Brazil Enforcing Sugar Cane Ban

In a rather surprising move the government of Brazil is reviewing a draft, prohibiting the cultivation of sugar cane in the regions with volatile environmental conditions.
The reason why this proposal was made is because the developing bio fuel industry speeds up the destruction of the forests in Amazonian basin. Experts see the total destruction of the area if this is allowed to continue in these very sensitive areas.
All eyes have been on the Amazon rainforest the past few years and anything that can be done to save this area is being perceived as very important, and center of the global warming debate is there.
According to the bill, by 2010 the area of sugar cane plantations shouldn’t exceed 64 million hectares, that is 7.5 % of the territory of the county that has been a sugar cane world leader for many years.
Moreover, the bill suggests to stop turning new territories into plantations, as well as to stop building plants distilling the ethanol in the areas where grocery plants are grown and on the swamp areas.
These marginal areas can be used for other purposes the bill proposes and it should be stopped in the years to come.
Next year the bill is expected to be reviewed by the National Congress of Brazil. As we already mentioned previously, in June the destruction of Amazonian forests quadrupled as compared to the previous month, which is an amazing stat in itself.
The satellite images show that in June 578 square kilometers of forests were cut and burnt in the Amazonian basin. These forests were considered a strong buffer against the global warming.
The area of destruction is equal to that of Swiss Geneva Lake or half of Los Angeles, California’s largest city. However, last year, in December the government of Brazil promised to reduce the rates of world’s largest forest area deforestation by 70% within the next decade.
The new bill regarding the prohibition of sugar cane cultivation is a part of this project, and we are likely to see many more additions to this in the future if the present environmental awareness trend continues.