[Texgreen] Meanwhile...

[Roger Baker]

http://www7.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0701/feature1/index.html>

The market forces of globalization are invading the Amazon, hastening =20=

the demise of the forest and thwarting its most committed stewards. =20
In the past three decades, hundreds of people have died in land wars; =20=

countless others endure fear and uncertainty, their lives threatened =20
by those who profit from the theft of timber and land. In this Wild =20
West frontier of guns, chain saws, and bulldozers, government agents =20
are often corrupt and ineffective=97or ill-equipped and outmatched. =20
Now, industrial-scale soybean producers are joining loggers and =20
cattle ranchers in the land grab, speeding up destruction and further =20=

fragmenting the great Brazilian wilderness.

During the past 40 years, close to 20 percent of the Amazon rain =20
forest has been cut down=97more than in all the previous 450 years =20
since European colonization began. The percentage could well be far =20
higher; the figure fails to account for selective logging, which =20
causes significant damage but is less easily observable than clear-=20
cuts. Scientists fear that an additional 20 percent of the trees will =20=

be lost over the next two decades. If that happens, the forest's =20
ecology will begin to unravel. Intact, the Amazon produces half its =20
own rainfall through the moisture it releases into the atmosphere. =20
Eliminate enough of that rain through clearing, and the remaining =20
trees dry out and die. When desiccation is worsened by global =20
warming, severe droughts raise the specter of wildfires that could =20
ravage the forest. Such a drought afflicted the Amazon in 2005, =20
reducing river levels as much as 40 feet (12 meters) and stranding =20
hundreds of communities. Meanwhile, because trees are being wantonly =20
burned to create open land in the frontier states of Par=E1, Mato =20
Grosso, Acre, and Rond=F4nia, Brazil has become one of the world's =20
largest emitters of greenhouse gases. The danger signs are undeniable.

All of it starts with a road. Except for a handful of federal and =20
state highways=97including the east-west Trans-Amazon Highway and the =20=

controversial BR-163, the "soy highway," which splits the heart of =20
the Amazon along 1,100 miles (1,770 kilometers) from southern Mato =20
Grosso north to Santar=E9m in Par=E1=97nearly every road in the Amazon =
is =20
unauthorized. There are more than 105,000 miles (170,000 kilometers) =20
of these roads, most made illegally by loggers to reach mahogany and =20
other hardwoods for the lucrative export market.

In Brazil, the events set in motion by logging are almost always more =20=

destructive than the logging itself. Once the trees are extracted and =20=

the loggers have moved on, the roads serve as conduits for an =20
explosive mix of squatters, speculators, ranchers, farmers, and, =20
invariably, hired gunmen. The land sharks follow the roads deep into =20
previously impenetrable forest, then destroy tracts to make it look =20
as if they own them. Land thievery is committed through corruption, =20
strong-arm tactics, and fraudulent titles and is so widespread that =20
Brazilians have a name for it: grilagem, from the Portuguese word =20
grilo, or cricket. Grileiros, the practitioners, have been known to =20
age phony land titles in a drawer full of hungry crickets. When =20
Brazil's agrarian reform agency, Instituto Nacional de Coloniza=E7=E3o e =
=20
Reforma Agr=E1ria, reviewed Amazonian land ownership records over the =20=

past three years, it voided more than 62,000 claims that appeared to =20
be fraudulent.=