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FOREST CONSERVATION NEWS TODAY

Environmentally Destructive Amazon Forest Code May Be Defeated

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Forest Networking a Project of Forests.org, Inc.

http://forests.org/ -- Forest Conservation Portal

http://forests.org/links/ -- Forest Conservation Links

09/05/01

OVERVIEW & COMMENTARY by Forests.org

Proposed amendments to the Brazilian forest code threaten to

significantly reduce protections for Amazonian rainforests (see

recent coverage at http://forests.org/recent/2001/brforend.htm ).

Massive local environmental protests, and gestures of international

support, appear to be having an impact. The latest is the

congressional vote has been delayed and there are indications that

the Brazilian President may veto the environmentally regressive

Amazon forest code revisions. Please take the time to seal the

victory by responding to the SOS Forests Campaign appeal for

international emails of protest at:

http://www.codigoflorestal.com.br/english/index.asp

(click on the green PROTESO box on the left to send the email).

The Earth's biological legacy and well-being is at stake.

g.b.

For More Information:

Brazil Rainforest Conservation News & Information, Most Recent

http://forests.org/brazil/

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RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:

Title: President could veto Amazon forest code as environmentalists

protest

Source: Copyright 2001 Associated Press

Date: September 5, 2001

Byline: ADALID CABRERA LEMUZ; Associated Press Writer

BRASILIA, Brazil - Facing protests by environmentalists, President

Fernando Henrique Cardoso is considering vetoing forestry reforms

that threaten to speed the destruction of the Amazon rainforest, a

government official said Wednesday.

Artur Virgilio, government leader in the Chamber of Deputies, told

The Associated Press that Cardoso was urging lawmakers in his center-

right coalition to close ranks and vote down reforms to Brazil's

forestry code unless they are first submitted to a full national

debate.

"The president is even willing to veto this project, if ... large

landowners and lumber and mining companies press for the approval of

this proposed Forestry Code," Virgilio said. Congress is preparing to

vote on the bill that would drastically roll back requirements that

property owners in the Amazon preserve 80 percent of the forested

areas and 35 percent of their savannas largely intact.

The new law would reduce the preservation of Amazonian forests to 50

percent, and savannas to 17.5 percent of the land.

The bill is supported by Brazil's powerful farm lobby, which argues

that the current protections hinder economic development.

Environmentalists, however, argue that the restrictions are essential

to protect the world's largest remaining tropical wilderness, which

is disappearing at a rate of about 17,000 square kilometers (6,800

square miles) a year.

Protestors rallied in front of Congress for a second day Wednesday

and two environmentalists entered the building and chained themselves

to tables in a room where a cross-party Congressional committee was

discussing the reform, Globo News television reported.

Once the joint committee passes the reform, which is to substitute

the current forest code dating from 1965, it still must be approved

in Congress.

Environment Minister Jose Sarney criticized the new code as "a door

to destruction of the Amazon forest."

"It opens the possibility of an irrational exploitation of natural

ressources without reforesting regulations," he said.

According to environmentalists' studies, 50 million cubic meters

(yards) of Amazon lumber are felled illegally each year.

The reform would reduce protected areas from 80 percent of the forest

to 20 percent and from 35 percent of savannas to 20 percent, Sarney

said.

The Amazon region covers 4.9 million square kilometers (2 million

square miles), or 60 percent of Brazilian territory. It crosses

Brazil's borders to enter Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru,

Bolivia, Suriname, Guayana and French Guayana.

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Networked by Forests.org, Inc., gbarry@forests.org