Brazil president vows to "fight" Amazon draft law
Date: 17-May-00
Country: BRAZIL
Author: Axel Bugge
The draft law, which has outraged environmentalists, was passed by a
parliamentary commission last week and is expected to be debated on the floor of
Congress next week.
It would cut the reserve area of the Amazon jungle to 50 percent from 80 percent
of the total.
"I am sure lawmakers will think and act like all Brazilians who love the Amazon,"
said President Fernando Henrique Cardoso, who pledged last week to veto the draft
law if passed in Congress. "We will fight to maintain 80 percent of the
environmental reserve area of the Amazon forest."
Environmentalists say the bill would seriously accelerate the destruction of the
Amazon rain forest - the world's largest tropical forest, which is sometimes
considered as the "lungs of the world" for its immense production of oxygen.
A small group of lawmakers who oppose the bill protested outside Congress on
Tuesday by planting a tree.
The Amazon jungle is home to roughly 50 percent of the world's plant and animal
species. Its area measures more than twice the size of France.
Meanwhile, Defence Minister Geraldo Quintao criticised nongovernmental
organisations for their involvement in efforts to protect the Amazon. He joined a
string of lawmakers who have been attacking the NGOs.
"Why should we Brazilians be so submissive and allow these supranational groups
to come here and intervene in our lives," private Agencia Estado news agency
quoted Quintao as saying.
Last week a senator in the upper chamber of Congress proposed that Congress form
an investigative commission to examine nongovernmental organisations operating in
the Amazon to judge which ones are legitimate.
Some NGO's "work with million-dollar donations from companies with untrustworthy
interests," said Sen. Bernardo Cabral of the right-wing Liberal Front Party
(PFL).
Garo Batmanian, head of the World Wildlife Fund in Brazil, told Reuters on
Tuesday, "I think if they want to investigate the NGOs, it is their prerogative,
but what we are seeing is now that public opinion is against this bill.
They (supporters of it) are trying to create enemies of the bill."
"They are trying to discredit the NGOs because they can't deal with the issues,"
he added.
Environmentalists said the plan to cut the Amazon reserve area would turn back
the clock five years, allowing loggers to cut down tropical forest roughly equal
to the size of Belgium every year.
Since 1995 logging and other destruction of rain forest has been gradually
reduced to roughly 6,800 square miles (17,000 square km) in 1999 from about
12,000 square miles (30,000 square km).
Environmentalists fear that increasing encroachment by farmers in the Amazon will
not only reduce the size of the world's largest tropical forest but farming on
its outskirts will also endanger biodiversity.