Cob: [Fwd: GBlist: Re: EcoVandals]

[Debra Lombard]

Maine, Bruce wrote:

> The latest on the Brazilian legislation.
> Some good news for a change................
>
> BRASILIA, Brazil, May 18, 2000 (ENS) - Brazil's congressional leaders last
> night dropped proposed legislation to increase the area and rate of Amazon
> forest destruction. Faced with the threat of a presidential veto and
> widespread opposition from environmentalists, the draft law was killed
> before it could come to the House floor.
>
> The decision gave the ranchers' and large landowners' congressional caucus a
> precedent setting defeat. It is the first time that the Brazilian
> environmental movement has prevailed over the ranchers' powerful special
> interest group.
>
> The draft law would have changed the National Forest Code, reducing the
> reserve area of the Amazon rainforest from 80 to 50 percent of the total.
> The draft was approved by a special parliamentary commission last week.
>
> After a flood of email and faxed protests, Brazilian President Fernando
> Henrique Cardoso pledged to veto the measure.
>
> Government officials at one point blocked the massive influx of protest
> emails to Senate offices but backed down when the move was criticized as
> censorship in the media. Press and TV coverage overwhelmingly opposed the
> measure, as did the Brazilian Environment Ministry.
>
> The President Cardoso declared his intention to preserve the current
> National Forest Code. The code, a group of laws that regulate occupation and
> use of forest areas, allows farmers to clear only 20 percent of native
> forest vegetation on their lands.
>
> The controversial draft measure would have allowed them to clear as much as
> 50 percent of forest areas for crops and grazing.
>
> In addition, a census to be carried out by the states could have authorized
> up to 80 percent clearing on any farm in Brazil.
>
> Environmental organizations such as the Instituto Socioambiental,
> parliamentary leader Senator Marina Silva (Worker's Party - Acre) and Amazon
> union and grassroots groups won over public opinion by denouncing the
> changes to the Forest Code as irresponsible and contrary to the national
> interest.
>
> The ranchers' proposed changes to the code rejected an alternative proposal
> negotiated in the National Environment Council (CONAMA) among many interest
> groups including some ranchers.
>
> "The ranchers' caucus is the human face of the inequality, injustice, class
> privilege, and impunity that have plagued Brazil for 500 years," said
> Environmental Defense senior scientist Stephan Schwartzman from the
> conservation group's New York headquarters. "The fight over this legislation
> was really between the 19th century and the 21st, over the future of the
> Amazon. It's important that the 21st century won."
>
> Underlining the urgency of protection for the Amazon rainforest, Greenpeace
> is today escorting a raft of 271 illegally cut logs from remote locations on
> the Jurua River in Brazils Amazonas state at the request of Brazils
> Environmental Agency, IBAMA.
>
> Now bound for the Villages of Carauari, the logs were first discovered
> during a routine flight of Greenpeaces Cessna aircraft on Monday, May 8. The
> following day Greenpeace activists found the raft of logs hidden in a small
> tributary of the Jurua River and turned it over to IBAMA.
>
> "Because there are no approved Forest Management Plans in this area, and
> because the raft appeared to have been hidden the second day, we knew that
> there was a high probability of illegal activity, so we returned to
> investigate further," said Paulo Adario, Greenpeace Amazon campaigner.
>
> One hundred of the logs were Samauma, an enormous and increasingly rare tree
> called Queen of the Forest by many indigenous people and rubber tappers.
> Because of its size, the felling of one Samauma tree may damage as many as
> 30 surrounding trees. In Amazonas State, the Samauma tree is one of the most
> used species in the production of plywood.
>
> "Not only were the trees cut illegally, but their removal left vast trails
> of destruction in the forest," said Adario. "Some of these logs measure more
> than 1.8 metres in diameter, and were very old trees. All of this
> destruction to produce a few sheets of plywood."
>
> "This apprehension is a result of an integrated action with Greenpeace,"
> said Hamilton Casara, head of IBAMA in the state of Amazonas. "In accordance
> with legislation, the timber will be donated to the community in Carauari.
> As Greenpeace currently has a ship in the region, we asked for their help to
> tow the raft to the community."
>
> Before IBAMA seized them, the logs were the property of a local
> entrepreneur, Ercival Lobo, whose family has been fined three times for
> illegal transport of logs. The Lobos supply the multinational logging
> companies Carolina and Compensa, Adario says.
>
> "Instead of discussing the Forest Code, Congress should work on public
> policies to push the logging sector to adopt sustainable harvesting
> practices," said Adario. "Without this political will, inexpensive wood from
> illegal operations will continue to compete with responsible logging from
> legitimate companies, and efforts to adopt sustainable and certified forest
> management practices will be futile."
>
> bruce
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