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WORLDWIDE FOREST/BIODIVERSITY CAMPAIGN NEWS

Farmers Invade Famed Brazilian National Park

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Forest Networking a Project of Ecological Enterprises

http://forests.org/

3/10/98

OVERVIEW & COMMENTARY by EE

The vulnerability of National Park status is made abundantly clear as

it is revealed that Brazil's Iguacu national park, a designated UNESCO

world heritage site, has been overrun by farmers. There is no

guarantee that lands under protected status anywhere in the world are

likely to remain so. This fact argues for the need to expand the

extent of preserved areas and restore forests with late-successional

characteristics. Healthy, mature old-growth forests must be more than

a rarity represented in infrequent and poorly protected parks.

Forests are a vibrant and necessary part of the World's biosphere, and

forested landscapes must be protected and restored to occupy the

majority of areas where they occurred historically.

g.b.

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RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:

Title: Farmers Invade Famed Brazilian National Park

Source: Reuters

Status: Copyrighted, contact source for reprint permission

Date: February 21, 1998

Byline: By Joelle Diderich

BRASILIA, Feb 20 (Reuters) - Hundreds of farmers have invaded one of

Brazil's most famous national parks and illegally built a road with

the aid of local politicians, the government's environmental agency

IBAMA said on Friday.

The road cuts through the middle of the Iguacu national park, a

designated UNESCO world heritage site and home to the monumental

Iguacu falls that straddle the Brazilian-Argentine border, the agency

said.

``This was a dirt path which, until the invasion, was practically

overgrown by forest ,'' IBAMA director of ecosystems Ricardo Soavinski

told a news conference.

IBAMA had been in discussions with local residents about allowing use

of the path for light traffic and tourism when the first invasion

occurred in July, he said.

``To our surprise, they invaded the road in July with the help of town

halls, using heavy machinery,'' he said. Local farmers cut down

forest to widen the road and installed a barge system to help vehicles

cross a nearby river.

A court ordered the intruders out of the park and talks on the future

of the path resumed, but in mid-January there was a second invasion.

IBAMA initially decided to continue negotiations, but the government

was now considering evicting the locals by force after receiving news

that heavy trucks were crossing the park with goods including

agrochemicals, said Soavinski.

``They started transport with heavy trucks today,'' he told reporters.

``They're bringing insects, grains, herbicides, pesticides, all kinds

of things through there.''

Iguacu National Park covers 460,000 acres (185,000 hectares), and

136,000 acres (55,000 hectares) of adjacent parkland lie across the

border in Argentina. The park is one of the remnants of Brazil's once-

vast Atlantic forest , now reduced to about 7 percent of its original

size.

``This is one of the world's richest ecosystems in terms of

biodiversity,'' said Soavinski.

Although it was unclear how many people were inside the park, IBAMA

has removed its personnel from the area after their lives were

threatened during inspections.

``At times there are 200 people and at times there are thousands,'' he

said.

Local politicians were actively helping with the invasion in order to

win votes in the mainly rural region, the heartland of Parana state's

lucrative soybean growing industry.

``In an election year, all the political parties are supporting the

invasion,'' Soavinski noted. Brazil is due to go to the polls in

October and a bill passed last year will allow many politicians to run

for a second term for the first time.

Nongovernmental organizations have launched campaigns to boycott the

Iguacu falls, a major source of revenue for the state, and the

controversy could mar an upcoming visit by Danish Queen Margrethe, he

added.

The government feels it must take a strong stand against the illegal

settlers because the case could set an ``inadmissible precedent,''

Soavinski said.

``We made an enormous effort to resolve this in a pacifist, technical

manner and it didn't work,'' he said. ``The federal police are going

to give them one last warning to get out or we will use force.''

###RELAYED TEXT ENDS###

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