VZCZCXRO7684
RR RUEHRG
DE RUEHBR #0113/01 0221150
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 221150Z JAN 08
FM AMEMBASSY BRASILIA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 0898
INFO RUEHSO/AMCONSUL SAO PAULO 1498
RUEHRI/AMCONSUL RIO DE JANEIRO 5711
RUEHRG/AMCONSUL RECIFE 7623

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