Brazil seizes cattle to protect rain forest

SÃO PAULO: In an unprecedented move against rogue cattle ranchers in theAmazon, the Brazilian government has seized livestock grazing thereillegally.

Officials carted off 3,100 head of cattle that they said were being raisedon an ecological reserve in the state of Pará, in an operation intended toserve as a warning to other ranchers grazing an estimated 60,000 head onillegally deforested land in Amazonia, the environment minister, CarlosMinc, said.

"No more being soft," Minc told reporters Tuesday in the capital, Brasília."Those that don't respect environmental legislation, your cattle are goingto become barbecue for Fome Zero," he said, referring to the government'sfood program for the poor.

Minc said the cattle would be auctioned in two weeks, with the proceedsgoing to Fome Zero, as well as to health programs for indigenous people andto finance cattle removal operations.

Though Minc announced the strategy Tuesday, the seizure took place June 7 byfederal police officers and agents from Ibama, the government environmentalagency. The cattle's owner had been fined 3 million reais, or $1.86 million,in 2005 for illegal deforestation and had ignored a court order to removethe livestock.

Fears have been growing over the future of the world's biggest rain forest.Though annual deforestation figures fell to a 16-year low of 11,222 squarekilometers, or 4,333 square miles, in 2007 - from a 9-year high of 27,379square kilometers in 2004 - government agencies reported this year thatdeforestation was on the rise again, and cattle farmers were blamed for muchof the increase.

A recent report by the environmental group Friends of the Earth said thatBrazil's growing dominance of the global beef market was in large partbecause of the expansion into the Amazon, where land is cheap.

Brazil surpassed Australia and the United States to become the world'sbiggest beef exporter in 2004, and has more than 200 million head of cattle.The report said a third of Brazil's fresh beef exports last year came fromthe Amazon, and three of every four head of cattle added to Brazil's herdsince 2002 were added in the region.

Minc said that thanks to operations like those announced Tuesday, rancherswith cattle in embargoed and protected areas like indigenous reservationsand forestry reserves were starting to move their herds for fear of havingtheir livestock confiscated. He also announced that Ibama had begun legalproceedings to seize an additional 10,000 cattle grazing on illegallydeforested land in Rondônia State.

Environmental advocates lauded the move but warned that it must be the firstof many if Brazil is to have any chance of seriously stemming deforestation.

"This can be a good way of at least showing the government is concernedabout the contribution of ranching to the problem of deforestation," saidPeter May, associate director of Friends of the Earth Brazil. "It's animportant strategy, but if they do it just once and then never do it againit will be seen as a media event."