Brazil Suspends Issuing of Amazon Clearing Permits

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WORLDWIDE FOREST/BIODIVERSITY CAMPAIGN NEWS

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2/12/99

OVERVIEW & COMMENTARY by EE

It appears in the midst of financial and social turmoil that the

Brazilian government has taken bold action in response to the recent

news that Brazilian Amazon deforestation had increased markedly over

the past year. Brazil needs to be supported with resources and

expertise to succeed in its bid to manage and benefit from its

rainforest behemoth. Please, hope that this announcement indicates a

willingness to engage and make hard decisions to address Amazonian

deforestation.

g.b.

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Title: Brazil Suspends Issuing Of Amazon Clearing Permits

Source: Reuters

Date: February 12, 1999

Byline: William Schomberg

BRASILIA (Reuters) - Brazil said Thursday it was suspending all new

permits for clearing land in the Amazon River basin, a day after

reporting that the rate at which the world's biggest rain forest is

being destroyed jumped nearly 30 percent last year.

The Environment Ministry said it would review all existing permits to

cut down trees in the region, pursue irregularities in court and

compile a list of cleared areas covering more than about 5,000 acres,

where it would "intervene immediately" to fight the "champions of

deforestation."

The announcement was made in a statement, and no one was available for

comment at the ministry.

But an official at the Brazilian Environment Institute, which is

responsible for overseeing the Amazon, told Reuters the move was a

response to preliminary data, announced Wednesday, showing that an

area more than half the size of Belgium -- 6,500 square miles -- was

totally cleared in 1998.

"This might help slow down the rate of deforestation," said the

official, who asked not to be named. "It will depend on how long the

suspension lasts and whether the government really brings people

breaking the law to book."

The Brazilian government has announced an array of measures over the

last few years in a bid to bring the destruction of the Amazon region

under control, but to little effect.

The latest move comes just a few weeks after Jose Sarney Filho, the

son of a former president, took over the Environment Ministry with

promises to come to grips with deforestation.

The figures announced Wednesday represented a 27 percent increase from

1997 -- when the equivalent of 5,000 soccer fields of jungle were lost

every day, according to one estimate -- but were slightly lower than

in 1996.

The 1998 figures, however, did not include damage from the massive

fires that raged between January and March in Roraima state on

Brazil's border with Venezuela, destroying as much as 4,250 square

miles of forest and savanna, according to separate government

estimates.

Environmental groups, speaking before Thursday's announcement by the

Environment Ministry, said the numbers showed Brazil had to act

quickly to stop deforestation from soaring.

"We weren't surprised at the numbers," said Garo Batmanian, executive

director of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).

He said several anti-deforestation measures announced amid fanfare by

the government had been implemented only partially or not at all.

A plan announced by President Fernando Henrique Cardoso last April to

protect 10 percent of the Amazon rain forest has been put on hold

after $300,000 in World Bank funding was delayed by Brazilian

government paperwork.

"But the real problem is that the policy-makers have not yet

understood that the environment has to be a factor in all its

policies," Batmanian said.

"There's no point in the environment minister flying about in a

helicopter to crack down on deforestation if the land reform minister

is settling landless people right in the middle of the jungle," he

said.

Joao Paulo Capobianco, executive secretary of the Socio-environmental

Institute in Sao Paulo, said deforestation might rise again in 1999,

since Brazil last year relaxed rules on the use of fire to clear land

and reduced the amount of land farmers must keep as nature preserves.

Those changes were made in August and November, so their impact will

be felt fully this year, Capobianco said.

"As well as failing to control deforestation, the government is taking

measures that actually contradict its attempts to preserve the

Amazon," he said.

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