Should the US invade Brazil to stop illegal deforestation?

[Delta4Embassy]

http://phys.org/news/2015-11-amazon-deforestation-percent.html

"The area of deforestation grew to 2,251 square miles (5,830 square kilometers) between July 2014 and August 2015, the environment ministry said.

The biggest increases were in the states of Amazonas, with a 54 percent rise, Rondonia with 41 percent and Mato Grosso with 40 percent, the ministry said.

The sharp deterioration came despite Brazil's attempts to increase policing of the rainforest, which is seen as a key element in the fight to keep greenhouse gases under control—the subject of a major climate change summit starting in Paris on Monday.

"We have to investigate what is happening," said Environment Minister Izabella Teixeira. "We will ask the states to tell us formally what was authorized and what was illegal."

Preliminary reports suggest that expansion of cattle ranching and agriculture is to blame for the clearances.

The Amazon is a giant trap for carbon that would otherwise be released, contributing to global warming. It is also one of the world's greatest remaining sanctuaries for rare and often still barely studied flora and fauna. "


US has invaded 70 countries since 1776, 50 since winning WWII. Most for iffy reasons. Yet destruction of the rainforests represents a major global-effecting problem. They're clearly not handling it themselves and need 'adult guidance.'

 

[waltky]

Demand for avocados is leading to deforestation...

In Mexico, high avocado prices fueling deforestation
Aug 10,`16 -- Americans' love for avocados and rising prices for the highly exportable fruit are fueling the deforestation of central Mexico's pine forests as farmers rapidly expand their orchards to feed demand.

Avocado trees flourish at about the same altitude and climate as the pine and fir forests in the mountains of Michoacan, the state that produces most of Mexico's avocados. That has led farmers to wage a cat-and-mouse campaign to avoid authorities, thinning out the forests, planting young avocado trees under the forest canopy, and then gradually cutting back the forest as the trees grow to give them more sunlight. "Even where they aren't visibly cutting down forest, there are avocados growing underneath (the pine boughs), and sooner or later they'll cut down the pines completely," said Mario Tapia Vargas, a researcher at Mexico's National Institute for Forestry, Farming and Fisheries Research. Given that Michoacan's forests contain much of the wintering grounds of the monarch butterfly, the deforestation is more than just an academic issue. Authorities have already detected small avocado plots in the monarchs' reserve where farmers have cut down pine forest.

Worse, Tapia Vargas said, a mature avocado orchard uses almost twice as much water as fairly dense forest, meaning less water reaches Michoacan's legendary crystalline mountain streams on which the forests and animals depend. Greenpeace Mexico says people are likely to suffer, too. "Beyond the displacement of forests and the effects on water retention, the high use of agricultural chemicals and the large volumes of wood needed to pack and ship avocados are other factors that could have negative effects on the area's environment and the well-being of its inhabitants," Greenpeace said in a statement. The two-lane rural roads that cut through the mountains are choked with lines of heavy trucks carrying avocados out and pickers in to the orchards. But it is hard to argue farmers out of the economic logic of growing avocados. "Avocado farming is very attractive, because of the prices being the way they are," Tapia Vargas said.

An avocado vendor talks on his cellphone at a market in Mexico City, Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2016. High avocado prices have fueled deforestation in Michoacan state, where farmers cut down pines to clear the way for more avocado trees.​

Avocado prices jumped from around 86 cents apiece in January to around $1.10 in July, partly because of weak seasonal supply from Mexico. And the peso lost 16 percent of its value against the dollar over the past year, making exports cheaper for the U.S. customers. Mexican farmers can make much higher profits growing avocados than from most other crops. It is the enormous U.S. appetite for avocados that has driven the expansion. Between 2001 and 2010, avocado production in Michoacan tripled, but exports rose 10 times, according to a report published in 2012 by Tapia Vargas' institute. The report suggested the expansion caused loss of forest land of about 1,700 acres (690 hectares) a year from 2000 through 2010. Ignacio Vidales, another government researcher who specializes in avocados, said he believes the deforestation rate has slowed, in part because authorities are taking it more seriously. "We think that it (deforestation) is less, because there is more enforcement now than in previous years," said Vidales.

Authorities have begun to fight back. On July 31, federal police in Morelia, the Michoacan state capital, detained 13 people and seized two avocado plants and two vehicles that were being used to turn a recently deforested plot into an orchard. Police said 260 pine trees and 87 firs had been cut down on a 12-acre (4.7-hectare) plot to make room for 1,320 avocado saplings. While the trees take seven years to reach maturity, if each bore 100 avocados a year - a fairly low yield - those farmers could make as much as $500,000 annually from the plot, a fortune for area farmers. "More than anything else, it is economic pressure," Vidales said. "They have seen that planting avocados is more profitable than planting corn, or other crops, or even the forest."

News from The Associated Press

 

[hauke]

should brazil invade the USA for illegal deforistation ?
the USA is deforesting as much as brazil

and btw its only illegal in a country, theres no illegal international deforestation.

Brazilian forests belong to brazil, and brazil can do whatever it wants with its forests.

just like the USA which can do whatever it wants with its forests

on the other hand would you allow china to invade the USA for deforestation ?

got it ?

 

[Crick]

Perhaps the US should take over the rest of the world to make sure that everywhere, everything is done right.

 

[JakeStarkey]

The American far right think Crick is right.

 

[Crick]

I can't tell you how pleased I am to hear that.