The stick against deforestation

Aug 05, 2009 Editorial

The Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS) that was proposed by President Jagdeo as the overarching framework for our nation’s future growth and progress is premised, as we have been at pains to point out in our interventions, on the carrot of “carbon credits” to induce countries to reduce (or in our case, not to embark on runaway) deforestation.
Under this “cap and trade” initiative favoured by the US and European governments, their corporate emitters of gases that contribute to global warming would be allowed to purchase “carbon credits” earned by companies and countries that have reduced their emissions; or, as is hoped to be agreed on in Copenhagen this December, not embark on the aforementioned deforestation.
It is universally accepted by now that deforestation is one of the largest contributors to global warming – spewing out some 17 per cent of the increase in greenhouse gases emissions.
Success in reducing deforestation – especially in the Amazon, of which our forests form a part – is seen as key to getting a grip on climate change. Recently the British energy and climate change secretary declared, “We can only get an agreement on climate change if it involves Brazil and it involves forestry. There is no solution to the question of climate change without forestry.”
The problem, however, is that there is a strong and organised body of countries, environmentalists and NGOs that believes the carrot of “carbon credits” create a disincentive for the entrenched polluters in the developed countries to literally clean up their act. Deforestation, the opponents of “carbon credits” insist, is a moral question.
They favour the stick of absolute caps on pollution in the developed world based on historical data – since they were the ones that got us into the present pickle – and sanctions on those companies that engage in uncontrolled deforestation.
Even as this is being written, one of the most successful campaigns to use the stick of sanctions is unfolding in the fight against deforestation in the Amazon. The effects of this campaign obviously have serious implications for our LCDS, considering that even Brazil is not in favour of the “carrot” approach.
Greenpeace, one of the most visible environmental groups, announced in June that a three-year undercover investigation in Brazil had revealed that some leading suppliers of leather and beef for products sold in Britain had obtained cattle from farms involved in illegal deforestation.
Cattle-farming is now the largest cause of new Amazonian deforestation. The findings unleashed a potent two-prong response on the transgressors: Brazil’s Federal Prosecutors have filed a billion-dollar suit against the offending companies while Greenpeace has put pressure on some of the top shoe producers and supermarket chains to stop doing business with the said companies.
The results have been dramatic and swift. Some of the world’s top footwear brands, including Clarks, Adidas, Nike and Timberland, have demanded an immediate moratorium on destruction of the Amazon rainforest from their leather suppliers in Brazil.
They have also insisted that suppliers introduce a stringent traceability system within a year, which will “credibly” guarantee the source of all leather. One of Brazil’s – and the world’s – largest cattle producers immediately agreed to comply.
The pressure is now on supermarkets to fall into line. And they will.
The use of the stick by opponents of deforestation, ironically, will not be limited to their efforts to stymie the use of “carbon credits” but will become even more powerful if the latter scheme is adopted.
As outlined in the LCDS, the release of funds to countries committed to deforestation will be contingent on them adhering to specified parameters of forestry use.
These parameters will offer NGOs such as Greenpeace fertile ground for monitoring and holding the stick of sanctions against even possibly legitimate developmental initiatives.
There is none as intransigent as the “morally” upright.

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The stick against deforestation

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