Day 280 - 17 Jul 96 - Page 38
1 certain credit lines can apply and so on. It describes a
2 policy region and not an ecological or bioregion. The
3 River Araguaia (and its own tributaries) as one of the
4 major tributaries of the Amazon, certainly constitutes part
5 of the Amazonian forests.
6
7 7. I have now been informed that Senor Morganti has made a
8 further statement to the effect that he has visited ranches
9 supplying McDonald's from the above areas and some "around
10 Cuiaba" and that they were "long established".
11
12 8. Many of these ranches were subdivided into new ranches
13 as speculative ventures. While the Cuiabas area has had a
14 ranching economy for more than a hundred years, the earlier
15 farms tended to be on native grasslands -- but the real
16 explosion in ranching during the last decades resulted from
17 deforestation which dramatically advanced the ranches
18 frontier. The same also applies to the aforementioned
19 Goias areas. The recently established farms are virtually
20 entirely in areas converted from forest, and I have no
21 doubts that such farms would have been the dominant
22 suppliers throughout the last twenty years of the beef
23 cattle for the nearby abattoirs, such as Goia Carne. Most
24 of the slaughter animals were derived from the newly
25 created pastures, in contrast with Senor Morganti's views.
26
27 9. While there are certainly are some long established
28 ranches in the Goias region, the fattening farms supplying
29 Goias Carne would have certainly relied on fattening up
30 steers which had been derived from the Belem-Brazilia
31 corridor. As I indicated, these fattening animals are
32 derived in large part from rainforest areas.
33
34 10. I am certain that a substantial proportion of cattle
35 supplied to Cuiaba meat plants (1979-1982) and to Goias
36 Carne for the least 20 years (up till now) could have been
37 from cattle from rainforest areas.
38
39 11. In addition, established farms have been important
40 elements of the deforestation process. A. The initial
41 farms were often extremely large and could easily be
42 subdivided and this process was very widespread. b. By
43 Brazilian law one is only permitted to clear 50 per cent of
44 a holding, but by selling the uncleared part, that portion
45 can be 50 percent cleared and thus through a process of
46 sub-division large amounts of clearing can occur.
47 c. Established farms were often the platform for subsequent
48 expansion into forest and the development of adjacent
49 ranches, often providing critical infrastructure which as
50 airstrips, roads, and loading corrals - while other ranches
51 were in the process of developing these costly
52 infrastructural improvements. Aerial photos clearly show
53 this process of a development nucleus growing out from an
54 established centre.
55
56 1. It may be valuable to point out that the Belem-Brazilia
57 as well as the Cuiaba connector roads were initially
58 designed specifically as part of the beef shed for Brasilia
59 and the points to the south. Indeed, they were meant to
60 provide not only meat on the hoof but also the young steers
