The Amazon Soy Moratorium - a three-year-old commitment not to trade soy from freshly-deforested areas in the Amazon biome after July 24, 2006 - has been extended for another year. The announcement was made last Tuesday (07/28), in Brasília, by the Brazilian Association of Vegetable Oil Industries (Abiove) and the National Association of Grain Exporters (Anec) along with the Brazilian Minister of the Environment, Carlos Minc, and Greenpeace.
The Moratorium - originally an initiative of the business sector and civil society - formally received the minister's support last year.
"Soy is no longer a relevant part of Amazon deforestation", celebrated Minc. He explained that a special monitoring system - based on satellite images, flyovers and field visits and implemented by the Ministry of the Environment, Greenpeace, Abiec and Anec - showed that, in the last two months, the agreement had been 97% implemented: amongst total 630 monitored polygons covered both by soy and forest, only 12 revealed deforestation.
The minister also said that the Brazilian government is committed to carrying out all measures agreed upon - such as the registering and licensing of all rural properties in the Amazon biome and the establishment of payment for environmental services, for example.
Greenpeace data shows that the ongoing landmark campaign to protect the Amazon rainforest has been doing so without harming production. According to the National Supply Company (Conab), crops in the North of Brazil and in the state of Mato Grosso went from 6,19 million hectares, in the 2007/2008 period, to 6.32 million hectares, in 2008/2009. Abiove data reveals that soy exportation generated U$ 11,3 billion, in 2007, and, in 2008, U$ 17 billion.
Redes Sociais