An environmental group is pleading with the federal government to reject a controversial trade deal that it says would further fuel deforestation in the Amazon in a new letter to Canada’s foreign minister.
Canada is currently negotiating a free trade agreement with the Mercosur countries, which include Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay. The federal government completed an environmental assessment of the deal in 2020, but environmentalists say the breakdown missed some of the environmental and human rights impacts it would have.
Greenpeace Canada, the group behind the letter, found that the deal would involve meat imports from Brazil, the main cause of deforestation in the Amazon. increase by $ 1.8 billion every year. To raise livestock, the rainforest is burned and cut down to make room for pasture. If the deal goes through, some of that meat would eventually make its way to Canada. The area is also cleared for growing soybeans, and indigenous nations are brutally pushed from his land by industries, the letter says. To 2019 report found that at least 113 indigenous people in Brazil were killed that year, most of them while fighting logging and mining.
The Amazon makes up about a third of all the remaining tropical forests in the world, making the area vital in the fight against climate change. Forests around the world absorb one third of emissions caused by man each year by storing carbon in its soil and flora.
Now that COP26, this year’s UN climate talks, have concluded, global conference Shane Moffatt, head of Greenpeace’s food and nature campaign, says it is essential for the government to step back from the deal.
Moffat authored the letter to Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly, along with Greenpeace colleagues Brandon Wei and Salomé Sané.
“Making a deal on the destruction of the Amazon after committing to ending deforestation is incredibly reckless,” Moffatt said, referring to a pledge Canada signed during COP26.
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“This kind of double talk is exactly why the natural world is in crisis. We need action, not a bunch of empty words to look good on the world stage. “
The letter also comes amid questions about Brazil’s own accounting of deforestation in the Amazon. On November 19, The Associated Press reported the country had withheld data on deforestation in the Amazon until after the global climate conference. Figures show that the rainforest is having its worst year since 2006, with deforestation of around 22 percent since last year. Scientists are concerned that President Jair Bolsonaro’s decisions regarding the management of the Amazon could cause it to reach a inflection point where it would go from tropical forest to savanna forests and grasslands.
The letter describes the meeting notes that Greenpeace obtained from the Ministry of Agriculture, which say that the federal government will continue to interact virtually with Mercosur and move forward with the “technical discussion” on the agreement.
@GreenpeaceCA, the group behind the letter, found that the deal would cause meat imports from Brazil, the leading cause of deforestation in the #Amazon, to increase by $ 1.8 billion each year. To raise cattle, the rainforest is burned and cut down.
“As such, rather than condemning the increasing killings of indigenous land defenders and the urgent need to prevent the Amazon from reaching its tipping point, Canada intends to resume ‘formal negotiations’ for the Mercosur trade agreement. , which would effectively make Canada an accomplice in accelerating deforestation, loss of biodiversity and violations of indigenous rights in the Brazilian Amazon, ”reads part of the letter.
Liberal MP Joly, who did not respond to National Observer of Canada in time for publication, he has been foreign minister since October. Previously, she served as Minister of Economic Development and Official Languages.
Opposition parties have previously urged Ottawa to back off on Mercosur negotiations. In 2019, the leader of the NDP, Jagmeet Singh call Trudeau to stop the Mercosur negotiations until Bolsonaro takes measures to protect the Amazon.
“This is not a crisis for Brazil, it is a crisis for humanity and for our planet,” he said.
“Canada’s trade policy has to match our words. Canada should not do business with Bolsonaro while the Amazon burns. “
Reference-www.nationalobserver.com