German Media Advocate Sanctions for Bolsonaro’s Encouragement of Deforestation

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Two of Germany‘s leading media outlets, Der Spiegel magazine and the weekly newspaper Die Zeit, feel that “It’s time for sanctions against Brazil,” as the former’s headline states, reports journalist Nelson de Sá, in his column in Folha de S.Paulo.

“Europe should not sit back and do nothing while a hate-driven science skeptic sacrifices vast areas of forest for cattle ranchers and soybean plantations,” says the magazine.

In an article entitled “Start where it hurts,” the newspaper Die Zeit asks: “What difference does it make to cut off funding to preserve forests from a government that has no interest in preserving forests at all?”.

And then it answers that “it would be more auspicious to start where it hurts the most: the economic interests of its exporters, for instance, the farmers who sell meat and soybeans on a large scale to half the world.”

The European Union is one of the major importers and it has just signed a free trade agreement with Mercosur, the South American common market, as representatives of the countries involved proudly announced at the G20 summit in Osaka. Brazil is the largest member of Mercosur.

It is true that the agreement contains clauses on climate and forest conservation, but it does not contain any specific provisions to this effect. According to what is known to date — only a provisional version of the text has so far been available — these provisions have remained quite general. They neither lay down clear standards for measuring whether the parties involved are keeping their promises, nor do they define sanctions.

So far, there is no evidence that the Brazilian government has actually sought an effective climate policy for the protection of the Amazon rainforest since the Free Trade Agreement was signed.

However, if the EU were to make it clear that it will only import soy products and beef verifiably produced in a rainforest-friendly way, and that it would otherwise stop imports, it would be a strong bargaining chip. Brazilian farmers — along with evangelicals and the military — are important supporters of their president, and Jair Bolsonaro can hardly afford to alienate them.