Brazil's battle with deforestation

This week : A trip to the heart of the Amazon to see the progress being made in the fight against deforestation and the problems that persist.

ENVIRONMENT

By Eve IRVINE

In just a few weeks Brazil is due to report on its progress in the battle against deforestation at high level climate change talks in Copenhagen. ENVIRONMENT travels to the heart of the Amazon to get an insiders look at what changes are in fact taking place.

Visiting the Sakara community, less than a two hour boat trip from the Amazonas capital Manaus, ENVIRONMENT looks at the ‘bolsa floresta’, or forest bursary. This is a scheme whereby locals are being paid to respect their environment and not to cut down trees. Some 32 families at this reserve are the latest group to sign up. Each family that joins the project receives 50 reais a month, the equivalent of roughly 20 euros.

However, while they recognise the need to address climate change, and indeed protect their environment from destruction from outsiders- it is clear here that the transition isn’t easy with many villagers saying that without wood they are struggling to make ends meet.

The Brazilian government has set itself the target of slowing deforestation by 80% by 2020. Official figures show a record drop in the process from July 2008 to August 2009.

Cattle ranches are the biggest culprits of tree felling and last year authorities started to confiscate cattle raised on newly cleared land. Now, in the county of Paragominas, the farmers union wants to go green by eradicating deforestation.

A Brazilian cattle rancher in the Eastern Amazon is claiming that intensive grazing is the answer to stopping deforestation. By using a rotating grazing system for his cows, Mauro Lucio Costa, manages to stay within Brazilian law, which says all farms in the Amazon must preserve 80% of the forest, all the while producing more beef per hectare than other farms in the area.

Finally ENVIRONMENT brings you to Manaus, the capital of the Amazonas state. The population of the city quintupled in the space of three decades and with no urban planning in place to welcome newcomers they set up homes on the banks of the tributaries of the Rio Negro. The result today is pungent polluted waterways that run across the capital.

Mairead Dundas

Presenter

14/01/2012 - ENVIRONMENT

How fashion can be eco-friendly

Changing the way we make clothes could reduce our impact on the environment. From shoes made out of car tyres in Ethiopia to fabric produced from stinging nettles in The Netherlands, France 24 looks at how both protecting the environment and sporting the latest trends is possible.

17/12/2011 - ENVIRONMENT

Dreaming of a Green Christmas

It's Christmas! The time of year for decorating trees, wrapping presents and eating delicious food. Yet more and more people are starting to become conscious of the huge amounts of waste generated by the festive season. This week, we show you how to have an eco-friendly Yuletide.

(1) comment

03/12/2011 - ENVIRONMENT

Dithering in Durban over a new Kyoto

After all night talks - success. Delegates from 194 countries and the European Union at the UN Climate Change Conference in Durban finally hammered out a deal at the weekend to replace the Kyoto Protocol. The carbon-reducing pact is due to expire in 2012 and there had been fears that a new accord would not be made. However, a new plan is under way, meaning a new agreement could be in place and operational by 2020.

21/11/2011 - ENVIRONMENT

Kyoto: dead or alive?

In late November, environmentalists and world leaders will gather at the annual UN Climate Conference, being held this year in Durban, South Africa. 2012 will mark the end of the Kyoto Protocol, the 1997 agreement signed to reduce carbon emissions in developing countries. But has Kyoto left its mark on the world - and are its signatories likely to keep it going with a fresh agreement?

05/11/2011 - ENVIRONMENT

Green living, green dying

It's one thing to live in an eco-friendly way, but is it possible to be environmentally friendly in death too? This week, we take a look at new ways to live and die green.

- climate change