|
Brazil is presently in seventh place in the world ranking of planted forests area. Altogether there are 5.5 million hectares of forest plantations in the country (which works out to slightly less than 9% of the country's total farmland).
In 2005 a total of 550,000 hectares of forests were planted, a increase of 19% over 2004. Data from the Association of Planted Forests Producers (ABRAF) shows that the sector employs 4.1 million people, directly or indirectly, which is 10.5% of the country's economically active population. "This is a growth sector and the tendency is to continue growing in the near future," says Carlos Aguiar, the ABRAF president. "The sector is highly modernized and has invested heavily in research. We expect to double the area of planted forests by the year 2016." Minas Gerais led the country in area of planted forests in 2005 with 157,000 hectares, an increase of 12% over 2004. In the state the sector employs 163,00 directly and another 644,000 indirectly. Other states with high level of forest planting are São Paulo and Bahia. The area of Brazil's planted forests is equal to 8.5% of the country's total farmland at the moment. However, planted forests generate over 10% of the jobs in the agribusiness sector, 14% of the country's exports and more than 10% of sector GDP. Speaking at the 3rd Brazilian Congress on Sustainable Development for the Forest Industry and Generation of Energy, also known as Madeira (Wood) 2006, the Brazilian Minister of Agriculture, Roberto Rodrigues, pointed out that the planted forest sector is very efficient. "It occupies less than 10% of the country's farmland area but produces more than 10% in all segments: jobs, exports and GDP," said the minister. Specialists at the congress discussed public policy for the sector, along with the impact of planted forests on the economy, society and the environment. Also on the agenda: renewable energy, the paper and cellulose industry, ecological conservation and sustainability. Agência Brasil
 |
Subscribe to this comment's feed
Brazil received a huge boost in its international image with its selection as the host of the 2016 Olympics, but it was really just the cherry on top of the overall recognition of the country's ascension to the ranks of one of the world's most important countries. Now, as it finally takes its place on the world scene, there has been a great deal of concern about what kind of image Brazil hopes to project, now that the world is really paying attention. 
The only good thing to say about the visit to Brazil of Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, on Monday November 23, is that it was mercifully short and lasted less than 24 hours. Ahmadinejad had his picture taken being hugged by president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva who gave him a warm welcome and said Iran had every right to develop nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. 
The small, coastal town of Condé is located just a twenty minute's drive from João Pessoa, the capital of Paraíba. The Northeast of Brazil has historically been a place of encounter and mixing between peoples. For millenia groups of indigenous people fished, farmed, migrated and sometimes fought along this large, fertile area. 
The Brazilian diplo-MÁ-cia (bad diplomacy) carries on its accelerated course towards the non-acknowledgment of human rights, although sometimes it takes pleasure in saying that it does precisely the opposite. The visit of Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is another example of a diplomatic omission that verges on hypocrisy. 
On July 4, 2006, representatives of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay met in Caracas to sign the protocol for the entrance of Venezuela into the Southern Common Market (Mercosur). After two and a half years, the protocol was approved by the legislative bodies of Argentina and Uruguay, and as of now it may be only days away from being ratified by the continent's economic megalith, Brazil. 
Some sectors of the fight against AIDS have suggested that Thabo Mbeki, the former president of South Africa, committed genocide through his absence from the fight against the illness in his country throughout his two terms. 
One hundred and eleven years after Brazil abolished slavery, the number of workers deprived of their freedom is still huge. They raise cattle, produce charcoal, sugar cane or timber. Some of them, most undocumented Bolivians, work in basements of small apparel factories in São Paulo and other metropolis. 
On November 7, 2009 a few friends and I had an opportunity to take a look inside a Brazilian jail outside the city of Rio de Janeiro. We were able to take some amateur footage of our experience on video (see link below). It's no surprise, of course, that the typical Brazilian jail lacks some of the functionality of those in North America or Europe, but our experience that day was quite shocking. 
Depletion of the Amazon Rainforest is not a new concern facing environmentalists, biologists, ecologists, and a growing number of the Amazonian indigenous peoples. For decades they have feared for the fate of the world's most biologically diverse and species-rich hothouse. 
Geisy Arruda made history this week in Brazil, but for all the wrong reasons. What began as a poorly planned fashion statement has become a worldwide tale. Geisy decided to wear a pink mini-dress to her private college in São Paulo state, and after that, all hell broke loose.
This statement is simpy incorrect, because your agriculture Minister recently said in an interview on your sugar cane development that Brazil could also expand this industry in the 106 millions hectares in of degraded pastures.
Since then, did these 106 millions hectares disappeared in the statistics of Brazil farmlands.???
It seems to me they should be added to whatever your number of hectares of actual non degraded land.