Groups Seek to Protect Brazil Amazon
Copyright 2001 Associated Press
November 20, 2001
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil - A new environmental project seeks to set aside more than 40 percent of Brazil's Amazon forest for conservation, a leading biologist said Tuesday.
The joint effort spearheaded by the World Bank and the World Wildlife fund hopes to restrict development in the world's largest remaining tropical forest, said Thomas Lovejoy, a biologist and adviser to the World Bank. "When the forest project has been completed over 40 percent of the Amazon will be protected," he said in a speech to the Parliamentary Conference of the Americas, which included about 500 lawmakers from more than 20 countries.
Lovejoy said the protected land includes parks and Indian reservations. He did not say when the forest project would be completed.
The Brazilian Amazon region makes up 60 percent of the country.