The text that follows
is a PREPRINT.
Please cite as:
Fearnside, P.M. 1989.
Deforestation in the Amazon. Environment 31(7): 4-5.
ISSN: 0013-9157
Copyright: Heldref Publications
The original
publication is available at: http://www.heldref.org
DEFORESTATION IN
Philip M. Fearnside
Department of Ecology
National Institute for Research
in the Amazon (INPA)
C.P. 478
69.011 Manaus - Amazonas
BRAZIL
Aug. 26, 1989
I am glad that the researchers from
conclusions both on the necessity of slowing deforestation and
the potential effectiveness of the measures suggested in my
article "A Prescription for Slowing Deforestation in
(Fearnside, 1989). They give an accurate description of the
sensibilities of many Brazilians to being lectured from abroad on
how to develop
In this case, however, Environment cannot be criticized for
providing too much unsolicited advice, as the article in question
is a translation of a paper that I presented at the annual
meeting of the Brazilian Society for the Progress of Science
(SBPC) in 1988. The original Portuguese language version is
being published by one of the groups that has been most forceful
in defending
Campaign for the Defense and Development of
(Fearnside, nd-a).
It is well to remember that
Brazilian government contain a diversity of views rather than a
single "Brazilian perspective" -- I, after all, am a Brazilian
government employee. It is healthy for the readers of
Environment to be exposed to some of the debate underway in
written from the perspective of what
title was "How Brazil could Slow Deforestation in
people in other countries can also do many things to help
slow
deforestation; these have been reviewed
elsewhere (Fearnside,
nd-b).
It is true that advice from abroad is often rejected in
natural ecosystems in
rationalizations. These parallels ignore key differences between
arguments. Clearing natural ecosystems in the central United
States resulted in agriculture that, in many cases, has produced
annual crops continuously for over a century on the same fields.
In contrast, fields cleared from Amazonian forest typically
produce annual crops for only one or two years, followed by
cattle pasture that produces virtually nothing after less than a
decade. The fact of widespread environmental destruction from
the European occupation of
following the same course in Brazilian Amazonia. To imply that
suggestions in North American publications such as Environment
are made suspect by the history of the
amount to simple argumentum ad hominem -- the logical fallacy of
attacking the source rather than the argument. While Fisher and
Alves are careful not to endorse repeating North American history
in
fallaceous. It would not matter if it were Bozo the clown
telling the Brazilian government not to convert the Amazon forest
to cattle pasture: maintaining substantial tracts of forest
remains the correct conclusion from the standpoint of
long-term
benefit of the Brazilian people (see Fearnside, 1989b). It is
no sentiments of "paradise lost" on the part of other countries
need be invoked.
The commentators suggest that allowances must be made for
taking up the spirit of "Go west, young man." I think, however,
that removing the windfall profits from land speculation, fiscal
incentives and other nonproductive investment channels would go a
long way towards dampening the spirits of some of the most
destructive agents of deforestation in
I am glad that my analysis of the problem was considered
"cold." It is difficult to muster much warmth for the investors
who would be deprived of short-term profits by implementing the
measures suggested. My compassion is not aroused when the
commentators state that "businesspeople from the towers of Sáâáo
Paulo to the beaches of
for investment." It is the poor migrants and residents of the
region who deserve much more compassion than they have received
so far from the Brazilian government. The measures proposed in
my article would not affect clearing for subsistence crops by
poor farmers in the region, and, by offering employment
alternatives elsewhere, the measures would greatly improve the
options available to potential migrants.
The idea that
deforestation in
neccessity" is misleading. From the perspective of individual
poor farmers, of course, economic necessity looms large.
Fortunately, small farmers clearing subsistence plots represent a
relatively small portion of the deforestation taking place in the
Brazilian
portion of
Brazilian government, most deforestation is far from a
"necessity": it is costing the country a great deal of money and
is increasing its foreign debt faster than it generates returns
to pay back the loans.
The Brazilian government is responsible for assuring the
wellbeing of all Brazilians, including future generations and
disadvantaged segments of society. One of the most important
ways that the government could act to fulfill this responsibility
is by taking effective measures to slow deforestation by removing
the motives that now lead to rampant destruction of a potentially
renewable resource in exchange for a landscape of rapidly degrading cattle pasture.
LITERATURE CITED
Fearnside, P.M. 1989a. A prescription for slowing deforestation
in
Fearnside, P.M. 1989b. Extractive reserves in Brazilian Amazonia:
use. BioScience 39(6): 387-393.
Fearnside, P.M. nd-a. Como frear o desmatamento da Amazônia.
Amazônia Brasileira em Foco (In press).
Fearnside, P.M. nd-b. Practical targets for sustainable
development in
Maintenance of the Biosphere: Proceedings of the Third
International
Conference on the Environemental Future.
University Press,