.
The majority of burning in Rondonia is being done by small
farmers, not large landholders. They have a variety of reasons
that they are burning this year:
1) Most colonists fear that IBAMA (The Brazilian
Environmental Agency) will increase their "fiscalization" or
control and monitoring of burning in the future. They have
anticipated forest and secondary growth clearing this year to
avoid fines or having to seek clearing permits next year. The
colonists know that IBAMA is currently very weak in the state due
to a series of strikes and lack of funding.
They have all heard of this "ecology" thing by listening to
the National Radio "Radio Nacional" and see it as a threat to
their livelihood. This attitude is reinforced by pronouncements
by the Brazilian military who claim that ecologists are behind the
"internationalization" of the Amazon and by anti-preservationist
groups in the state such as timber extractors, sawmill owners,
gold and tin miners and politicians with large land holdings (some
in national forests and indigenous areas.) IBAMA is seen as a
repressive organ of government by colonists. The only
environmental education going on here in this part of the
rainforest is negative.
2) The past two years have brought early rains to the Amazon,
shortening the burning season (August and September). This year
has been especially dry and the rains have not yet arrived. Many
colonists are taking advantage of this period to clear and burn
new areas. Many of the fires are being set on land that was only
partially burned last year due to the early rains.
3) Rising and falling local commodity prices have made the
colonist fearful of trusting his economic future in the harvesting
of coffee and cocoa. Many colonists are abandoning their
plantations of these tree crops because the time and energy
involved in caring for them is not sufficiently compensated. Many
are setting fire to coffee and cocoa plantations and turning them
into cattle pastures. In order to avoid the possibility of another
year of poor prices they are clearing land to plant rice, beans
and corn so that a family food supply can be assured.
4) Most colonists say the same thing, "Nao queima, nao da"
meaning that if they don't burn they won't be able to produce
(especially rice.) Agricultural misinformation is the rule rather
than the exception in the interior of the State. There is no
government agricultural extension service operating here that
helps colonists. Due to lack or diversion of funds, most
agricultural extension workers sit in their offices without money
to fix their vehicles or pay for fuel. Most extension workers are
as ignorant about appropriate tropical agricultural techniques as
the colonists they are suppose to assist. Heavy rains, exposure to
the sun and failure to rotate crops have exhausted the soil and a
good burn will at least produce a pretty green grass in the next
few weeks.
There is a fundamental lack of information about economic
alternatives; agro-forestry, alley cropping, production of
alternative tropical forest products (cupuacu, acai, orange,
lemon, pupunha, pataua, etc.), limited extractivism of sustainably
harvested non-wood forest products (copaiba oil, rubber, Brazil
nuts, scents, herbs, etc.), bee keeping, fish raising or any other
sort of economic activity that would give the colonist an
alternative to more forest conversion.
5) Although changes are being made to land titling criteria
(burn to show occupation) this information hasn't reached the
colonists. Many are keeping secondary growth areas cleared
(burned) to show that they are "using" the land.
While the Friends of the Earth article is correct in citing
international assistance and debt relief as essential to
combatting primary forest conversion, the matter must be dealt
with at the micro as well as at the macro level. Funds must be
made available not only to the State and Federal governments
(coupled with fundamental changes in their methods of
administration and project elaboration methodology) but at the
community level here in the Amazon. Project funding must be made
available to locally based Non-Governmental Organizations
including rural workers' unions, indigenous groups, The National
Rubber Tappers' Council and environmental/development groups doing
alternative extension work in the Amazon (environmental education
and training in appropriate tropical forest agriculture
techniques.) Only through effective grassroots actions by local
organizations can we hope to reach the micro-deforester and help
him make better decisions whether to burn or not to burn.
Although much money is raised by NGOs outside of Brazil to
"save the rainforest," the reality of the situation is that very
little of this money actually reaches grassroots organizations
here. All of the NGOs that I know of from Belem to Cruzeiro do Sul
(one end of the Brazilian Amazon to the other) are in dire
financial straits. There is not the money available to do the work
we want. We wonder where all the money that is collected by NGOs
in the exterior for the Amazon goes; to pay for offices, airfare,
salaries and lobbying in London, Washington and Rome? Is this the
most rational use of funds while grassroots NGOs sit here in the
Amazon without the funds to do environmental education,
implementation of agro-forestry systems, alternative rural
extension, etc?
The G-7 Pilot Programme for the Preservation of the Brazilian
Tropical Forests is designed so that 15% of all funding will go to
these types of small community projects (projetos demonstrativos).
This may be the first multi-lateral conservation project to make
provisions for direct funding of NGO projects. The Amazon Working
Group (GTA-G7), a coalition of 14 Amazon NGOs, has been working
with the Brazilian Government over the last seven months (both
before and after the London Summit) to try and secure a meaningful
role within the Pilot Programme for NGOs. This group includes the
National Rubber Tappers' Council, UNI, The Inter-tribal
Committee-500 Years of Resistance, CEDI, The Institute of Amazon
Studies, Fundacao Vitoria Amazonica and our applied research
group, IPHAE, among others. The Secretariat of the GTA-G7 can be
reached by sending fax messages to 55 61 347 9874 and temporarily
by sending e-mail to iea@ax.apc.org, fva@ax.apc.org or
iphae@ax.apc.org. The GTA-G7 can provide groups or individuals
with information regarding the Amazon NGOs' positions related to
the Pilot Programme.
The good news is that while I write this the rains have
arrived. Heavy showers are sweeping across the state. Our
Institute, IPHAE, has just gotten 3 Cm. of rain during the last
hour (we get 3 meters of rain per year.) It may be enough to snuff
out the smoldering fires and make the region too wet to burn
anymore this year.
We are still left with the monumental task of trying to stop
next year's burning. We are left with the job of bringing proper
agricultural techniques for tropical forested areas to the
colonists so that they can make a living on the areas already
cleared and not have to clear more land as their cleared land
degrades. We have to provide alternative economic activities so
that the colonist is not forced to consume his resource base. We
have to work to develop markets for sustainably harvested non-wood
products in order to value-up the standing forest. We have to
support the few State Government workers who are trying to push
through the legislative decrees setting huge areas of the state
aside for rubbertappers, indigenous peoples, state parks and
ecological reserves. Finally we have to convince funders in
developed countries to direct more of their project funds to local
groups in the Amazon who are here on the ground trying to do
something to make sure that next year's burning season isn't
reported by Friends of the Earth International as the worst ever.
Kimo (kimo@ax.apc.org or lgoree@cdp.apc.org)
P.S. If anyone has access to the data on this year's fires in
Rondonia and can send us binary graphics files of the satellite
images we can print them out on our laser printer and get copies
out to the local newspapers. We can convert most any graphics
program output.