sustainable development 20 years on from the ... - José Eli da Veiga

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production will, however, heighten competition with other sectors of the livestock industry, and the
expansion of intensive production systems for poultry, pork, dairy products —and, now, to a lesser extent,
beef— increases the potential for air and water quality problems due to excess nutrient accumulations in
concentrated production systems (ECLAC/FAO/IICA, <strong>20</strong>11).
Aquaculture in the region has grown at three times the world rate in recent <strong>years</strong> and has also
posed environmental challenges. One of the main problems, which has been an issue since the 1980s, is
the clear-cutting of mangrove forests to open the way for the construction of shrimp ponds, with the
acquiescence of local governments and without regard for the associated environmental impacts.
Ecologically, mangroves act as a vital natural protective barrier and buffer zone against extreme events
such as tsunami. Thus, they are a central element in protecting human lives, material assets and economic
activities and dwellings (ISDR, <strong>20</strong>11b). The destruction of mangroves has triggered ecological crises that
have hurt the shrimp industry (which, in Ecuador, for example, has taken more than a decade to recover)
and have had a serious impact on local economies. A similar situation occurred in Chile with the
expansion of salmon farming, which set off an ecological crisis that wiped out thousands of jobs and
caused heavy economic losses. Similar problems have arisen in the farming of other species, such as
tilapia. These experiences point to the urgent need to adopt environmentally sound approaches to the
management and <strong>development</strong> of coastal resources and their ecosystems (ECLAC/FAO/IICA, <strong>20</strong>10).
Nearly 73% of all water use in Latin America and the Caribbean is accounted for by the
agricultural sector, and the amount of irrigated land is increasing. The strongest environmental impact of
the expansion of the land area under cultivation, and the water use that this entails, is the pollution of
groundwater and surface water (see chapter II). 18
In environmental terms, the agricultural sector is generally under-regulated. Monitoring the
environmental impacts of agricultural activities is complicated because those impacts are quite disparate
and producers frequently change their production practices from one area to another and over time. Some
recent changes, such as the expansion of organic agriculture and the increased use of product certification,
as well as public/private initiatives such as the moratorium on soy production in Brazil, 19 attest to the fact
that the market is exerting pressure on producers to use more <strong>sustainable</strong> practices. According to statistics
cited in Willer and Kilcher, 8.1 million hectares of land in Latin America are exploited as of certified
organic farms (23% of the world total)and the region has 257,238 certified farmers (18.7% of the world
total), with an annual growth rate of approximately 1% (Willer and Kilcher,, eds. <strong>20</strong>11). Other advances
include the introduction of more sophisticated irrigation techniques —such as drip irrigation— and the
use of low-water crops and <strong>sustainable</strong> technologies such as bio-composting, small-scale, non-industrial
seed production and the use of biological products for integrated pest and plant disease management.
Some local communities in, for example, Peru and the Plurinational State of Bolivia are also organizing
seed banks (see also chapter II, where reference is made to an experiment being conducted in Chile).
Family farms, which make a significant contribution to the food supply, can play an important
role in environmental protection and local <strong>development</strong>, but they have been largely neglected by public
policy in Latin America and the Caribbean (see chapter III). In addition, many women play a key role as
18
19
Source: Aquastat: FAO Information System on Water and Agriculture [online] http://www.fao.org/nr/water/aquastat/
main/index.stm. Date of reference: 28 October <strong>20</strong>11.
Members of the main producers associations in the vegetable oils and oilseeds industry in Brazil, which together
control the lion’s share of soy production in the country, have agreed to refrain from marketing soy or soy products
that have been produced in deforested areas of the Amazon biosphere. Brazilian and international NGOs and the
government have all taken part in implementing this moratorium (see [online] www.abiove.com.br).