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WORLDWIDE
FOREST/BIODIVERSITY CAMPAIGN NEWS
New
Brazil Highways Expected to Destroy Forest
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Forest Networking a Project of Forests.org
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Conservation Archives
http://forests.org/web/ -- Discuss Forest
Conservation
3/20/00
OVERVIEW
& COMMENTARY
The
Amazon, seemingly so massive that it could never be lost in its
entirety,
continues its slow but inevitable decline.
New
construction
on 2,170 miles of roads is expected to eventually, based
on
historical patterns of deforestation, destroy 72,000 square miles
of rain
forest. The international community
must craft policy that
helps
Brazil attain its development goals while not continually
eating
away at the margins of the Amazonian ecosystem. Failure to do
so will
doom Brazilians and the world's citizens to a biologically
impoverished
Planet that may not operate correctly.
g.b.
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RELAYED
TEXT STARTS HERE:
Title: Brazil Highways May Destroy Forest
Source: Associated Press
Status: Copyright 2000, contact source for
permission to reprint
Date: March 19, 2000
SAO
PAULO, Brazil (AP) - Government plans to repair and pave four
highways
could devastate a swath of Amazon rain forest more than twice
the
size of Portugal, a newspaper said Sunday.
The
work on 2,170 miles of roads in four states is part of an economic
development
program known as ``Advance Brazil.'' Folha de Sao Paulo
reported
that it could destroy up to 72,000 square miles of rain
forest
over the next 25 to 30 years.
The
newspaper's report was based on a study prepared by three
non-governmental
organizations - two Brazilian and one American, the
Woods
Hole Research Center of Massachusetts. Calculations were based
on
historical patterns of deforestation that occurred in other Amazon
highways.
The
plans ``endanger the sustainable development of the Amazon
region,''
said Thomas Lovejoy, a World Bank environmental consultant.
The
study also warns that another 74,800 square miles could be
destroyed
by small farmers and cattlemen who are attracted by the
project
and use slash-and-burn tactics to clear land.
The
government told the paper it would not comment on the study but
was
dedicating ``special attention'' to the possible negative impact
of its
development projects.
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