Collagen versus deforestation in Brazil and the green project in Jordan

It is not only the raising of cows  for beef and the cultivation of soya that are responsible for Brazil’s deforestation. The collagen industry, now worth around $4 billion, is also booming. According to the UK’s The Guardian, the Bureau of Investigative Journalism and the Centre for Climate Crime Analysis (CCCA), collagen sold on global markets is sourced from cattle raised on farms destroying Brazilian rainforests, with Nestlé-owned Vital Proteins being one of the major players. Collagen companies are not required to track the environmental impact of their collagen sourcing.

Due to the climate crisis and deforestation, only 1% of Jordan’s land area is covered by trees, and 75% of the country is desert. The Tayyūn organisation there researches the processes of re-vegetation and regeneration of urban ecosystems and is dedicated to landscaping and creating indigenous forests. So far, Tayyūn has laid the foundations for four forests – planting more than 2,700 indigenous seedlings according to the method of Japanese botanist Miyawaki. The trees are planted very densely, so the multi-layered indigenous forests grow 10 times faster than naturally. A fifth forest based on 1,100 seedlings is currently under cultivation.

Costa Rica has gone from one of the world’s highest deforestation rates (in the 1980s) to a country focused on ecotourism. Landowners receive subsidies so that they do not cut down trees. The money for this comes mainly from the fuel tax, which is scheduled to be gone by 2050. Costa Rica will then switch to electric public and private transport under net zero emissions, so the government is looking for alternative sources of subsidies for farmers.