ird of its population (the ca. 400 native tribes, the poor and the migrating people) to support themselves, their families, and the rest of the nation. While the coastal regions, which contain two thirds of Brazil’s population, are in dire need of food products and depend on the local agriculture, Brazil’s production of coffee, sugarcane, cassava, bananas, and sisal is number one in the world. In the Western Hemisphere, it is the leading producer of rice and pulses (beans, peas, and lentils). It ranks second in the world with the production of oranges, cocoa, and soybeans, and third in the production of black pepper, and corn (maize) and in the size of its herds of cattle and hogs. With the help of more intensive farming technology (like the use of fertilizer, use of hoes for weeding, or planting of crops in rows rather than scattering seeds), the amount of land that poor people need to reclaim from forests to feed themselves could be reduced by high numbers. Politicians are aware of the problems and many are trying to promote the idea of plantation forestry, by abandoning government policies that explicitly encourage deforestation, by reforming the timber industry, and restricting the logging in general. Today, 85% of Brazils amazon jungle region is still covered in trees. To keep this important area in the temporary condition, plantation forestry (as a source of additional income) is promoted, since it can be just as profitable as chopping trees from virgin forest. It has the obvious advantage that growers can choose which species to cultivate. Developing countries with hot climates have the competitive advantage in this market, simply because trees grow much faster than in temperate climates. The pressure of the green lobby abroad got the authorities to dismantle some of the more obvious incentives to wreck environmental havoc as well. In the beginning of the 1990s, a series of tough environmental laws were pas...
