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In First Person
Adapted from essays by Fabio Rosa,
Ashoka Fellow, Brazil
Utilizing the Market for Environmental Changes
Those involved in implementing models for social change that eradicate severe poverty and fight environmental destruction simultaneously know that the market is one of the most powerful forces they can count on.
Economic development and environmental degradation have often gone hand-in-hand, suggesting that the two are
inextricable. However, the visible relationship between environmental degradation and poverty calls into question the notion that the environment can be sacrificed for economic growth. New approaches to economic development and environmental conservation are demonstrating that a virtuous cycle is possible where human development is achieved that also sustains or even restores the environment.
The emerging opportunities in this arena will require new partnerships between citizens, governments, and businesses. Through my work in Brazil, I have been able to develop new models for human development that engage all three in this process of using the market for positive social and environmental change.
One area of opportunity is in the organic food market, which has shown a dramatic increase in sales around the world with an estimated revenue of $22 billion annually. In addition, more and more land is being devoted to organic agriculture, with 7 million hectares currently under cultivation, ten times more than in the last decade 1. This increase in consumption means that people – or the market – have taken a favorable position toward this type of product. People are showing their support for this idea through their purchases. That is the power of the market.
A growing interest in renewable energy is coinciding with this trend in organic agriculture in rural Brazil. In order to tap into this new synergy, I have worked with farmers in areas of pasture that are severely degraded and losing their productivity, to create a new model for development that addresses economic needs, environmental restoration, and allows us to access funding for sustainable development initiatives. Switching to organic practices and increasing productivity will require an initial investment that could come from the Clean Development Mechanism. This fund, created by the World Bank and some private investors, provides capital for development projects that help to alleviate climate change.
Using our knowledge of agriculture and of animal physiology, we initiated a new model of land management and tested it on a pilot farm. Pasture areas were separated by electric-wire fences (which we made ourselves), that are powered by photovoltaic solar energy. The pastures are divided into small paddocks and animals are allowed to graze in each one, for one day only. Then, the paddock is left to rest for about 30 days in the wet season (summer) and 60 days in the dry season (winter), when the animals return to that paddock.
Photo: Lyon Press
Building a solar-powered electric fence
The pastures have time to rest from the cutting and can grow again. Every day, when the cows go to a new paddock, they find ample pastures. They are outdoors and feed themselves from the pastures alone, without a need for grain supplements, drink water from local sources, and rest in the shade of big trees. A far cry from the confining, inhuman, feed-lots. This approach represents a major departure from the widespread use of feedlots in Europe and the U.S.
Photo: Lyon Press
Healthy pasture after a year of restoration
Here in the southern region of South America, in the vast natural grasslands found in the south of Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay, we have huge amounts of cattle, raised in open fields, eating only grass. Recently, between 30 and 50 percent of these natural grasslands were replaced by rice, corn, soybean, and wheat crops. We have improved the handling of the remaining natural grasslands, and where it is possible, have increased grass and animal production by as much as 500 percent, using only natural land management, without the use of chemical fertilizers. These increases in productivity have not been at the expense of local biodiversity.
In these areas, we can produce organic meat and milk because we do not use synthetic fertilizers or pesticides. We have been developing a program to organize and educate farmers, certifying their products as organic, and linking them to the market for organic meat and dairy products in Europe, an enthusiastic base of consumers of organic products.
Photo: Lyon Press
Brazilian cattle, living organically
In this case, the market has been an enormous help, making it possible to accurately value products whose production has not caused damage to the ecosystem of the South American natural grasslands.
This model can be replicated in all other tropical and subtropical farms. What we have created here is a model for demonstration that we must try to take to others. Our intention has always been to consolidate a model that can be multiplied in large-scale for all the farmers in the region. For this process our NGO, called IDEAAS, will go into a partnership with local NGOs. This will be the second step.
Another project which we have been working on deals with rural solar power, where we will try to replace the old kerosene, gas and oil lamps used by the families with photovoltaic solar panels. There are approximately 25 million people without electric power in Brazil, which are approximately 5 million families.
Our project envisions the use of photovoltaic cells and solar energy for improved agricultural practices in isolated rural areas. In Rio Grande do Sul alone, there are approximately 150,000 people isolated from the
electric power networks, and it is well known that there are no plans to provide access to conventional electrical services. In order to finance this we can offer CDM – Clean Development Mechanism – credits, which would help increase funds for our organization's activities in rural electrification, sustainable agriculture, and environmental restoration, i.e. reforestation and environmental education. All these activities are providing direct benefit to local residents while generating CDM credits that can advance our work in this arena.
The goal is to produce without destroying, making use of renewable energy.
Recent evaluations show that if we serve 12,900 families – approximately 52,000 people – on the first stage of the program, we would be saving 9 million litters of kerosene, 4.6 million kilos of Liquefied Petroleum Gas, 46.4 million wax candles, 9.3 million radio batteries, and 23.2 million liters of diesel fuel. All of this adds up to a reduction in carbon emissions, and hence reduced impact on global warming. While widespread use of photovoltaic cells has been limited by their high cost, we have found this approach effective in Brazil where developing rural infrastructure for non-renewable energy is also very expensive, and where new mechanisms for investing in sustainable development provide added incentives.
In addition, electric power helps to improve the quality of life, offers opportunities for income generation
(through more efficient grazing practices), and helps reduce the massive rural exodus to Brazil's largest cities. Families, even the most impoverished ones, need to use energy. Their purchasing power, although small individually, represents, as a group, what I call "a rich poor market." A market of 5 million consumers is a considerable market anywhere in the world.
With such a presence, the private sector has begun to take an interest in providing energy to Brazil's rural poor. In addition, the Mechanism for Clean Development is providing companies with carbon emissions credits if they invest in alternative energy solutions. This fund already has the support of the World Bank, which made an initial investment of U.S.$150 million from their Carbon Fund, and private investors are beginning to take an interest in the market for carbon credits.
Such funds will make it possible for alternative energy solutions and sustainable businesses to take off with a source of investment, and creates a mechanism to place a monetary value on the environmental benefits that such alternatives provide. The market is uniquely positioned to make such an approach work effectively.
The examples mentioned above could easily be replicated in other parts of the world. In Africa, there are the Savannas, and in India and China, there are entire populations who lack electricity. New business
opportunities and financing mechanisms are being developed, and we are confronted by more and more examples every day where ethics and a concern for environmental and social issues drive the market.
With such an approach, models for creative use of market-based solutions are appearing everywhere, and powerful new partnerships between the social and the business sectors are emerging. These are the kinds of partnerships we will need to see more of, to build the world we want to see.
Here, in the southern regions of South America, we believe in this approach and we are building it every day.
1. Flavin, Christopher, The State of the World 2001, Worldwatch Institute, 2001, p. 15.
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This article prepared with inputs by Yasmina Zaidman
Translated by Marilena Lerina
Contact:
Fábio Luiz de Oliveira Rosa
STA – Agroeletro Sistema de Tecnologia Adequada
Rua Cel.Lucas de Oliveira, 199
Porto Alegre RS 90440-011
Brazil
Email: fabrosa@terra.com.br
Phone: (55) 51 3331.8081
Cell phone: 9165-3390
Pager: Curitiba - Cel (41) 9613-2243
Fabio Luis de Oliviera Rosa, is an economist and lawyer, and president of IDEAAS ? Institute for Development of Natural Energy and Sustainability. He has developed low-cost rural electrification models to improve the quality of life for the rural poor and to slow urban migration. Email: fabrosa@terra.com.br
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