Greenpeace Welcomes Brazilian Government Decision to Increase
Protected Areas in the Amazon But Urges for Implementation
Greenpeace
August 7, 2001
Borba, Amazon - Greenpeace congratulated the Brazilian Federal Government on its announcement to convert 2.4 million hectares of squatter lands into eight protected areas in the Amazon.
The announcement was made by the Brazilian Minister of Agrarian Development, Raul Jungmann, in a ceremony with the participation of Greenpeace and other representative NGO’s who proposed last April to turn illegally titled land in the Amazon into protected areas. (1)The Government chose Borba, a small town along the Madeira River, because it is the site where they found a 657,000 hectares farm which is claimed to be owned by two Malaysian (loggers) based on false documents. Jungmann announced the farm was expropriated today.
The total amount of 2.4 million of hectares of Brazilian Amazon are going to be transformed into one national park, two extractive reserves and four national forest areas to be managed in a sustainable way. The lands that were expropriated today might be turned into one more national forest. (2)
“The NGO’s applaud the Ministry Of Agrarian Development for the creation of new protected areas, but urge the implementation of these measures by other sectors of the federal government,” said Paulo Adario, Greenpeace Amazon campaigner.
“These measures must be defined with the participation of local communities living in the areas now under legal protection. We call on the international community to help Brazil to transform its ‘paper parks’ into real protection by financial and technical support.”
Adilson Vieira, Coordinator of the Pastoral Commission of Land, a branch of the Catholic Church said “Traditional communities are the best allies of forest protection as they live from the forest resources exploited in a sustainable way."
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:
Paulo Adario, ++55 92 9985 5001
(1) The proposal was submitted by NGOs’s to the Brazilian Parliament and the Government in April 2001, during a public hearing in Brasília on illegal lands. The demand was signed by the following NGO’s : Forum Permanente de Debates da Amazonia (FORAM), Grupo de Trabalho Amazonico(GTA), Commissao Pastoral da Terra, Conselho Indigenista Misionario (CIMI), Fundacao Vitoria Amazonica, Instituto de Pesquisa e desenvolvimento Amazonico, Oficina Escola da Lutheria da Amazonia e Sociedade de Pesquisa e Conservacao da Amazonia .(2) National Forests (Flonas) are public forest destined to sustainable use – including well managed logging. Extractive reserves are public land collectively owned by forest people such as rubber-trappers to be exploited in a sustainable way.