Brazil wants to make an area 13 times the size of Belgium suitable for agriculture “without cutting down a single tree.” outside

Concretely, the Brazilian government wants to convert pastures abandoned for grazing into agricultural land. The Ministry of Agriculture says it has identified 40 million hectares that can be prepared for crop cultivation with investment. This area fits the whole of Belgium 13 times more. The government wants to invest 110 billion euros in this regard over the next ten years.

This measure would expand Brazil’s agricultural land from 65 million to 105 million hectares. The government promises that this will happen without “cutting even a single tree.”

Leftist President Lula da Silva has made climate protection one of his priorities. Under his right-wing predecessor, Jair Bolsonaro, the pace of deforestation in the Brazilian part of the Amazon accelerated.

This would complicate the ongoing negotiations on a trade agreement between the European Union and the MERCOSUR countries (Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay). Europe does not want to conclude this agreement without South American countries taking concrete measures to improve the protection of nature and human rights. With this plan, Lula seems to want to send a signal to the world that he takes this message seriously.

However, agriculture, especially livestock and soybean farming, remains the cornerstone of the economy in the South American agricultural giant. Lula has pledged to end illegal deforestation by 2030 by plantations and others, which fell by a third in the first half of this year.

The COP28 climate summit in Dubai, at which the Brazilian president wants to explain his plan, is scheduled to be held from November 30 to December 6.