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Amazon soy moratorium credited for reducing deforestation

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Traders do not buy from farms deforested since 2008

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Change would allow buying soy from parts of such farms

(Recasts with environmentalists' interviews)

SAO PAULO, Dec 4 (Reuters) -

Multinational grains traders operating in Brazil are seeking

to weaken an agreement that forbids buying soybeans from farms

on deforested land in the Amazon rainforest, environmental

advocates involved in the discussions said on Wednesday.

Soy traders including ADM, Cargill, Cofco and Bunge signed

up for the "Amazon soy moratorium" in the mid-2000s, pledging to

stop buying soy from farms in the Brazilian rainforest that were

deforested from 2008 onward.

Scientists and conservationists have praised the voluntary

moratorium for slowing deforestation in the Amazon, the world's

largest rainforest and a bulwark against climate change because

its trees absorb vast amounts of climate-warming greenhouse gas.

The moratorium is enforced by a working group including

representatives of trading companies, environmental advocacy

groups and the government.

In recent meetings of that group, grains traders have

proposed changing the moratorium rules, Carolina Pasquali,

executive director of Greenpeace Brasil, said in an interview.

The current agreement bars soy purchases from a whole

farm if it includes areas deforested since 2008. But traders now

propose a distinction between individual soy fields, letting

growers export from one part of a farm while planting soy on

newly deforested areas nearby, Pasquali said.

"It makes the moratorium lose its meaning," she said.

"Farmers failing to comply (with the end to deforestation) would

still be able sell their soy."

Abiove, which represents those trading firms and all major

soy purchasers in Brazil, said it was holding discussions on the

moratorium, but did not confirm details of any proposal.

Abiove members ADM, Cargill, Cofco and Bunge referred

questions to the association. Louis Dreyfus has not issued a

comment.

The Guardian newspaper reported earlier that Abiove members

planned to vote next week on whether to push for the proposed

moratorium changes.

Even if Abiove members were to back such a move,

environmentalist groups and government signatories to the

agreement would need to agree to the change, Pasquali said.

Other nonprofits also told Reuters they oppose the

change.

Under Brazil's forestry code, landowners in the Amazon can

legally clear up to 20% of their property. However, a surge in

deforestation in the early 2000s sparked calls for action by the

private sector, which feared a wider boycott of soy exports.

Brazil is the world's largest producer and exporter of soy.

Environmentalists argue weakening the moratorium could open up a

huge amount of the Amazon region to soy planting.

"It is very much an enormous amount of land that was

deforested after 2008 in the Amazon," said Jean-François

Timmers, an anti-deforestation campaigner with the World Wide

Fund for Nature. "We're talking about millions of hectares."

In its statement to Reuters, Abiove noted that Brazilian

state lawmakers are pushing legislation "that significantly harm

the signatories of the Soy Moratorium."

The state of Mato Grosso passed a law stripping tax breaks

from firms that adhere to the moratorium.

Abiove said it defends the soy moratorium while "striving to

balance the demands of both farmers and consumers, including

updates to the current model to ensure its effectiveness."