Oct 6, 2009, 20:31 GMT
Sao Paulo - Brazil's four largest beef-processing companies have agreed to protect the Amazon rainforest, Brazilian media reported Tuesday.
According to the deal that the firms JBS-Friboi, Bertin, Marfrig and Minerva signed with the environmental protection organization Greenpeace Monday in Sao Paulo, the companies will in future reject meat from suppliers who produce it in deforested areas.
Greenpeace defined the move as a major success. Cattle raisers are regarded as the sector most responsible for cutting down the Amazon rainforest. About 80 per cent of the deforested areas are then used for pastures, according to Greenpeace.
According to the Brazilian institute for the protection of the environment Imazon, around 44 per cent of the country's greenhouse gases are due to beef production. According to this count, 55 per cent of Brazil's emissions are caused by deforestation, which is in turn 80 per cent due to cattle-raising.
In the Brazilian Amazonian state of Mato Grosso alone, there are 26 million cattle, about 10 million of which are held in illegally deforested areas.
The Amazon rainforest is subjected to satellite monitoring to control cattle ranching, and Greenpeace is set to help in the effort.
However, the agreement sets no penalties for companies that violate it, according to the daily Estado de Sao Paulo.
According to current legislation, farmers can legally deforest 20 per cent of their land in Amazonia. Agriculture tycoon and Mato Grosso Governor Blairo Maggi said Brazil would take a proposal on the issue to the UN Climate summit in Copenhagen in December.
The proposal - already agreed upon with Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva - would include penalties for those who do not use this 20 per cent of their land for agricultural production, Maggi said.
The Amazon basin occupies about 5 per cent of the earth's surface, across several South American countries, but mostly in Brazil.
Deforestation around the globe is blamed for around a fifth of the emissions of greenhouse gases. Citing figures from the Brazilian Institute for Geography and Statistics (IGBE), Greenpeace said pasturelands in Amazonia grew by about 10 million hectares 1996-2006, equivalent to the area of Iceland.
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