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The town of Querencia, north of Mato Grosso state is in in the fringes of the Amazon and is one of many very prosperous and productive agricultural little towns in the hart of Brazil. With good weather, fertile soil, lots of technology and hard work they are achieving record braking level of soy productivity turning what was once a isolated forgotten corner of Brazil into a major soy beans production center. Of course the nature takes his share of the burden, the forest had to make place to the soy fields.
The driving force behind these achievements are the “Gauchos”, southern farmers moved in by the military dictatorship of the 70´s to colonize huge inhabited areas of the country. They have mixed feelings about ecology, acknowledging the need for preservation in one hand and a bag full of unanswered questions in the other.
“ Those are fertile lands, we can not be blamed for producing food when the world so badly need it. Only land unfit for agriculture should be kept as forest reserves” Said one farmer.
“Why should I keep 80% of my privet land as forest reserve ( to comply with the Brazilian law) and not plant? This is a business like any other, who is gonna pay me for the lost opportunities? It fair that the world want to keep the forest standing, but why this burden is only ours? Everybody should pay its share , the international community should compensate us for the areas we are not planting. What country could afford to leave such a huge fertile area untouched? Well, in any case the can start planting their own forests in their farmland, may be when the get to similar levels of proportional forest area coverage to Brazil we could have a honest conversation about preservation” said local farm leader.
Right now the only thing everyone agree is that conservation policies still have along way to go until they can address everybody’s concerns in that part of the world.