Copyright 2001 Reuters
September 5, 2001
By Marco Sibaja

BRASILIA, Brazil (Reuters) - A Brazilian (news - web sites) congressional commission on Wednesday approved a bill that environmentalists say could accelerate destruction of the Amazon jungle, the world's largest tropical forest, if it becomes law.

At a lively session disrupted by banner-waving activists, the commission voted 13-2 in favor of the bill. It calls for local environmental and land-use studies and proposes allowing current limits on logging on private land in the Amazon to be relaxed if the studies support the change.

Its opponents, however, vowed the bill would not gain approval on the floor of both chambers of Congress, required for it to become law. Even if approved, President Fernando Henrique Cardoso has said he would veto it.

The bill was drawn up by Moacir Micheletto, a lawmaker from the southern state of Parana who is a supporter of the farming industry. It advocates the introduction of ``zoning'' studies of Amazon forest land to determine how much forest can be cut down in the future.

Brazil is home to most of the Amazon, which is larger than all of western Europe combined and shelters up to 50 percent of the world's animal and plant species.

Micheletto's bill seeks to replace a so-called provisional measure, dating back to 1998, that requires 80 percent of all private property in the Amazon to be set aside for protection.

``With the current provisional measure, 20 million Brazilians are unable to produce and take their goods to market,'' said lawmaker Marcio Bittar, defending the bill.

The new bill retains the 80 percent limit but seeks to open the way to reduce that percentage if local studies in the Amazon area recommend such changes.

Environmentalists favor the existing measure and want it to be made permanent. The zoning studies, they fear, could be carried out by local governments that do not have the necessary technical expertise to ensure the forest is not threatened.

To make their case, two Greenpeace activists handcuffed themselves to an indoor rail at the commission's meeting on Wednesday and other activists sounded sirens, stalling debates.

Lawmaker Fernando Gabeira, who favors environmental protection, said the bill's backers' ``had the government, the opposition and national and international public opinion against them.''

Georges Lamaziere, Cardoso's spokesman, said the president would veto the bill if it made it through Congress, adding: ''There is no need to broaden the felling areas.''

The 80 percent limit only applies to private property in the Amazon, which represents 25.6 percent of the region. The rest of the forest is under different forms of protection, according to the National Agriculture Confederation.

This was the second time the agricultural lobby presented the bill to the commission, after it failed to pass in May. Error: Unable to read footer file.