CODEL NELSON VISIT TO BRASILIA AND BELEM

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 BRASILIA 000113 SIPDIS SENSITIVE SIPDIS DEPT FOR WHA/BSC, H E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: OVIP SENV KGHG EAGR TRGY BR SUBJECT: CODEL NELSON VISIT TO BRASILIA AND BELEM REF: 07 Brasilia 2132 ¶1. (U) THIS CABLE IS SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED AND NOT FOR INTERNET DISTRIBUTION. ¶2. (SBU) SUMMARY. Senator Bill Nelson visited Brazil November 27-30, 2007, focusing primarily on environmental issues, biofuels, and national security matters. He met with key Brazilians in the national government and the State of Para, from environmental non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and think-tanks, as well as leaders in the Brazilian Senate and the Minister of Defense and armed services. These meetings were uniformly informative and cordial. END SUMMARY. ¶3. (SBU) Senator Bill Nelson came to Brazil November 27-30 with a focus on the environment (climate change and deforestation), biofuels and national security. Senator Nelson was accompanied by his staff, the Embassy Environment, Science and Technology Counselor, and - in Belem - the U.S. Consular Agent. His November 27 meetings with Ministry of Exterior Relations Under Secretary Everton Vargas, Minister of Defense Nelson Jobim and senior military leaders regarding national security and foreign relations are reported in septels. During his visit to Brasilia, the Senator met with Florida residents at the Embassy. BRASILIA MEETINGS - NOVEMBER 27 ¶4. (SBU) Senator Nelson met with Minister of Science and Technology Sergio Rezende to discuss science and technology concerning biofuels. Rezende said that Brazil is actively conducting research on biofuels. He pointed to the state-controlled energy company Petrobras, which plays an important role in the biofuels area and has now built a pilot plant in Rio de Janeiro to test methods for producing ethanol using the dried fibers from sugar cane residue. He explained that Brazil has a network of seven universities working on biofuels from sugar cane. Nonetheless, Rezende opined, Brazil was not ahead of the United States in biofuels research and development and had only about 150 scientists compared to the many more scientists working at U.S. laboratories. Rezende commented that the United States and Brazil are still at the very beginning of their biofuels cooperative relationship. In response to the Senator's inquiry, the Minister said he would be interested in cooperating with Florida and Florida universities on biofuels research. ¶5. (SBU) Rezende continued that Brazil uses satellites to detect deforestation. He said he didn't foresee the expected increase in sugar cane production to push cattle into the Amazon, given that only 6-7 million hectares are used for sugar cane now and by 2015 would only go up to 15-20 million. He commented that Brazil had 100 million hectares available. In addition, he said that EMBRAPA, the national agriculture research agency, is developing a new, more productive type of sugar cane called "energy sugar cane" for producing ethanol using genetic engineering. Over time, Rezende said, the cost of producing ethanol from cane has decreased by 10 times. ¶6. (SBU) Senator Joao Evangelista Tenorio (Brazilian Social Democracy Party, opposition; of Alagoas),Chairman of the Senate Biofuels Subcommittee, extolled the use of bagasse, which is the residue left from the sugar cane after processing, to generate electricity. Tenorio displayed disappointment at the slow pace of development of cellulosic ethanol. He expressed concern that there might not be enough bagasse both to generate energy and to provide sufficient feedstock for cellulosic biofuels. Tenorio told the Senator that Brazil is looking at the possibility of constructing an ethanol pipeline that could withstand the corrosive effects of ethanol to bring biofuels to the cities. Turning to the recently announced discovery of oil and gas off-shore in the Tupi field, Tenorio commented that Brazil doesn't yet have the technology to extract it. ¶7. (SBU) Senator Heraclito Fortes (Democrats Party, opposition; of Piaui),the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations and National Defense, expressed concern to the Senator about the impact of corruption and illegal money in the region. He said that Iran and Russia were supporting Venezuela in efforts to keep the United States out of Latin America (Note: Reftel reported Fortes's views in greater detail expressed in other meetings.). He saw Venezuela, Bolivia, and Nicaragua as challenges facing the United States and Brazil. Fortes said he thought the Brazilian armed forces were underfunded. ¶8. (SBU) UNICA (Sao Paulo sugar cane industry association) Vice President Alfred Szwarc briefed the Senator on the high productivity and low cost of sugar cane as a feedstock for ethanol. Further, Brazil uses the sugar cane bagasse to fuel the ethanol plants and BRASILIA 00000113 002 OF 002 provide electricity to the public grid. Sugar cane is grown principally in the Center-South region, outside of the Amazon rainforest. Szwarc said that Brazil has extensive know-how in producing and distributing ethanol. ¶9. (SBU) Representatives of The Nature Conservancy-TNC (Ana Christina Barros),the Amazon Conservation Team-ACT (Vasco van Roosmalen),and the Jaguar Conservation Fund (Leandro Silveira and Anah Jacomo) informed the Senator about their programs and activities. TNC Brazil Director Barros described the Responsible Soy program whereby soy farmers working in the Amazon region would be certified for complying with environmental laws, which in turn would increase market access for them. She was positive overall about the Brazilian government's efforts to increase compliance with environmental laws and to reduce the rate of Amazon deforestation. ACT Brazil Director Van Roosmalen explained that they were assisting indigenous communities to protect and manage forest resources. With about 20 percent of the Amazon in their hands, the indigenous communities are critical to protecting the forest. Van Roosmalen was skeptical of the help the government was providing to the indigenous communities and of its efforts to slow the illegal destruction of the forest. The Jaguar Conservation Fund representatives described a successful program to persuade ranchers to not kill jaguars in return for social programs for their ranches and compensation in cases where a jaguar kills a rancher's steer. BELEM MEETINGS - NOVEMBER 28 AND 29 ¶10. (SBU) After flying to Belem, which is the capital of the State of Para, Senator Nelson met with the Para State Vice Governor Odair Correa. The Vice Governor said that Para, which holds a large portion of the Amazon forest and water resources, wants to work in partnerships to preserve biodiversity and reduce deforestation. He pointed to the collaborative work with ALCOA, which was constructing a bauxite plant in the state. Correa added, "We don't want to internationalize the Amazon forest, jut want partnerships to help us manage it." Correa replied to the Senator's inquiry about changing farmers' attitudes that the government has to raise awareness among farmers about the value of an intact forest to prevent them from clearing it. ¶11. (SBU) The Senator met with experts on deforestation and forest management from the Goeldi Museum (Director Ima Vieira),a government museum and research institution, Imazon (Director Carlos Souza),an NGO that monitors deforestation, the Institute for Amazon Research-IPAM (Senior Scientist Tobey McGrath),State of Para Secretary of Environment Valmir Ortega, and the Tropical Forest SIPDIS Institute-TFI (Director Johan Zweede). The Senator saw and learned of the vast plant and animal biodiversity in the Amazon at the Goeldi Museum and at Combu Island. Highlights of their presentations included: - the Brazilian government is launching a new system of forest concessions to improve management and use of these lands, however it lacks sufficient numbers of trained foresters to oversee the sustainable use of these concessions; - the Brazilian government has stopped subsidizing pasture land, which had promoted clearing of land for ranching; - most of the deforestation has occurred around the roads constructed through the Amazon during the 1970's; - registering land titles is critical to slowing deforestation and the government has a long way to go; and - small farmers/ranchers/loggers driven by economic factors are primarily responsible for the deforestation. (Note: Just prior to the Senator's visit to Belem, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon had visited Belem - including the SIPDIS Goeldi Museum and Combu Island - and met with many of the same experts that the Senator did. End Note.) ¶12. (SBU) Agropalma is the largest producer of biodiesel from palm oil in Brazil. The Senator visited its facility outside of Belem. The Amazon region, which straddles the equator, is the best region for growing African palms, which are ten times as productive as soy. Agropalma's started producing biodiesel in 2005 and demand is taking off, especially with the requirement in 2008 to include two percent biodiesel in diesel. Agropalma has 34,000 hectares of palm oil plantations and plans to double that in the near future. The facility uses residues to generate electricity. SOBEL