August 24, 2007

 

Brazil's Mato Grosso state ramps up soy industry to go green

 

 

Brazil's No. 1 soy state of Mato Grosso is ramping up efforts to certify its soy as environmentally-sustainable, with two initiatives set to be launched Friday (August 25).

 

The first is the launch of a non-governmental institute called Green Action Institute, which has plans to preserve and re-forest native plants around river basins, said a spokeswoman from the institute.

 

The organization is being formed by eight Mato Grosso associations, including the state soy, sugarcane, cotton, wood, and electrical energy associations, as well as the state federations of agriculture and industry.

 

Soy producers in Mato Grosso have come under heavy fire from local and international environmentalists for helping to deforest the Amazon in the past few years.

 

The associations will pledge not to plant crops in government-designated Areas of Permanent Preservation. Non-government organisations including the Nature Conservancy are expected to be involved in the Institute's planning.

 

In the 12 months to August 2006, roughly 13,100 square kilometres were deforested in the Amazon, an area slightly smaller than the state of Connecticut, according to data from Brazil's National Institute of Space Studies, or Inpe.

 

The amount of area deforested in this period dropped 30 percent compared to the same period in 2004-05, due in part to lower global soy prices in this period.

 

However, local environmentalists have worried that with soy prices once again headed northward this season, Brazilian farmers keen to profit from the crop could push northward and westward, thus clearing land to plant more soy.

 

Mato Grosso soy producers, for their part, say that they are conscious that environmentalism is a growing issue in their line of work.

 

"About 1 million hectares of river basin vegetation needs to be preserved in the state, according to law, and the Institute plans to reforest some of this land that was deforested," said the spokeswoman.

 

About 50,000 hectares of this land which is currently occupied by soy production will be replanted, she added.

 

In addition, the Mato Grosso state government will sign an agreement with the state soy producers association, or Aprosoja, on Friday to pledge that within three to five years, all of the soy sold in the state is environmentally-friendly, the spokeswoman added.

 

Aprosoja may be planning to create its own certificate system to certify its producers' soy, she said.

 

Brazil is the world's No. 2 soy producer after the US.