China and Socialism are the Destroyers of the Amazon

China imports approx. 100 Billion in food. China exports approx. 50 Billion and a portion of that is food they repackage from imports.

Brazil is the largest exporter of food to China. Many US and Brazilian political pundits from all sides of the political spectrum say that the failure of the Trump administration and the Bolsonaro adminstration to have a joint policy to preasure China on a variety of economic issues has now passed. Both sides either overlooked the opportunity or more likely let self interests blind their opportunity. Trump possibly believing the US alone could pressure China and Bolsonaro being opportunistic and caving to agriculural lobbiests to gain more share of exports once Trump levied tarrifs.

The current US adminstration under Biden has already caved to EU and Chinese interests in regards to China’s accelerated influence in the Amazon. Biden made the abhorrent mistake during his campaign to threaten Brazil with sanctions and withholding aid to Brazil unless Brazil changed their policies in the Amazon basin.

Not helping the situation is the far lefts adherance to Non Governmental Organizations constant cry of climate change and their soon change to a narrative of “climate crisis.” The Biden administration unfortunatly believes a “One World Socialist” approach to Brazil’s and other nations portions of the Amazon basin is a solution. History shows us that political ideolgical pressure on soverign nations always fails!

The Amazon tends to bring out a vision of mysterious land. Probably the main reason for this are the numerous adventure books and media narratives. The Amazon is not highly populated. The vast majority of indigenous people and immigrants live along the two Anazon rivers. The relationship between human population density and deforestation in the Amazon is a myth perpetuated by NGOs. There is a low overall relation in the Amazon for population and deforestation because local conditions vary widely. For example, strong deforestation rates may be observed in areas of low population densities because of expansion of large-scale agriculture and cattle ranching. This issue of the heterogeneity of population settlement patterns and their impacts on natural resources in the Amazon is critical for policy makers concerned with land-use planning.

The Amazon basin in general is incongruous with this idea.

Big rig trucks roll past dilapidated gas stations and small agricultural settlements where a Chinese, French, or Brazilian corporate land owner runs a massive agricultural operation. Land that once was thick with trees and jungle is now cattle pasture or soy field. Most all of these settlements are along a main road and the roads keep pushing further into virgin land.

The Amazon is an area of more than five million square kilometers comprising Acre, Amapá, Amazonas, Maranhão, Mato Grosso, Pará, Rondônia, Roraima and Tocantins; all Braziluan states. It is a massive area.

Bioreserves were created in 2001. The Central Amazon Biosphere Reserve is located in a vast region influenced by the Negro and Solimões rivers tributaries of the Amazon River, and in the Amazon Plains-Guyana Shield transition area. It is representative of the largest forest in the world and is made up of vast protected areas as well as smaller units that are important as ecological corridors for maintaining the genetic flow of species between these different units. : 20,859,987 ha

* Core area(s): 4,039,149 ha

* Buffer zone(s): 7,435,687 ha

* Transition zone(s): 9,385,142 ha

The main problem.

Indigenous Reserves

Swathes of the Amazon rainforest are set aside for Indigenous peoples to manage. Under previous socialist leaders masdive tracts “indigenous land” was sold to China and other Corporate interests with the politicians pocketing the money in their Swiss bank accounts. When the current President Bolsonaro decided to end this fiasco of corruption the socialists and NGOs cried foul saying he wanted to destroy indigenous lands. The reality is that it was the previous corrupt solicialist governments that designated the lands as “indigenous” (even though some areas had no or few indigeous peoples) Broadly speaking, these reserves are areas of the Amazon rainforest set aside for indigenous residents, who get exclusive say over how their lands are managed. Some groups do practice lower-impact, more sustainable practices, others sell timber or mining rights to the highest bidder! In the latter case, environmental destruction is comparable to unprotected areas.

The biggest player today in bribing the indigenous peoples and politicians is China.

The rain forest in Brazil has progressively fallen victim to global demand and progessivly China’s demand for soy and beef. The story of the Amazon has become entangled not simply with the story of Brazil’s previously highly corrupt socialists poor protection of its forest frontier but also with that of the rise of China and its food-security strategy. Soy is China’s weak link, the main food commodity it needs from the outside world. The country imports the crop, which it uses feed its pigs. Chinese state-owned companies also invest in Brazil’s supply chain so the South American country can increase its own exports. This growing hunger for soy has incentivized Brazilian opportunists to continue clearing land.

China’s rising middle class has a growing hunger for meat, especially pork and thus a rise in demand for soy. China’s pledge to honor the Paris Agreement is obviously an empty vow to placate the EU and US NGO “climate activists” because China’s food-security measures are counter to its environmental efforts.

Brazil’s president, Jair Bolsonaro, argues that the country must prioritize economic growth but instead of inviting industry and technology from the EU and the USA he is allowing China to rape the Amazon. Biden’s socialist solution is to use empty threats against Brazil claiming “One World Government” should manage the Amazon and at the same time placate China by allowing them easy access to Americas farm belt.

Political ideologies and past socialist corruption has lead us to where we are.

The PT or workers party, (socialists) in Brazil are backed by the EU, Biden, and China. Should they succeed in getting Bolsonaro out, China will be the biggest winner and the Amazon will be the biggest loser.