BETTER LAND MANAGEMENT IN THE BRAZILIAN AMAZON

As reported in http://imazon.org.br/imprensa/a-new-tool-for-better-land-management-in-the-brazilian-amazon/?lang=en

Sitting in his office in Dom Eliseu, a municipality in the state of Pará in the Brazilian Amazon, the environmental manager of this small but vibrant town knew that the key was identifying where lumber was being harvested illegally while allowing legal landowners to manage their land within the law.

Poggi had hired a strong team to actively pursue land registration and licensing as required by law. By last August, he had more than 300 requests for environmental licenses for legal use of the land waiting for his team’s attention. Pointing to a mountain of papers, he noted that a large stack of verified information was required for each property, a paperwork nightmare making it impossible to move forward quickly. Poggi and municipal managers like him throughout the state needed a better way to make the system work to effectively manage the land, rather than leaving it open to indiscriminate logging.

Fortunately for Poggi and his colleagues, a new, computer-based environmental management system will greatly speed up the process. Known by the acronym SIGAM, it was launched last week by the Brazilian nonprofit organization Imazon. At the click of a mouse, managers can pull up all the information they need on a certain parcel of land – the boundaries, the land registration, a map which verifies the landcover, and even evidence that a municipal worker has visited and “ground-truthed” all of the information.

With SIGAM, any mismatches are immediately apparent. Two owners claim the same strip of land? The dispute will be immediately apparent. Deforestation along a river bank? That too is clearly noted. The system is transparent, integrated, auditable and meets guidelines and laws. There is a desktop version and even a mobile application, which can be used during field visits to verify the information.

SIGAM’s impact is much deeper than simply relieving the paperwork burden for overworked bureaucrats, however. The system, which was two years in the making, will give a true picture of the actual condition of the land cover and provide an accurate way of monitoring it, with up-to-date information at users’ fingertips. And for municipal leaders less eager to resolve sticky forestry issues, there is no longer an excuse for not having the information needed to make decisions.

“In 2012, when the responsibility for environmental management was shifted to the municipal level, such a tool became a requirement. Existing systems were expensive and difficult to adapt so we decided to develop a low-cost tool on open source software,” saidAmintas Brandão Jr., SIGAM project manager.

“The results are beyond our expectations,” stated Carlos Souza Jr., a senior researcher at Imazon. When the system was rolled out in Paragominas this week, the response was very enthusiastic. The only complaint was potential users couldn’t get access to it fast enough.

The development of SIGAM was funded by USAID under the Innovation Investment Alliance, a partnership between USAID and the Skoll Foundation supported by Mercy Corps, which focuses on identifying proven innovations and scaling them up to expand their impact. In Pará, Imazon is scaling work that was started in the municipality of Paragominas. By providing accurate maps and data and strengthening local use of the information, Imazon’s work contributed to a reduction in the rate of deforestation while supporting economic growth based on a foundation of legal land use.

By the end of 2015, Imazon expects to have rolled out SIGAM to 50 of the 144 municipalities in Pará, the state environmental agency and others involved in environmental issues, including nonprofit organizations. At the state level, SIGAM provides accurate, up-to-date information to monitor environmental management throughout the state.  Several other states, including the neighboring state of Matto Grosso, are studying SIGAM as they build similar systems.

Addressing issues of deforestation and management of natural resources in the Amazon is complex and multifaceted. Tools such as SIGAM support concrete actions that lead to real changes on the ground. And with less paper to push and a clear picture of what is happening in his municipality, Poggi and others like him can do the important work of protecting the environment while supporting legal uses of forest resources. This will ensure that his town can thrive while forest cover in the Amazon is sustained.

Photo: Carol Skowron/Mercy Corps.

Source: Global Envision

THE LOGGERS WILL WIPE OUT THE KAWAHIVA INDIANS IN THE BRAZILIAN AMAZON

http://www.survivalinternational.org/films/kawahiva

From SURVIVAL INTERNATIONAL

Watch the video (link above): 

The Last of the KawahivaIn the Brazilian Amazon, a tiny group of uncontacted Indians teeters on the brink of extinction. Survival’s global campaign is pushing Brazil’s government to protect their land – the only way they can survive.

This film, narrated by Mark Rylance, contains unique footage of the Kawahiva filmed by government agents in 2011, during a chance encounter with the Indians.

Ahead of Columbus Day on October 12, actor Mark Rylance and Survival International, the global movement for tribal peoples’ rights, have launched a new campaign to save the Kawahiva – a small uncontacted hunter-gatherer tribe in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest.

The Kawahiva are one of the most vulnerable peoples on the planet. Their forest is being invaded by armed loggers, miners and powerful ranchers – in a region of Brazil’s Mato Grosso state known for its violence, rampant illegal logging and land grabs.

The uncontacted Indians are forced to live constantly on the run from invaders. Many of their relatives have been killed in genocidal attacks. The Kawahiva have demonstrated their wish to remain uncontacted. Their right to choose not to make contact must be respected.

In a moving video containing unique footage of the Kawahiva – filmed by government agents during a rare chance encounter with the tribe – Mark Rylance says, “If the Kawahiva’s land is not protected, they will disappear forever. But if Brazil’s government acts fast, they can survive.”

METHANE IN (MELTING) PERMAFROST: TWICE THE AMOUNT OF CO2 IN THE EARTH ATMOSPHERE

From BBC News

Prof Vladimir Romanovsky said that he expected permafrost in parts of Alaska would start to thaw by 2070.

Researchers worry that methane frozen within the permafrost will be released, exacerbating climate change

The professor said a rise in permafrost temperatures in the past four years convinced him warming was real.

Permafrost is perennially frozen soil that has been below zero degrees C for at least two years. 

It's found underneath about 25% of the northern hemisphere, mainly around the Arctic - but also in the Antarctic and Alpine regions. 

It can range in depth from one metre under the ground all the way down to 1,500m.

Scientists are concerned that in a warming world, some of this permanently frozen layer will thaw out and release methane gas contained in the icy, organic material.  

Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas and researchers estimate that the amount in permafrost equates to more than double the amount of carbon currently in the atmosphere.

Melting fast

Worries over the current state of permafrost have been reinforced by Prof Romanovsky. 

A professor at the University of Alaska, he is also the head of the Global Terrestrial Network for Permafrost, the primary international monitoring programme. 

He says that in the northern region of Alaska, the permafrost has been warming at about one-tenth of a degree Celsius per year since the mid 2000s. 

"When we started measurements it was -8C, but now it's coming to almost -2.5 on the Arctic coast. It is unbelievable - that's the temperature we should have here in central Alaska around Fairbanks but not there," he told BBC News.

In Alaska, the warming of the permafrost has been linked to trees toppling, roads buckling and the development of sinkholes.

Prof Romanovsky says that the current evidence indicates that in parts of Alaska, around Prudhoe Bay on the North Slope, the permafrost will not just warm up but will thaw by about 2070-80.

"It was assumed it would be stable for this century but it seems that's not true any more,"  he told BBC News.

'Convincing' case

He says the current permafrost evidence has convinced him that global warming is real and not just a product of natural variation.

"Ten years ago, if you asked permafrost scientists around the globe I would say 98% would say: 'The thawing at Prudhoe Bay won't happen by the end of this century'," Prof Romanovsky explained.

"But now I think it is very possible, and I changed my opinion right during the last four years. I was in the 98%, but now I say it's possible.

"About 10 years ago when I looked at our records, I said that they all show that permafrost temperatures should cool down a bit on multi-decadal timescales.

"I told myself that if it would not cool down I would 100% believe in global warming, and now I believe 100% that we have this very serious trend of warming," he said.

While engineering can prevent the thawing of permafrost underneath important structures, there is little that can be done to prevent the general melting of the layer. 

Scientists believe that the thawing will be gradual, with no major tipping point. There are many unknown factors about the rate of thawing and whether the impacts will be the same across all Arctic regions.

There are also concerns about the bubbling of methane from undersea permafrost in the shallow waters off the Russian Arctic, but researchers say they do not know yet how significant this might be.

There is also a worry about giant sinkholes, some of which appeared in Siberia last year. Experts say that melting permafrost may have unleashed enough methane to cause the ejection of material that formed the holes. 

Indirect impacts

Another expert in the field acknowledged that while the problems in Alaska were serious, scientists were getting a better handle on the amounts of carbon that were likely to be released. 

However, Prof Ted Schuur from Northern Arizona University recognised that, despite the scientific progress, the fact was that thawing would occur and methane would leach into the atmosphere.

"Even if we stopped all emissions today, the Arctic has momentum where there is going to be more warming, more permafrost degradation and some carbon coming out already - we have started the ball rolling in some senses."

"It is probably not triggering a runaway climate effect but it adds to our problem. It accelerates the problem, of climate change. To me that is worrisome because it makes the problem harder."

Prof Schuur added that indirect impacts of warming were also speeding the thaw. In Alaska in 2015, there were near-record wildfires, which he said heightens the exposure of permafrost to warmer air. 

He believes that political negotiations on a new global climate deal, currently underway in Germany and set to conclude in Paris in December, are essential to the long term preservation of permafrost. 

"The climate negotiators meeting in Bonn, and in Paris, won't immediately be able to change what happens with the fire season in Alaska next year, but we can slow the process down by focussing on human emissions and in my mind that's the best bet to have the most control.

"It's very hard to control these landscape global processes that are occurring in the Arctic."

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THE BRAZILIAN CLOSED SEASON FISHING ("DEFESO") WAS SUSPENDED DUE TO IRREGULARITIES IN PAYMENT TO ARTISANAL FISHERS

From 2004 a new regulation was implemented, in an attempt to recover fishing resource in Brazil with the establishment of closed season fishing ("defeso",  in Portuguese) during the catch season (from October to May) and adjustments in the employed fishing gear.

However, as the Court of Auditors in Brazil detected irregularities in payment of true artisanal fishers, which totalled R$19 millions (R$3.9 = U$1) (between January/2012 and June/2013) the government halted temporarily the "defeso". An example of such irregularity: about seven thousand of artisanal fishers are inscribed as if they were fishing in Brasilia (central region of Brazil).

Calculating the savings in not paying the closure insurance has already been done by the Government: can reach R$ 2.7 billion. The loss of marine biodiversity and of fisheries stocks will only be calculated in the future, and it may be too late.

THE WORST POSSIBLE NEWS FROM TRIBAL GUARANÍ IN BRAZIL: ASSASSINATION, KIDNAPPING, SUICIDE!!!

From http://www.survivalinternational.org/

The Guarani

Brazil's Guarani suffer at the hands of violent ranchers

For the Guarani, land is the origin of all life. But violent invasions by ranchers have devastated their territory and nearly all of their land has been stolen.

Guarani children starve and their leaders have been assassinated. Hundreds of Guarani men, women and children have committed suicide.

The Guarani were one of the first peoples contacted after Europeans arrived in South America around 500 years ago.

In Brazil, there are today around 51,000 Guarani living in seven states, making them the country’s most numerous tribe. Many others live in neighboring Paraguay, Bolivia and 
Argentina.

The Guarani people in Brazil are divided into three groups: Kaiowá, Ñandeva and M’byá, of which the largest is the Kaiowá which means ‘forest people’.

They are a deeply spiritual people. Most communities have a prayer house, and a religious leader, whose authority is based on prestige rather than formal power.

The ‘land without evil’

For as long as they can remember, the Guarani have been searching – searching for a place revealed to them by their ancestors where people live free from pain and suffering, which they call ‘the land without evil’.

Over hundreds of years, the Guarani have travelled vast distances in search of this land.

One 16th century chronicler noted their ‘constant desire to seek new lands, in which they imagine they will find immortality and perpetual ease’.

This permanent quest is indicative of the unique character of the Guarani, a ‘difference’ about them which has often been noted by outsiders.

Today, this manifests itself in a more tragic way: profoundly affected by the loss of almost all their land in the last century, the Guarani suffer a wave of suicide unequalled in South America.

The problems are especially acute in Mato Grosso do Sul where the Guarani once occupied a homeland of forests and plains totaling some 350,000 square kilometers.

[Read more by accessing the link on top]

TWO REPORTS ON THE MOST EVER IMPORTANT ISSUE: WATER

Both reports from THE ECOLOGIST - on water in USA

1)  The water is ours!

Javan Briggs

http://www.theecologist.org/blogs_and_comments/commentators/2985490/the_water_is_ours.html

Water is life, writes Javan Briggs. And it belongs to all of us. California's water shortage is caused, not by 'drought', but by massive long term over-pumping. And as the crisis worsens, the response under the 'water as property' model is just to pump all the harder. We must manage water as a commons - to sustain us all, not to profit the few.

Water - it's a big topic for small town talk all around central California.

Madera, some 30 miles west of the state's geographic center, is a hot and arid farming community in the heart of the San Joaquin Valley.

At a run-down neighborhood convenience store situated at the corner of two dusty farm roads surrounded by modest homes and lush crops, after-work chit chat inevitably turns to water. Locals shake their heads while remarking that this area has always been known for its easily accessible groundwater.

Yet every day, new residential wells are going dry while large corporate farms continue to drain groundwater at breakneck speed to keep water-rich mega-crops flourishing like almonds and grapes - or to sell it to the highest bidder.

Why are corporate profits trumping community rights to water? Shouldn't those most affected by corporate misappropriation of groundwater resources be the ones to decide their water future?

Dry wells have become so common that residents are forced to devise extreme measures to supply water for basic cooking and hygiene. In measures that were once unthinkable, hoses run through windows between neighbors' homes, pumping water from large storage tanks filled by trucks.

It's about the money - lots of it

Some families have to rely on store-bought bottled water or hauling gallons of the stuff home in the back of their pickups. Most can't afford the $13,000-25,000 price tag to drill a new well. But even for residents with means, waiting lists for residential well drilling are 6-12 months long, partly because of competition from corporate farms who bring in higher-paying well-drilling jobs.

Agricultural wells, which are deeper than residential wells, can cost $500,000 or more, but even at that price, cash crops for export like almonds still remain money-makers.

[Read more in the link shown on top]

2)  Water first! Lakota women and ranchers lead charge to close toxic uranium mine

Suree Towfighnia / Waging NonViolence

http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_analysis/2985792/water_first_lakota_women_and_ranchers_lead_charge_to_close_toxic_uranium_mine.html

The impending renewal of the license for a uranium mine in Nebraska has ignited a years long resistance among those - most of them women - for whom good health and safe, clean water in the Ogallala aquifer is as important as life itself, writes Suree Towfighnia. But for others, jobs and money come first. Now the Nuclear Regulatory Commission must reach its decision.

With a population of around 1,000 people, the rural town of Crawford, Nebraska was an unlikely setting for a federal hearing hydrologists and lawyers - all of whom have been fighting the permit renewal of a uranium mine located in town.

But it became the site of one in late August thanks to the dogged determination of a group of Lakota and environmental activists, as well as geologists, hydrologists and lawyers - all of whom have been fighting the permit renewal of a uranium mine located in town.

The region is ripe with stories from the brutal Indian wars, when Lakota and neighboring tribes fought over western expansion.

Today, this intersection of frontier America and Native resistance is a battleground in the war between environmental advocates and energy corporations, only this time allies from all sides are joining forces in the effort to protect their water.

The Crow Butte Resources, or CBR, uranium mine is comprised of thousands of wells at the base of Crow Butte, a sacred site located within Lakota treaty territories.

For the past couple of decades CBR has mined uranium using the in situ leach process, which injects water under high pressure into aquifers, extracts uranium ore, and then processes it into yellow cake.

Each year 700,000 pounds of uranium is produced here and shipped to Canada, where it is sold on the open market. CBR has applied for a permit renewal and expansions to three neighboring sites.

Pure water must be protected at all costs

Cindy Meyers, a rancher and resident of central Nebraska, drove four hours to attend evidentiary hearings regarding the renewal of the mine's permit. It's not unusual for Meyers to travel with her own water, which she gets directly from a well on her land that's tapped into the Ogallala aquifer - considered the largest, underground freshwater source in the world, covering eight states from South Dakota to Texas.

CBR uses the same Ogallala water to mine the uranium. "I keep bottles of the aquifer water in a cooler in my car", Meyers said. "This is what water is supposed to taste like. We call it sweet water." She notes the absence of a chemical taste often found in other drinking water.

Cindy shares a large jar with her ally Debra White Plume. The two women met during their work to stop the Keystone XL pipeline in 2011. Both women share an understanding that once water is contaminated it can't be restored and a belief that pure water is worth protecting at all costs.

Debra White Plume is a Lakota grandmother who was raised on the treaty territories of the Pine Ridge Reservation located across the border in South Dakota. She shares the Lakota worldview that water is sacred.

About 10 years ago, White Plume began to notice a rise in illnesses and premature deaths among her neighbors. She heard about wells testing high for radiation, arsenic and lead. This information concerned White Plume, who lives on hundreds of acres of family land and relies on her wells for drinking water.

She is an experienced researcher and organizer from decades spent protecting the nearby Black Hills, sacred sites and preserving the Lakota way of life. During her research, through ceremonies, and prayer, she connected local contamination to the Crow Butte uranium mine located just outside reservation lands.

[Read more in the link shown above]

MANAUS COVERED BY SMOKE FROM BURNED FOREST

Text and first photo as reported in www.oeco.org.br

Manaus, AM - Manaus sky begins October in the same way that ended September: covered in smoke. The dense fog appeared about a week covering the Sun on the horizon and reducing visibility on the streets of the capital of the state of Amazonas. It is caused by forest burning in areas near the city, according to the National Institute of Space Research ("INPE")). The fire, in fact, punishes the State as ever.

Until Sunday (04th October),  11,439 fire hotspots had already been registered in the Amazon this year, against 7,543 in the same period last year, an increase of 51%.  There are still nearly three months for the year's over, and  the record of records has already been  beaten in just one year in the state of Amazonas.  The bad news continues in the first days of October, with 399 registered outbreaks.

There are a large number of fire outbreaks in the metropolitan region of Manaus and nearby municipalities. Two municipalities in the area under the influence of the BR-319 (the 'ghost road'; see photo) were among the record holders in the State of Amazonas  in the period from 01 to September 29.

[...]

Fires in the Amazon are growing in recent years; from 2012 the State recorded more hotspots than the srate of Rondônia. The lack of control occurs precisei in the year in which the State Government dismantled the environmental management system with deep cuts in the Secretary of Environment. But the weather isn't cooperating.

[...]

A TERRITORY THE SIZE OF UNITED KINGDOM HAS BEEN DEFORESTED IN THE YEARS 2000-2013 IN THE "PAN-AMAZONIAN" REGION

Reproduced from www.oeco.org.br

(PAN-AMAZONIAN REGION extends for nine countries)

A Rondônia state, northwest Brazil (or the equivalent to the territory of the United Kingdom) were lost between 2000 and 2013. This is the conclusion of a new study of Amazonian Network of socio-environmental Georeferenced Information (RAISG), released this Monday (05). Over the 13 years have been deforested 222,249 km ² in the nine countries that are part of the Amazon rainforest.

(Subtitle above: Deforestation has decreased, but is still high)

[...]

Today, the main threats to this biome throughout the region are agricultural activities and the infrastructure works such as roads and dams. To a lesser degree, although with significant impact, also highlight the illegal mining, oil exploitation and illicit crops as risk factors to the integrity of the forest.

[...]