The SEA behind the Brazilian Sugarcane Agroecological Zoning

Since its introduction by the Portuguese, in the 16th century, sugarcane production in Brazil has contributed to country’s economic development in the same way that its expansion history has been marked by intensive internal debates and controversies. In the beginning, it was indigenous and later African peoples slavery (up until the 19th century) dispute, then in the 1970’s disagreements were motivated by massive subsidies from the military regime. More recently, discussions have been focusing on temporary cutters working conditions, on ground burnings, on deforestation of native vegetation, and on excessive water usage.

Brazilian government’s intention to enhance bioethanol and biofuel technology exports has brought the arguments to the international arena. In October, 2007 Jean Zeagler, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, heated up the quarrel by pronouncing that “It is a crime against humanity to convert agricultural productive soil into soil which produces food stuff that will be burned into biofuel.” In response to the accusation, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva stated that “the real crime against humanity would be to just cast aside biofuels and push countries struggling with food and energy shortages towards dependency and insecurity”.

The Brazilian government then, advised by many international organizations, commissioned a Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) which aimed to putting the bioethanol polemics to rest. Performed by a national multidisciplinary team, the SEA conclusions were published in 2009 in a document entitled Sugarcane Agroecological Zoning: To Expand Production, Preserve Life, and Ensure a Future (also known as ZAE Cana).

According to the Federal Government, the document “is one of the most detailed studies worldwide and the most structured in the country under social, environmental and economic perspectives, and enforces the importance of planning and strategic conduction in its development so as to make Brazil a leading energy producing nation, which respects biodiversity.”. The ZAE Cana is also the base to a bill referred by Federal Government to the Congress “that will restrict the lands permissible for sugarcane farming and processing.”

Sustaining the traditional controversies around the sector, the ZAE Cana was celebrated by many people and institutions, and severely criticized by many more. With the purpose of providing both sides with more material to discuss, the present analysis examines the ZAE Cana by comparing its content to the suggestions of two International Association for Impact Assessment (IAIA) papers dedicated to SEA on the sugarcane sector:

I.            “Sustainability Assessment of Brazilian Sugarcane Ethanol” which comprises a comprehensive list of benefits and concerns about the sugarcane ethanol production.

II.            “Sustainability indicators: planning ethanol by SEA” which suggests five Critical Decision Factors (CDF) or Conditions for Strategic Decision (CSD) which define the most significant impacts that should be addressed in a SEA on the sugarcane bioethanol production:

1) Land Use and Food Security

The ZAE Cana prohibits the construction or expansion of sugarcane farms and production plants in any area of native vegetation, or in the Amazon, or Pantanal (Brazilian Wetlands), or Upper Paraguay River Basin regions. However, it doesn’t mention other important biome, the Cerrado (Brazilian Savanna).

In terms of food security, the ZAE Cana establishes that the substitution of areas occupied by other cultures or livestock production by sugarcane must be authorized by the Ministry of Agriculture which should take into consideration the impact of such substitution to Brazilian food security. On the other hand, the potential relocation of those other cultures and cattle to areas which are prohibited to sugarcane production was not discussed. In addition, it doesn’t consider the major role of Brazilian food exports in contributing to international food security.

2) Environmental Services

The ZAE Cana restricts the sugarcane production to areas which do not require of full irrigation, and areas with slopes less than 12%. The first topic just partially addresses the issue of high water consumption, since it does not include technological requirements to diminish the high water consumption for washing sugarcane. The topography issue relates to the mechanized harvesting of sugarcane which cannot occur in more inclined lands. Mechanized harvesting prevents producers’ clearance of ground by fire which implies not only environmental risks to flora and fauna but also contributes to soil degradation.

The zoning does not tackle the risk of plagues in large areas of land occupied by one monoculture, neither the impacts of using genetically modified organisms (GMOs). On the positive side, it takes into account that “comparatively, the sugarcane crops causes less damages for soil, uses less pesticides and herbicides than other typical Brazilian crops (soy, corn, orange, and eucalyptus).”

3) Socioenvironmental Benefits

The ZAE Cana foresees the enhancement of local permanent workforce employment due to the substitution of the manual harvesting by the mechanized one. It implies education and training to capacitate the workforce in the utilization of new technologies. The expected results are income generation along the year (not only during harvesting period), improving communities’ economic stability.

On the negative side, the zoning does not refer to some social concerns related to the sugarcane sector, such as the frequently verified gender issues and informal employment.

4) Land Ownership and Instruments of Control

The ZAE Cana acknowledges that small and medium sized sugarcane producers will have to organize themselves into cooperatives, so that they will be able to implement the mechanized harvesting. Nevertheless, it doesn’t deal with the concerns about the amendment of the land market, the potential increase in land concentration, and the competition with family farming.

The document states that the zoning implementation must apply induction and control mechanisms as a result of a new regulatory framework which should count on the support of the whole society. It also stipulates that Federal Government should provide regional and local governments with tools to monitor the proper application of the new law.

5) Air Quality and Greenhouse Gases

The expansion of the bioethanol production in Brazil contributes to an energy balance which is more favorable than carbon fossil fuels. Moreover, the increasing electricity co-generation from sugarcane bagasse positively influences Brazilian energy security, reducing country’s dependence on fossil fuel thermo electrical energy, which is responsible for large amounts of GHG emissions. However, the most significant contribution to greenhouse gases emissions of the ZAE Cana is related to the reduction of fires as a result of the mechanized harvesting.

The conclusion from this analysis is that, even though the ZAE Cana represents a remarkable advance in the international biofuel debate, because of the several lacunas in the final document, it may not fulfill its objective to put the bioethanol polemics to rest. In order to accomplish this herculean task, Brazilian Federal Government should undertake a proportionally colossal mission and promote an unified zoning strategy to all of its agricultural sector. It has also to base this zoning in a comprehensive and sound Strategic Environmental Assessment.

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