Keep at it
But the problem is still not solved once and for all. Deforestation rates may rebound. If locals can prosper without chopping trees down, there is a good chance that the rest of the forest will survive. If they can’t, it won’t.
Migration should help. These days it flows away from the Amazon rather than towards it. Brazil is urbanising fast, and a livingthe attractions of scrubbing from raising cows on deforested land are diminishing.
Still, there are plenty of people left in the countryside, and stopping deforestation means destroying jobs.
In Paragominas only 14 of the city’s 240 sawmills are still working, and the charcoal industry has closed down. Yet after a brief downturn, the city is doing pretty well. One reason is in evidence in the town hall, where about 50 ranch hands in cowboy hats and baseball caps listen raptly to a presentation on human-bovine interaction. “Control by understanding animal behaviour,” says a slide, “not by aggression.” “Suffering in the cow represents loss of quality in the meat,” says another.
The course is part of a Green Ranching Project, run by Mr Lucio in his capacity as head of the local branch of the farmers’ union. Better animal welfare is a by-product: the initiative’s main aim is to increase output so that farmers can prosper without deforesting more land. Mr Lucio’s farm shows it can be done. Average production for the region, he says, is 90kg of beef per hectare per year; his average is 500kg and his profit margin 40%. Other than happy cows, his secrets are dietary supplements in their feed, fertiliser for the grass, allowing pastures to regenerate after 48 days of grazing and planting copses in his fields to shelter his cattle from the heat.
The combination of better education and chemicals means that farmers like Mr Lucio can prosper without destroying the forest. This is progress from which all species can benefit.