Does the production of sugarcane ethanol in Brazil impact the Amazon Rainforest?
No. Sugarcane for ethanol is harvested more than 1,550 miles from the Amazon-roughly the distance between New York City and Dallas, or between Paris and Moscow. Ninety percent is harvested in South-Central Brazil and the remaining ten percent is grown in Northeastern Brazil. Less than 0.2% of Brazil’s total sugarcane production is processed at four mills in the Amazon that were built more than 20 years ago – at a time when the government provided fiscal incentives to set up industrial facilities in this region.
