The Nation the Amazon, punished and on the edge of the abyss

Luciana Gatti does not fit her: in her atmospheric analysis laboratory, this Brazilian chemistry reviews the numbers over and over again, looking for the error.But the calculations continue to throw the same bleak conclusion on the computer screen: the Amazon -considerate “The Lung of the Planet”, the “Green Ocean” with which humanity expects to absorb pollution to save itself from the environmental collapse -now it emitsMore carbon than it retains.

The Amazon basin, lush green mass that extends through nine countries in South America, is one of the largest natural territories on the planet, with an abundant wildlife that beats under tropical heat and rivers that cross it as blue veins.

It is a bioma that houses more than three million species and its leafy vegetation absorbs through immense amounts of carbon, something key to curb global warming caused by greenhouse gases.

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Carbon dioxide emissions (CO2) have increased 50% in the last 50 years, reaching more than 40.000 million tons in the world in 2019.Until recently, the Amazon had been absorbing much of that pollution: almost 2.000 million tons per year.But in the last five decades man has also deforested and burned entire stripes to allocate them to livestock and agriculture.

Gatti, who works at the Brazilian Space Research Institute, has spent the last years analyzing how much carbon emits the Amazon and how much it absorbs, attentive to the signs of the most feared scenario: that the destruction of the territory pushes it towards a point of no returnand transform much of the jungle into savannah.

The scientists say that passing that threshold would be catastrophic: instead of helping to combat climate change, the Amazon would accelerate it, because the mass extinction of its trees would imply the return to the atmosphere of the equivalent of 10 years of carbon emissions.

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When she is not in her laboratory near Sao Paul.400 meters, catch small air samples.In this way this scientist, 61, who needs to take pills against dizziness before each flight, has witnessed an increasingly gloomy story.

Gatti's conclusions and his team were published in Nature magazine.And they are discouraging.First: the Amazon already transformed into a net carbon source, mainly due to man -caused fires.Second: even subtracting emissions from fires, the southeast of the Amazon also emits more carbon than it absorbs.

Thus, that region -corazón of the livestock sector in Brazil, greater producer and world exporter of meat and soy-, does not require another human push to expel carbon to the atmosphere: it is doing it by itself."We are killing the Amazon.And climatic projections are not taking into account that.However negative the forecasts are, in fact, they are optimistic, ”says Gatti.

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“The Amazon became a carbon source much earlier than we expected.That means that we will also reach that horrible scenario much earlier ”from the expected one, he adds.His is one of several recent studies that turn on a red alert about this situation.And is based on data collected between 2010 and 2018.

Since then, the destruction has accelerated, especially in Brazil, which houses 60% of the Amazon, with the arrival to power in 2019 of the ultra -right -wing president Jair Bolsonaro, a great ally of the powerful lobby of the agronegocio that defends the opening of indigenous reserves andState land to agriculture and mining.

Under his government, deforestation in the jungle went from an annual average of 6.500 km2 in the previous decade, about 10.000 km2, an area equivalent to the surface of Jamaica or Lebanon.Scientists claim that it is impossible to predict how close the jungle of their non -return point is.But Gatti's findings indicate that he is balance.

Welcome to the Jungle

In the southeast, there are few signs that there were jungle there.It is rather a region of jeans, boots with spurs, large buckle belts;of dusty villages where agricultural supplies, evangelical churches, cattle auction and posters proclaimed proclaim: "Here we support Bolsonaro".

A vast feast and soy plain extends to the horizon, splashed just by cows and some forests or lonely trees.It is difficult to imagine that at another time everything was covered by dense vegetation.But when Jordan Timo Carvalho moved there, in 1994, the candidates for farmers had before devoting themselves to the hard task of deforesting to clear the earth.

Timo, who grew up in Minas Gerais, southeast of Brazil, had just graduated as an agricultural engineer when his father bought him a land to raise cattle.The property, located in the municipality of Sao Felix do Xingu, in the state of Paraá (north), belonged to a veteran of World War II, one of the pioneers in the occupation of the Amazon.

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At 24, Timo infected the adventurous spirit of this region, a kind of distant Brazilian west with poor fortune hunters and immigrants in search of better luck.In 1970, under the last military dictatorship (1964-1985), Brazil promoted the "colonization" of the Amazon through a national integration plan that would connect by road the most remote places of the jungle.

Faced with the rapid modernization of the country and economic growth known as the "Brazilian miracle", the military regime saw the Amazon as a backward region.To attract the pioneers, he set up an advertising campaign that promised to deliver "land without men to landless men", omitting the indigenous people who already lived there.

But the low presence of the State in the field transformed the occupation into a chaotic process, a territory without law that lasts until today.With his brown felt cowboy hat, this charismatic man remembers the time when cows were slaughtered and changed them to golden hungry miners, he kept the spoil in a box of photographic film that he carried in his shirt pocket.I slept with the gun tied to the waist.

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Came to clear 3.000 hectares in his father's field with the same method as everyone used in the region: carving and burning the jungle, often with forced labor.“Everything was done with what is considered‘ modern slavery ’today’.It was the only way to do it at that time, ”says Timo, now 51 years old.

He says that once and his neighbor calculated that they would need 200 workers to clean some land, so they traveled the local brothels to recruit drunks without home, paying them the account.They were locked in a shed with food and alcohol, guarded by armed men.

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When they gathered enough pawns, they loaded them in a ‘ferry’ and with the help of the police, they were embarked by Río Xingú below, to the place where they were deforested."They were crazy times," he admits scam, by counting these youth stories without tap.But he has changed his mind regarding the violent process of destruction that transforms the jungle into Sabana.

Today proud father, Timo founded in 2009 a company that advises slaughterhouses so that their cattle do not come from stays that deforest.He is fighting the environmental degradation in which he once participated."The big problem of the Amazon is that there is no law," he says."When you can't apply the law, criminals win".

Kings of cattle

According to a reference study by researchers Thomas and.Lovejoy and Carlos Nobre, from 2018, the Amazon will reach its turning point when deforestation affects 20% -25% of its territory.It currently reaches 15% and in 1985 it was 6%.It is estimated that between 80% and 90% of the shaved jungle was transformed into cattle pasture.

The municipality of Sao Felix led that expansion: 200.000 cows in 1994, became the capital of the meat in Brazil, with more than two million heads of cattle, more than 15 per inhabitant.He is also champion in emissions: in 2018 he expelled the atmosphere the equivalent of 30 million tons of carbon dioxide, more than the city of Sao Paulo.

In fact, seven of the 10 municipalities that emit more gases in Brazil are in the Amazon, where the trees that are burned are replaced by cattle, methane emitter.Many farmers say that raising animals in the Amazon is one of the easiest ways to make money.

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The process is simple: first the trees are talked - which is sold to a wood - and what was left over in the field burns.Then the grass is planted, a fence is placed and the cattle are brought to let it graze.Once primed, cattle in a truck can be sold for about 110.000 reais (USD 20.000).

In this way the ground runs out quickly.But just go in search of new surfaces to clear and repeat the process, something relatively easy for those who are willing to appropriate public lands.Environmentalists affirm that destruction has advanced more blatantly under the Bolsonaro government, an excapitan of the army who, in an ironic tone, has nicknamed himself "Captain Chainsaw".

An increase in fires in the Amazon in 2019, its first year of government, caused worldwide outrage and negative reactions by investors.Under pressure, the president - who seeks re -election in 2022 - prohibited burning during the dry season and deployed the army in the Amazon.But deforestation does not cease.

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Enforce environmental laws on the ground is extremely difficult in Brazil.In Sao Felix, that ungrateful task touches the Secretary of the Environment, Sergio Benedetti, who has barely eleven agents to patrol a territory of the size of Switzerland.

50 years old and with an affable business style, Benedetti moved from Sao Paulo a decade ago to manage environmental protection programs of the mining giant.I can see his surprise when he reached the Amazon region, whom he imagined as a dense jungle.

“It was all grass, cows, grass...Where is the jungle? I thought, ”he recalls with a laugh.Benedetti went to the public sector in January and still retains the enthusiasm of a newcomer.But he knows that the work that awaits you can be overwhelming.

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"Deforestation, fires, illegal mining...It is all of the culture here.In large part my task is to change that, ”says this tall man, neat, father of three children.Benedetti travels in the back seat of a 4x4, which crosses the Xingú river mounted on a ‘ferry’, at a height where there are no bridges.Then go into a dusty dirt road.

He and his officers are trying to deliver a call to impose a fine on an owner accused of illegal deforestation.But there are no signs of man and neighbors have even heard of him.

It is a usual situation in Brazil.The Rural Environmental Registry, a digital database created in 2012 to try to hold the owners for their environmental crimes, is plagued with claims for overlapping land, false owners, fraudulent titles and attempts to appropriate public lands.But even when they manage to locate the owner, only 5% of the fines are paid, according to studies.

‘Grileiros’ of land

In Brazil, this illegal appropriation of public lands is known as ‘Grilagem’, a term that refers to the old practice of falsifying property titles using crickets (‘griles’ in Portuguese)."They placed the false title in a box with crickets.With the passage of time, the activity of the crickets caused the document to begin to seem old, as a true document, ”explains federal prosecutor Daniel Azeredo.

Although with more sophisticated methods, "it is exactly the same that happens today in the Amazon when someone usurps public lands," says Azeredo, a reference in combating illegal deforestation in Brazil.Environmentalists say that the ongoing devastation of the jungle is driven by very well financed land usurpers, looking for great revenues.

And in such a large and difficult region to patrol, they often get yours.The government has thrown more firewood to the bonfire by granting amnesties to irregular owners, something that Bolsonaro wants to expand.Sitting on the porch of your country house made with light blue wooden boards and earth floor, Jose Juliao do Nascimento has her battle to save her ranch from alleged invaders.

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He and his wife Dilva bought, in 2002, 290 hectares for 10.000 dollars, adding to about 200 families that founded a small rural town in the Sao Felix region, Vila Novo Horizonte.Although they had the notarial deed of the purchase of the land, when they tried.

Agrosb belongs to a group founded by the powerful banker Daniel Dantas, nickname.Today the company operates in a 145 stay.000 hectares in Sao Felix, partly located in Vila Novo Horizonte.

Its inhabitants accuse Agrosb of deforesting large areas with heavy machines and the Federal Public Ministry has 26 open investigations against the company.Nascimento states that when Agrosb resolved to claim his property on Earth, a suspicious group of people began to press residents.

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“They had documents that supposedly prove that the earth belonged to Agrosb.They offered ridiculous sums to people to leave, ”says Nascimento, 60, five children and an easy smile that contrasts with their combative spirit.

And according to local farmers, this offer often followed a threat: "or we bought the land from you or your widow".They point to two intermediaries that in 2003 they were identified in a prosecutor's report as “the heads of organized crime in Sao Felix do Xingu”, according to the folk newspaper of Sao Paulo: Joao Cleber de Sousa Torres and his brother Francisco Francisco Francisco.

But the accusations of the report - which include orchestrate numerous land usurpations in the region - did not reduce the influence of the towers: Joao Cleber is currently mayor of Sao Felix and Francisco chairs the powerful agricultural federation of the municipality.

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The mayor did not want to grant AFP interview for this article.Francisco de Sousa Torres, known as "Torrinho", denies being involved in organized crime actions.He admits that he facilitated the negotiation of properties that eventually joined the Agrosb farm, but that "no one was pressured," he said to the AFP.

Agrosb told AFP that accusations against the company "have no basis" and that he practices sustainable livestock and agriculture.Far from feeling intimidated by one of the most powerful signatures of Brazilian agribusiness, Nascimento and their neighbors joined their few savings to hire two lawyers to take Agrosb before justice.

Hope

How long is left to save the Amazon, if you still can?Experts fear a vicious cycle of deforestation, fires and climate change that further accelerates their destruction, whose effects already feel inside and outside Brazil.

The felling in the Amazon is shrinking the "flying rivers", those huge masses of moisture generated by the 390.000 million trees, which move pushed by the wind to download in the form of rain in several regions of South America.

This contributed to the worst drought in almost a century that the southeast and central region of Brazil lived this year, and that affected crops and hydroelectric plants, where Brazil obtains two thirds of its electricity.Mortal sand storms, devastating fires, shooting prices and energy crisis: judging by the headlines in Brazil, the dystopia of climate collapse that scientists predict.

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But many experts are optimistic, based on the recent success that Brazil had to reduce deforestation, of a record of 29.000 km2 in 1995 to 4.500 in 2012.Solutions are not missing.But it is necessary to go thoroughly with everyone, they defend.

The list could start here: eliminate illegal deforestation;rigorously apply environmental laws and then expand them;reforest;increase the productivity of existing fields;reduce the average surface used by each head of cattle, currently one hectare;prioritize agroecology, including crops such as cocoa, açaí and chestnuts.

Several recent studies show that one of the best ways to preserve the jungle is to expand indigenous reserves, since harmony and respect for nature is in the DNA of its traditional culture.Brazil has about 700 indigenous reserves, protected and semi -autonomous lands that occupy around 13% of the country's surface and almost a quarter of the Brazilian Amazon.

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Many of the 900.000 indigenous people who live in Brazil are still struggling to recover the lands from which they were expelled by the settlers, a process that throughout history decimated the native population by force of torture, slavery and disease.

Thousands camped in August in Brasilia, to protest against a measure - supported by Bolsonaro - that only recognizes those occupied by the natives in 1988, ignoring that many had been displaced during the dictatorship.

Contrasting with the delicate white and curvilinear strokes of the ultramodernist capital, the groups set up a vibrant colored camp, wearing feathers and typical costumes.“Bolsonaro says that we need development instead of indigenous lands.What development?Who poisons our rivers and kills our forests?Who leaves us poor and hungry? ”Question the indigenous leader Alessandra Munduruku, 37.

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Representative of the Munduruku town of the State of Paraá, Alessandra is firmly planted by defending their rights, wearing a raffia skirt and an intricate facial black makeup.But it maintains some hope."There is a lot of jungle standing, there is still time".Finally, the fault of the degradation of the Amazon goes far beyond Bolsonaro and Brazil.

Gatti chemistry thinks that everyone should take responsibility: the United States and Europe import illegally carved wood in the Amazon;The meat produced on deforeston jungle grounds is sent to everyone, as well as the soy that serves to feed cows, chickens and pigs.Governments should prevent these imports, he argues."If you want to protect the Amazon, stop consuming the products that foster its destruction.".

Source: AFP.