May, 10 2016, 10:45am EDT
Brazilian Soy Moratorium Renewed Indefinitely
Originally renewed on an annual basis, the agreement to prevent soy trade linked to deforestation now guarantees long term protection for the Amazon.
BRAZIL
The landmark Soy Moratorium, an agreement between civil society, industry and government which prevents major traders from selling soy linked to deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon, was renewed today. The agreement, signed in a ceremony at the Ministry of the Environment, renews the moratorium indefinitely - or as the renewal document says - until it is no longer needed. Originally established in July 2006, the Soy Moratorium was renewed annually starting in 2008.
"The renewal of the moratorium indefinitely ensures producers and trading companies can continue to rely on forest friendly Amazon soy to keep the doors to the global market open, even in times of environmental and political-economic crisis", said Paulo Adario, Senior Forest Strategist for Greenpeace International and signatory of the agreement.
"The forest thanks us for this commitment. And we, at the Soy Working Group, gain resilience to continue towards a permanent tool that combines production and forests conservation and the protection of the peoples who live in the Amazon."
Soy tops the list of exports of agricultural commodities in Brazil, having generated US$ 31.27 billion in revenue in 2015.
The agreement, which guarantees market access only to soy that is free from deforestation, slave labor or threats to indigenous lands, was ratified by the Minister of the Environment, Mrs. Izabella Teixeira, and by the coordinators of the Soy Working Group (GTS - Grupo de Trabalho da Soja) - Mr. Carlo Lovatelli, President of ABIOVE (the Brazilian Association of Vegetable Oils Industry); Mr. Sergio Mendes, General Director of ANEC (Brazil's National Association of Grain Exporters); and Mr. Paulo Adario, from Greenpeace and GTS Civil Society Coordinator.
Since the initial signing of the Moratorium, the area occupied by soy in the Brazilian Amazon biome grew from just over 1 million to 3.6 million hectares, with only 0.8 percent in newly deforested areas. "This large increase in soy production while respecting the moratorium is proof to the market: producing without destroying the forest is good business", said Adario.
Ending deforestation is part of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, signed by several countries, including Brazil, and a demand from more than 1.4 million Brazilians as part of the Zero Deforestation bill, delivered to the Brazilian Congress last year. The Soy Moratorium is one of the best examples of how Zero Deforestation can work and proof that ending Amazon's destruction can work for industry, government and forests. Greenpeace will continue to fight for Zero deforestation as it strives to prevent catastrophic climate change - the two major threats to the planet's largest remaining rainforest.
ENDS
Note to editors:
- On July 24th 2006, ABIOVE and ANEC (National Association of Cereals Exporters) announced a two-year moratorium on buying soy from newly deforested areas in the Amazon or from farmers using indentured or forced labourers. That agreement has been renewed regularly and was set to expire in May 2016. The moratorium followed an investigation by Greenpeace that proved that soy cultivation had become a new threat to the Amazon. A Soy Working Group (GTS) including ABIOVE, ANEC, soy traders, NGOs and social organisations was established in October 2006 to ensure the implementation of the moratorium.
Greenpeace is a global, independent campaigning organization that uses peaceful protest and creative communication to expose global environmental problems and promote solutions that are essential to a green and peaceful future.
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State Department Spokesman Urged to Resign Over 'Despicable' Attack on UN Expert
One critic described Matthew Miller's attack on United Nations special rapporteur Francesca Albanese as a "Trumpian smearing of a principled human rights expert."
Mar 28, 2024
U.S. State Department Matthew Miller faced calls to resign Thursday after he accused a United Nations special rapporteur of engaging in antisemitism—an attack that came days after the human rights expert presented a report concluding that Israel's assault on Gaza has met the threshold of genocide.
Asked about the report during a press briefing on Wednesday, Miller said the U.S. has "for a longstanding period of time opposed the mandate of this special rapporteur, which we believe is not productive."
"And when it comes to the individual who holds that position, I can't help but note a history of antisemitic comments that she has made that have been reported," Miller added, pointing to comments that Francesca Albanese—the U.N. special rapporteur on the human rights situation in the occupied Palestinian territories—"made in December that appeared to justify the attacks of October 7."
A new low by the Biden team.
In response to UN Special Rapporteur @FranceskAlbs new report - Anatomy of a Genocide - concluding that the threshold of genocide has reasonably been met, the State Dep chooses to attack her persona and accuse her of antisemitism :( :( pic.twitter.com/iNpVT3BWQy
— Trita Parsi (@tparsi) March 27, 2024
It's not entirely clear which comments Miller was referencing.
In an interview with Jewish News Syndicate in December, Albanese was asked whether Palestinian militants' killing of Israeli soldiers on October 7 was a violation of international law. Albanese, an Italian attorney and academic, said that "killing a soldier is a tragedy under international law, but when there is an armed conflict, like in this case, killing a soldier is not illegal."
But Albanese stressed in the interview that the Hamas-led attacks on Israeli civilians—including the taking of hostages—were "not legitimate resistance."
"These are crimes and cannot be justified," she added.
Miller's attack on Albanese Wednesday—which echoed earlier attacks on the special rapporteur by U.S. officials and lawmakers—sparked immediate backlash and calls for his resignation.
"Matthew Miller should be forced to resign for trying to endanger the life of a U.N. official with falsehoods," Ashish Prashar, a spokesperson for Gaza Voices, said in a statement. Albanese said earlier this week that she has faced threats following the publication of her report accusing Israel of committing genocide in the Gaza Strip.
Rohan Talbot, director of advocacy and campaigns at Medical Aid for Palestinians, called the State Department spokesman's remarks a "truly despicable, Trumpian smearing of a principled human rights expert."
"Note the lack of substantive rebuttals of her careful analysis, and the resort to ad hominem attacks," Talbot wrote on social media. "Not the sign of a confident administration."
"Israel has a long history of weaponizing false charges of antisemitism to attack and undermine those fighting for human rights for Palestinians."
The Israeli government has similarly attempted to cast Albanese as an antisemite, drawing pushback from human rights organizations and academics who say the claim is a baseless attempt to discredit her work.
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Albanese's 25-page report, which she delivered to the U.N. Human Rights Council on Tuesday, argues that "the overwhelming nature and scale of Israel's assault on Gaza and the destructive conditions of life it has inflicted reveal an intent to physically destroy Palestinians as a group."
"There are reasonable grounds to believe that the threshold indicating the commission of the following acts of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza has been met: killing members of the group; causing serious bodily or mental harm to groups' members; and deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part," the report states. "Genocidal acts were approved and given effect following statements of genocidal intent issued by senior military and government officials."
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Al Jazeera's Tareq Abu Azzoum said the killings took place near where World Central Kitchen recently dropped off food aid.
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Watch:
مشاهد حصرية للجزيرة لإعدام جنود إسرائيليين مدنيين فلسطينيين أثناء محاولتهم العودة لشمال قطاع غزة#الأخبار #حرب_غزة pic.twitter.com/QER98mv2n6
— قناة الجزيرة (@AJArabic) March 27, 2024
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The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor, whose board Falk chairs, has documented numerous examples of Israeli soldiers conducting close-range field executions in Gaza since October 7, when Israel launched its latest assault following a Hamas-led attack.
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